Supercomputers for Beginners – Part I
Supercomputers analyse vast amounts of data, faster and more accurately. By 2020 they will be doing a quintillion calculations per second. This article provides a simple guide to supercomputers. ‘f…
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Water Matters!
Water occurs virtually everywhere in oil and gas fields – yet it is often ignored. But the composition of today´s formation water is the result of multiple hydrogeochemical processes, and…
The Pain and Sorrow of Reservoir Modeling
Back in the late eighties our ambition was to put modeling capabilities on every geoscientist’s desk. Now in 2015 that aim has been achieved, but are we actually producing the…
A Gloomy Future?
Will the crude oil price break through in 20 years’ time? Or will tight oil and renewable energy work in parallel to keep the price low? At the time of…
Environmentally Friendly Seismic Source
eSource is a tunable, flexible seismic source which reduces the high frequency emissions that can affect marine life. Everyone working in the oil and gas industry is aware of the importance of…
Bountiful Continents
Africa and South America together contributed ~20% of the world’s total oil production in 2013 but in the current industry downturn investment dollars may move away from ‘difficult’ countries to…
The stratigrapher
Many stratigraphers are employed in the oil industry both within oil companies, and more commonly, in service companies; their task is to determine the geological succession in well sections, in…
Getting More with Less
Will low oil prices bring the unconventional revolution to its knees? The past few years have brought some major changes to the global oil markets. The US has taken over as the…
Why Share Data?
Malcolm Fleming is CEO of Common Data Access Ltd (CDA), which was established with the aim of sharing the costs and benefits associated with managing subsurface UK E&P data through…
Just Like the Real Thing
3D printing offers a novel non-destructive method of petrophysical rock analysis. Understanding the petrophysics of a reservoir rock, defined as the study of the physical and chemical properties of rocks…
Geophysics: A Simple Guide to Seismic Amplitudes and Detuning
Seismic amplitude changes may tell us something about reservoir lithology, porosity, and/or fluids. However, seismic tuning effects are potentially much larger than amplitude variations due to geological changes. Understanding this…
Patience in the Time of Collaboration
Lessons from history. With apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. ‘Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.’ Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera As I…