UKCS 28th Round
The UK 28th Licensing Round is anticipated to open in February 2014, the seventh since the Fallow and Promote initiatives were introduced in 2003 to encourage exploration growth. The UK…
Europe
Why Norway?
For more than ten years, Norway has attracted small- and intermediate-sized companies because of favourable geological and fiscal conditions. An uplift in the tax system may now reduce the majors’…
Nailing the Truth
Shale Gas and Fracking: The Science Behind The Controversy Michael Stevenson. Elsevier, 2015 Published in 2015, this 150-page book is an up-to-date review of this new energy source from a…
The Quantification of Uncertainty in Reservoir Management
New developments in history matching improve uncertainty quantification and risk assessment in reservoir management. Improving the analysis of risk in field management is the Holy Grail of reservoir modelling and in…
‘Strata’ Smith Enters the Digital Age
A new website celebrates the bicentenary of the first geological map of England and Wales in 1815. The 1st of August 2015 marks the bicentenary of the publication of a map…
Russian Fold Belts: The Next Hot Play?
Three successful cycles of petroleum reserve build-up can be recognised in the history of Russian petroleum exploration. Could the fold belts be the basis of the next cycle? After decades…
Gabon: Some Hope for Gas
Eni has made a significant gas and condensate discovery with an exploration well testing the Nyonie Deep prospect in Block D4, approximately 13 km from the coast and 48 km from Libreville, the capital of…
Malta
A country shaped by limestone (and a bit of very old poo). If one word could sum up the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, it would be ‘limestone’. Limestone has…
The Weald Basin: Hot Spot or Hot Air?
Billions of barrels have been reported to lie under South East England, but how much of it is recoverable? There was great excitement in the newsrooms of the UK in…
NORM in Shale Gas and Oil Operations
As unconventional gas and oil operations expand in Europe, understanding the nature of naturally occurring radioactive material is necessary for managing environmental effects, as Anna Kaniewska at Golder Associates explains.…
“Oil Has Been Good to Me”
Ian Forrest was a founder member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Raised in one of the poorer parts of Glasgow…
Ceyhan. An Unassuming Hub
Most inhabitants of this strategically important oil export centre are unaware of the significance of their town in the world’s economy. It would be hard to overstate the importance of…