Geoscience & marine life: Sustainably coexisting
Since 1995, the geophysical industry has become accustomed to mitigation protocols that aim to minimize the risk of injury to marine mammals. The protocol by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee…
Worldwide
The ambivalent position some European countries find themselves in when it comes to seabed mineral extraction
When the convention of the sea was adopted in 1994, the newly formed International Seabed Authority (ISA) started to award licences for the exploration of seabed minerals. Now, in 2025,…
Natural hydrogen: Is it here to stay or will the bubble burst?
The conference opened strongly with a keynote by Viacheslav Zgonnik from HyReveal, tackling this question. His market research shows that the number of companies exploring for natural hydrogen is rapidly…
How a sandbox model caused an epiphany
“I think I watched it about 50 times,” Sean tells me when we meet online on a rainy morning. He refers to a video published by the FluidFlower research team…
Porosity in compressional stress regimes
Porosity prediction sits at the heart of basin models and prospect evaluation. It underpins our understanding of reservoir quality, pore pressure, and thermal history. Traditionally, porosity has been modelled as…
Does oil really stop diagenesis?
It is all about timing. That is the main conclusion when reading a new paper recently published by Olav Walderhaug and Kristin Porten from Equinor. The paper is mostly about…
PETRONAS’s digital gambit: Architecting an AI-powered E&P ecosystem
In a strategic pivot that extends far beyond typical corporate upgrades, PETRONAS is executing a national data strategy designed to redefine Malaysia’s position in the global energy landscape. The company…
Fracture connectivity and power laws
It was about a year ago that I heard about a deep geothermal drilling project in Finland (St1 Deep Heat Project), during which a couple of 6 km deep wells…
The forgotten science
The perceived “talent crisis” in geology is a multifaceted issue rooted in historical, economic, and cultural shifts. In the mid-20th century, geology thrived. The post-war industrial boom and global demand…
The human touch in reservoir modelling
As our 30-minute conversation took place on a Tuesday morning in early September, three emails arrived in Bastian’s inbox. Three separate and unrelated enquiries from customers in Switzerland, Germany, and…
Subsurface noise, Issue 4, 2025
“SOMEONE EVEN CALLED ME TO ASK HOW I WAS” “People who have always worked offshore in the North Sea really don’t know how good they have it,” told a well…
The shrinking pool of large international E&P companies
The group of large international E&Ps has been steadily shrinking. Over the past five years, companies in the peer group, including Noble Energy, Marathon, and Hess, have been acquired. These…