North America

Exploration Update – USA

Significant Light Oil Discovery in Alaska On 4 October 2016, Caelus Energy Alaska indicated that it has made a ‘world class’ oil discovery in Caelus-Tulimaniq 1, also known as CT-1,…

High-Resolution Model Building in a Full-Azimuth Nodal Survey

The velocity variation in the trench before and after the high-resolution tomography. Red line indicates the location of the line in Figure 2 on page 40. High-Resolution Image-Guided Tomography High-resolution image-guided tomography…

US Tight Oil: Remaining Competitive?

Since the oil price collapse, upstream development spending has been cut worldwide at surprising rates. How is that changing the world of drilling unconventional plays in the US? In this…

Regional play types in the Mexican offshore

Map showing the extent of the Gigante seismic in relation to the main geological features of the Mexican Gulf of Mexico. Structural styles and regional play types New seismic data…

Exploration Update – USA

Mississippi Canyon Discovery On 28 July 2016, Shell announced that it had made a hydrocarbon discovery with the Fort Sumter discovery well (G08831 1), situated in the 23 km2 Mississippi…

Australia: Santos Building Reserves

Although not tested, Santos has claimed its Lasseter 1 wildcat in WA-274-P in the Browse Basin off Western Australia as a significant gas/condensate discovery. The well, located in 404m of water, was targeting…

Argentina: Significant Reserves Below Las Mesetas

YPF has made what it describes as the largest conventional gas/condensate discovery in the province of Santa Cruz in the last 20 years by drilling beneath already mature formations in…

Induced Earthquake Hazards Finally Addressed

The US Geological Survey just published their first seismic hazard forecast to include both induced (human-caused) and natural earthquakes, identifying populated areas in the centre of the US that could…

A World of Opportunity?

Regional screening for unconventional resources: geological techniques to locate new opportunities. The success of shale gas and shale oil exploitation in North America in plays such as the Bakken, Eagle…

EUR Per Well Heading Upwards

Well performance in North American shales has improved significantly. The United States and Canada have been driving global shale production. Out of the 15.6 MMboepd produced from shale last year,…

On Shaky Ground Induced Earthquakes

Over the last decade, certain oil and gas producing areas have come alive, experiencing an escalating number of felt earthquakes, some even large enough to cause property damage. Most people…