A sense of urgency
While people in Bolivia easily spend two days queuing up at fuel stations these days – the country has very quickly turned from an exporter to a net importer of…
Europe
Dead oil traces in a lonely pebble bed
Where most exploration activity on the UK Continental Shelf took place in the North Sea, and later along the Atlantic Margin west of the Shetland Islands (WOS), it is good…
When the ESP breaks down even before geothermal energy production has started
Since its wells were drilled, I have kept a close eye on the United Downs geothermal project in Cornwall, southwest England. The production hole, a record-breaking well, was completed around…
EMGS in troubled waters
Yesterday, I was browsing through some of the early GEO EXPRO magazines when I stumbled upon an article written by Halfdan Carstens 20 years ago. He had interviewed the two…
Pasties, piskies, pegmatites… and Pliny
Britain has strong, quiet, ancient communities on its further reaches: Norse Shetland, Gaelic and Doric Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Cornwall at the southwest tip. All connected by…
Seabed mapping – let AI do the work
“I spent days, if not weeks, trawling through high-resolution photos,” a geoscientist from an oil and gas company recently told me. Why did he do that? He carried out this…
Are deep closed-loop geothermal systems doomed?
“Claims of universal geographical scalability of Closed Loop Geothermal Systems (CLGS) in power generation at competitive prices are not supported by simulation results,” is what the authors conclude in a…
Better illuminating the Rotliegend beneath a heavily deformed overburden
In April 2025, the main stakeholders in the offshore energy landscape in the Netherlands signed the so-called “Sector Accord”, which brought more clarity and momentum to exploring for and subsequently…
The master of near-field exploration
When thinking about exploration geology in the oil and gas sector, most people will envisage going to places unknown, map the big bumps, and get them drilled. That’s not how…
Submarine avalanches in a serendipitous find
In the depths of the North Sea lies one of the most spectacular records of turbidity currents: The Claymore Sandstone. During the Upper Jurassic, these rocks were born from a…
Crushing report on TMC’s deep-sea mining plans
“We believe the economics of TMC’s operations are not viable and that the company will be a repeat of Nautilus. We expect Gerard Barron to leave the ship when this…
Energy is politics, is community, is pride
My dear friend William invited me last month to Brecon, mid Wales. Another dear friend, Ian, lives in Penarth, just outside Cardiff, south Wales, so it made perfect sense to…