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…
Europe
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…
Wind makes room for gas
It is getting busy in the North Sea. Was the area a monopoly for oil and gas companies when it comes to energy production for decades, in recent years offshore…
Looking at the regional geology of the Wolin-East discovery in Poland
Last month, Central European Petroleum (CEP) announced that its Wolin East-1 (WE1) well in the Baltic Sea in Poland was a significant oil discovery, having been designed to target primarily…
Despite putting the brakes on seabed mineral licensing, the Norwegian government continues to spend ever-increasing amounts on seabed mapping
“We have been busy,” confirmed Hilde Braut, Deputy Director for New Industries at the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD), when she gave a lecture at the Deep Sea Minerals 2025 conference…