From the shores of Lake Maracaibo to a paleontology museum in Europe
“I couldn’t get it over my heart to dispose of these cores,” says Evert van de Graaff in an email. It was at some point in the late 1990’s, during…
Europe
How new seismic and old core have shed new light on the Zechstein play along the Mid North Sea High
As part of the Aberdeen Energy Talk series, PhD student Thomas Houghton from Aberdeen University discusses his work on the Mid North Sea High area of the UK offshore. Using…
Drilling into new frontiers – drilling into magma
No, it is not entirely new. Drilling straight into magma has happened before. But in Iceland, the Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) consortium is now going to research it more rigorously…
Identifying issues before they arise
“In the oil and gas industry, there are often multiple unknowns that can significantly impact operations. These gaps in understanding frequently lead to a reliance on what we call “opinioneering,”…
Looking deeper than the traditional petroleum plays
Whilst many Western European nations have either banned or disincentivized hydrocarbon exploration in their own jurisdictions, some have continued to open their doors. Hungary is an example of a country…
It’s not the seal, it’s the potential thief zones that form the biggest risk
This summer, a surprising announcement was made by the Danish authorities; the Stenlille CO2 storage project was not awarded a licence to progress with their work programme to realise storage…
Helium found in new and unexpected places
In Finland, 80 Mile positively tested copper-zinc exploration boreholes, while Pulsar Helium has drilled an appraisal well in Minnesota after nickel exploration accidentally found helium. In South Africa, Renergen is…
Draghi’s nod to marine minerals
”My concern (…) is that, over time, we will inexorably become less prosperous, less equal, less secure and, as a result, less free to choose our destiny.” Mario Draghi, former…
New mineral discovery in the Norwegian Sea
Grøntua is the name of the new sulphide deposit that was found during a trip under the auspices of the Center for Deep Sea Research at the University of Bergen…
The birth of a new play
This is a story of how subsurface data was used in the way it should be – to incrementally gain a better understanding of how a petroleum system works. And…
A 1 % error margin is not acceptable anymore
It is something that many geoscientists may not think about daily, but there is a whole community in the upstream oil and gas sector that is working to make sure…
Exploration geology – science or art?
During my career in the oil industry, exploration geology has changed enormously. Not long after I joined Shell in February 1979, my son, who was play school age, asked me…