Lots of activity but limited resource growth
Every year in January, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate – which until the turn of the year was called the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate – summarizes the activities on the Norwegian continental…
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The Big Buzz of Buzzard II
Four 3D seismic surveys comprising the “Big Buzz” dataset. Buzzard II: the sequel How about looking for another Buzzard field, next to the one that was found over 20 years…
Norway opens for seabed mineral activities
The final step in a years-long process was made in the Norwegian Parliament on January 9th, 2024. The four largest political parties, representing a strong majority, voted to open an…
A unique well at a unique time
“It is easy to reconstruct the rifting and drifting history between South America and Africa. Similarly, it is straightforward to piece together the extensional history between Norway and Greenland. But…
The helium well that produces 93% CO₂
In the USA, 0.3% or 3,000 ppm helium in the gas stream is regarded as the cut-off for profitable onshore production. Yet, French company 45-8 Energy has identified a prospect…
Heating a block of houses rather than a single one
Closed loop geothermal systems, with a heat pump superimposed, form a new and promising way of domestic heating systems. Hundreds of small rigs are actively drilling these loops across many…
The further from shore the more sand
Looking at this cross-section from the Norwegian Sea, showing Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene sediments, a surprising thing seems to happen. The amount of sand increases going westwards, away from the…
Europe’s first full-scale onshore CO2 storage project
Gas Storage Denmark (GSD) is currently in the detailed engineering phase of Europe’s first large-scale, commercially operational onshore CO2 storage facility (CO2RYLUS). This initiative aims to accelerate the development of…
Extended reach drilling for geothermal energy production
The energy transition is about pipe, lots of pipe. Where gas can be transported across the globe, geothermal energy, especially the low-temperature version of it that is mainly used for…
Dutch flagship CCS project given the go-ahead in court
More than 1000 people listened to the online broadcast of a hearing that lasted for about 3 minutes. There was something important at stake; the future of carbon storage in…
An analogue for carbon storage reservoirs
The German Eifel hosts some great outcrops of the Lower Triassic ‘Buntsandstein’, such as this one featured here near the village of Bitburg. These sandstones were deposited in an arid…
“It’s not difficult, it’s different”
Many people think that heavy oil developments are even worse than lignite, but that is not the case according to Maurice Bamford who recently gave a talk on the Pilot…