Levelling the Playing Field …
How much do fossil fuel companies benefit from the public purse? In May this year, the IMF announced their revised calculation of global fossil fuel subsidies. The figure is an…
Worldwide
Global plate tectonic modelling
Constrained By Data Well and seismic data can be very sparse in frontier regions; however Getech’s extensive global gravity and magnetic database, the largest commercially available dataset of its kind,…
Ideas and Innovation
“We usually find oil in a new place with old ideas. Sometimes, we find oil in an old place with a new idea, but we seldom find much oil in an…
Making an Educated Guess
An online game shows that using input from a knowledgeable crowd can lead to better decisions. In a recent experiment, university students and oil industry staff, including non-explorationists, tried to predict whether exploration…
Capital Discipline – A Shake Up For The Industry
Despite record levels of capital investment since 2005, oil production outside of North America has virtually flat-lined and investors are losing confidence. How is the industry reacting? To say there…
Shale Gas in South Africa
‘South Africa’ and ‘energy giant’ are words infrequently strung together, as the country has almost no conventional onshore or offshore hydrocarbons of note. However, over the past couple of years…
Geophysics: A Simple Guide to Volumetrics
A Simple Guide to Volumetrics We start this article with an example that many geoscientists may find uncomfortable, if not downright contentious. A top structure depth map from a depth…
Field-based Training: Luxury or Necessity?
What is the role of field geology today, what will it be in the future and what specifically is the importance of field-based training to petroleum geosciences? Is it a…
Oil is Still in the Lead
Oil is still our largest energy provider. And while fossil fuels predominate, renewables have a long way to go before they can make a considerable impact. Total energy consumption increased…
The First Oil Shock
At a time when oil prices spiralled down from over $100 to below $50 within half a year, talking about ‘oil shock’ may seem odd. Yet, the oil shock of…
The Secret World of Oil
Ken Silverstein Verso Books Dodgy practice in the oil industry may appear to be a ‘yawn, yawn’ subject – don’t we all know that companies lobby and pay into campaign funds? And…
Oil Price Competition 2 – Result
Result of the second Oil Price Prediction Competition. Oil Price at COB 19th June, as shown on the FT website on 22nd June.Once again, many thanks to everyone that entered…