“We’re in this weird time of pre-AI and post-AI”
A few months ago, I published some thoughts on how Norway has proven to be such a hotspot when it comes to new subsurface technology. Dan Austin, who has been…
North West Europe
The presence of oil and gas at a geothermal conference
“I work on gas installations, but I have come to this conference to network, as so many people from the sector are here,” somebody tells me at the lunch table…
Picking prospects: Exploring the Orchard Platform’s Haupt Dolomite play
The UK mid North Sea High (MNSH) can be considered as one of the least explored hydrocarbon provinces on the UK Continental Shelf. Early drilling campaigns targeted pre-Permian structures, with…
Less oil, more water
It is something that I am not often exposed to, but that does not mean it is unimportant – produced water. The SPE Aberdeen section organized a panel discussion around…
Finding the right store for CO2 can lead to very different outcomes
It happens quite regularly that people’s surname seem to be closely linked to the profession they operate in. This certainly applies to Alexander Bump from the University of Texas in…
Northern North Sea: A decade of seismic acquisition and exploration success
Figure 1. Discoveries within the NVG surveys from 2018 – 2024. Source: Viridien. In this article, we go back more than ten years to 2013, when the area west and…
No licensing round for seabed minerals in Norway next year
On Sunday 1 December, the results of the national budget negotiations were presented. The Socialist Left Party won approval to stop the upcoming licensing round for seabed minerals. It was…
A mystery
The upper Permian Zechstein of the UK Southern North Sea is experiencing a little revival these days. The main reason is that gas and some oil were discovered last year…
How subsurface data helped answer the question why flow testing results of a geothermal well disappointed
“Why would we need resistivity data if we are drilling for water”, some people argued when the Amstelland-01 geothermal exploration well was planned a couple of years ago. Now, almost…
A personal Petex
When I attended Petex for the first time, it must have been around 2010, I took it all for granted: the big booths, the enormous exhibition floor, the large number…
Why is so much subsurface technology coming from Norway?
First of all, a warning. I am not going to provide a well-researched answer to the question posed in the title. Instead, I intend to put forward a few recent…
Gravel and geothermal energy
It is well-known that Munich is benefiting from a favourable setting in terms of deep geothermal energy production. A little less well-known is that Munich also sits on a much…