vol . 15, no.

2 – 2018

GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED

geoexpro.com
GEOTOURISM
Aspen: Rocky Mountain High
TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED

The Future
of Onshore
Seismic

EXPLORATION
Awaiting Discovery?
The US Atlantic Margin

GEOEDUCATION
Resources Boosted
by Billions

GEOPHYSICS
A Simple Guide to
Depth Conversion
 Get Ready for the 2018 Egypt
West Med License Round
Unlock this frontier region with GeoStreamer seismic data for
detailed subsurface information
Benefit from true broadband depth imaging covering an area of more than
80 000 sq. km over the Herodotus/West Egypt Shelf.
In partnership with: Meet our Egypt experts at EAGE in Copenhagen from 11–14 June 2018.
Contact us for more information: [email protected]

Ministry of Petroleum
Ministry and
of Petroleum
Mineral Resources
and Mineral Resources

A Clearer Image | www.pgs.com/DataLibrary

Previous issues: www.geoexpro.com

Contents
Vol. 15  No. 2
This edition of GEO ExPro focuses on
North America; integrating geoscience for
GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED
exploration; and reserves and resources.

5 Editorial

Egorov
i
The underexplored US 6 Regional Update
Atlantic margin may soon
be open to exploration. 8 Licensing Update
10 A Minute to Read
14 Cover Story:
Technology Explained:
f Darts and Drones – The
A simple guide to the parameters Future of Onshore Seismic
involved in depth conversion.
18 Exploration: Awaiting Discovery?
The US Atlantic Margin
Earthworks
Reservoir

22 Industry Issues: Mind the Gaps

Lasse Amundsen

24 GEO Physics: A Simple Guide

v
It is one of the oldest exploration
to Depth Conversion
areas in the world, but there is still
plenty of potential in Central Europe.
26 Hot Spot: Renewed Excitement
in Deepwater Gabon
28 Seismic Foldout:
Exploring Papua New Guinea
Y and Malvinas
Amplitude

Become an expert at Finite 34 Exploration: Czeching it Out:

Difference Modeling.
The Potential of Central Europe
38 GEO Education:
Time
Resources Boosted by Billions
42 GEO Tourism:
P Aspen – Rocky Mountain High
Denise Cox, AAPG President
Elect, shares her love of 46 Industry Issues:
geology with the world. Commercializing Bright Ideas
Denise Cox

50 Seismic Foldout:
New Light on Northern Argentina
56 Recent Advances in Technology:
Finite Difference Modeling, Part I

q 60 GEO Profile: Denise Cox –

,
v Making Connections
@
P i 64 GEO Media: A Play for Oil
6 H
H 66 Exploration Update

h r 68 Q&A: Encouraging
8 k Partner Employment
70 Global Resource Management
)
x
GEOExPro May 2018 3
TRACK ENERGY ACTIVITY
AROUND THE WORLD – FROM
ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
Visit go.drillinginfo.com/maps
to download your FREE map.
Editorial

Every Drop Counts GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED

After a lot of doom and gloom, a www.geoexpro.com

Jane Whaley
glimmer of optimism is appearing
in the exploration industry. Having
GeoPublishing Ltd
been below $60 a barrel from mid 15 Palace Place Mansion
2015, since late 2017 the price of Kensington Court
Brent crude has stayed above that London W8 5BB, UK
level, even briefly hitting $70 earlier +44 20 7937 2224

this year. A much-pared down Managing Director

industry is beginning to see light at Tore Karlsson
the end of the tunnel. Job cuts have
almost ceased, with increases in Editor in Chief
Jane Whaley
employment being evident in some
[email protected]
areas, particularly the US. Total global proved oil reserves have been rising after stagnating for
several years, and there has been a renewed interest in deepwater drilling. Editorial enquiries
This revived industry will be very different, however. For one thing, there seems to be less GeoPublishing
Jane Whaley
‘them and us’ between service and exploration companies, with cooperation becoming the
+44 7812 137161
new norm. Take a look at the METIS project, our cover story: a fine example of the new spirit [email protected]
of collaboration, where supermajor Total and as many as 25 service companies are together www.geoexpro.com
creating a revolution in onshore seismic acquisition. Importantly, this project, like many in
this new and exciting world, takes a holistic view of the issues involved, incorporating not Marketing Director
Kirsti Karlsson
just innovative technical solutions, but ensuring that health, safety, the environment and +44 79 0991 5513
sustainability are all part of the program. [email protected]
Working to get maximum production from every field has also become a priority in this
new environment. Analyst Rystad Energy estimates that liquid resources from mature assets
grew by 151 billion barrels over the last four years, driven by factors such as increased infill
drilling, improved understanding of reservoirs, EOR projects and technology improvements.
Looking ahead, every drop left behind will matter. Subscription
As Bob Dudley, BP Group Chief Executive, said in the recently released BP Energy Outlook: GeoPublishing Ltd
+44 20 7937 2224
“Don’t be fooled by the recent firming in oil prices: the focus on efficiency, reliability and 15 Palace Place Mansion
capital discipline is here to stay.” Kensington Court
London W8 5BB, UK
[email protected]

GEO EXPro is pub­lished bimonthly

for a base subscrip­tion rate of GBP
60 a year (6 issues).
We encourage readers to alert us
VOL . 15, NO. 2 – 2018
to news for possible publication
GEOSCIENC
E & TECHNOLOG
Y EXPLAINED
and to submit articles for publication.
geoexpro.com

Jane Whaley Cover Photograph:

TECHNOLOG
Y EXPLAINED GEOTOURISM

The Future Aspen: Rocky

Mountain High

Main Image: Total/RPS

Editor in Chief of Onshore
Seismic Inset: Terri Cook and Lon Abbott

Layout: Winslade Graphics

EXPLOR ATIO
Awaiting Disc
N
Print: Stephens & George, UK
DARTS AND DRONES: THE FUTURE OF ONSHORE SEISMIC ove
The US Atlantic ry?
Margin
GEOEDUCAT
The dense rainforest of Papua New Guinea is the perfect testing ground for ION
Resources Boo
sted issn 1744-8743
by Billions
the METIS onshore seismic acquisition project, in which drones are used to
GEOPHYSICS
drop biodegradable sensors through pre-identified gaps in the forest canopy. A Simple Gui
de to
Depth Convers
ion
Inset: The captivating scenery around Independence Pass in the Rocky
Mountains is full of fascinating geological puzzles.

© 2018 GeoPublishing Limited.

Copyright or similar rights in all material in this publication, including graphics and other media, is owned by GeoPublishing Limited, unless otherwise stated.
You are allowed to print extracts for your personal use only. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
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to republish material from this publication for distribution should be sent to the Editor in Chief. GeoPublishing Limited does not guarantee the accuracy of the
information contained in this publication nor does it accept responsibility for errors or omissions or their consequences. Opinions expressed by contributors to
this publication are not necessarily those of GeoPublishing Limited.
Scan me

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GEO ExPro May 2018 5
GeoPublishing is committed to protecting your privacy (see /www.geoexpro.com/privacy-policy).
Regional Update

Ballymore and Whale ABBREVIATIONS

Key discoveries put US GoM back on the map Numbers

After a very disappointing 2017 in terms of oil and gas exploration worldwide, (US and scientific community)
the US Gulf of Mexico is giving wildcatters reason to smile again as details were M: thousand = 1 x 103
released in January of two significant discoveries by Chevron and Shell. MM: million = 1 x 106
B: billion = 1 x 109
The most recent well is the Ballymore discovery, where operator Chevron and 40%
T: trillion = 1 x 1012
partner Total found 670 ft (204m) net pay of high quality light oil in the sandstones
of the Jurassic Norphlet Formation. This formation is fundamentally different from Liquids
all other plays in the Gulf of Mexico. It lies at the base of the sedimentary package barrel = bbl = 159 litre
just above the Louann Salt and therefore this pay is charged by the overlying source boe: barrels of oil equivalent
rock, with nothing from an underlying source, as the salt layer is impermeable. bopd: barrels (bbls) of oil per day
This also means the Norphlet Formation underwent the same pressure and bcpd: bbls of condensate per day
temperature degeneration as its overlying source rocks. The reservoir quality at bwpd: bbls of water per day
such depths could be questionable, as is also evident from the history of exploration
Gas
in this play. Based on Rystad Energy analysis, we expect Ballymore to hold around
MMscfg: million ft3 gas
550 MMboe of resources, which could be developed as a tie-back to Shell’s nearby MMscmg: million m3 gas
Appomattox deepwater development project. Tcfg: trillion cubic feet of gas

Ma: Million years ago

Ballymore Appomattox,
US LNG
Whale Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is natural
Mississippi Ballymore,
Alaminos Canyon gas (primarily methane) cooled to a
US
Canyon temperature of approximately -260 oC.

NGL
Natural gas liquids (NGL) include
propane, butane, pentane, hexane
and heptane, but not methane and
Blocks awarded to Shell in ethane.
Mexican Round 2.4
Great White, Whale,
US Perdido Fold Belt Trend Reserves and resources
US
P1 reserves:
Source: Rystad Energy UCube

Norphlet Play Area Quantity of hydrocarbons believed

Trion,
MX recoverable with a 90% probability
2
Maritime Boundary

4 3 P2 reserves:
6 7 Quantity of hydrocarbons believed
recoverable with a 50% probability
New oil discoveries in the US Gulf of Mexico.
P3 reserves:
Shell is a pioneer in exploring this play. It took the company around 10 years Quantity of hydrocarbons believed
before it found thick Aeolian Norphlet sandstone in the Appomattox discovery well, recoverable with a 10% probability
at around 2,000 feet (610m). Prior to that, all wells drilled in the Norphlet play were
either dry or uneconomical. Chevron’s Ballymore discovery will add to the faith Oilfield glossary:
operators have in the Norphlet play, which extends into the eastern Gulf of Mexico www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com
and could be a potential target for future license awards.
The other big wildcatting news unveiled recently was Shell’s Whale discovery, to
the east of the Great White field and around 16 km from Shell’s Perdido platform.
The Whale probe encountered more than 1,400 feet (427m) of net oil-bearing pay,
and Rystad Energy estimates around 400 MMboe of resources in the find.
This discovery lies in Alaminos Canyon and targeted the Wilcox Formation in
the Perdido Fold Belt, which consists of north-east to south-west trending folded
structures formed by gravity sliding. The Perdido Fold Belt extends farther south into
Mexican waters, where Shell is now poised to make the most of its geological expertise
in the play. Shell nabbed five blocks awarded in Mexico’s recently-concluded Round
2.4, all of which appear to be directly aligned with the Perdido Fold Belt trend.
Aatisha Mahajan, Analyst, Rystad Energy

6 GEOExPro May 2018

Licensing Update

Record-Breaking Round
Quaternary
Brazil’s 15th Bidding Round received the largest

Neogene
2.6
signature bonus in history. Tertiary

Cenozoic
South Atlantic starts opening
On March 29, 2018 Brazil’s ANP (National Agency of Petroleum, 23

Paleogene
Natural Gas and Biofuels) announced that its 15th Bidding Round
had been a great success, particularly in the offshore area. A total of
68 blocks were offered, 47 in five offshore basins – Santos, Campos, 66*

Norwegian-Greenland Sea starts opening

Alpine orogeny
Sergipe-Alagoas, Potiguar and Ceará – and the remaining 21 in the
onshore Paraná and Parnaíba Basins. Cretaceous

Laramide orogeny
Although none of the onshore blocks available received bids, there
were offers for all the offshore basins, with 22 blocks being awarded,
covering an area of 16,400 km2 and raising a record-breaking 8 billion
reais (US$2.42 billion) in signature bonuses, well above expectations.

Pangaea breakup
145

Mesozoic
Deepwater Blocks Jurassic
In all, 21 companies qualified, with 13 from 11 countries participating

North Sea rifting

in the offshore section, all but one acquiring blocks. Petrobras,
ExxonMobil, BP, Statoil, Shell, Qatar Petroleum, Chevron, Repsol and

Central Atlantic starts opening

201*

*The Big Five Extinction Events

Wintershall all made significant additions to their Brazilian exploration
portfolios, with ExxonMobil being particularly successful. The company Triassic
acquired eight blocks in three different basins, bringing its holding in
Brazil, a country it has been working in for over 100 years, to over 8,000
km2 in a total of 24 basins. ExxonMobil and partners also paid the 252*

Gulf of Mexico rifting

highest signature bonus of the round: 2,824,800,000 reais, or US$840 Permian

Phanerozoic
million, for Block SC-AP5-CM-789 in the Campos Basin. Competition
was fiercest in this mature basin, with all nine blocks being awarded,
while in the Santos Basin three of the six blocks offered were taken up. 299
Out of the 13 available in the deepwater Potiguar Basin, seven were Carboniferous

FORMATION OF PANGAEA
awarded, with strong competition between Wintershall and Petrobras,
partnered by Shell and Petrogal. Wintershall has not been active in
Brazil for over a decade, but returned with a flourish in this round,
picking up seven blocks, four as operator. Three of these are in the 359*
Potiguar Basin, and it also acquired the only block awarded (out of 13
Devonian
offered) in the deepwater Ceará Basin. The major Brazilian oil company Paleozoic
Petrobras took seven blocks. Even the ultra-deepwater blocks in the
Sergipe-Alagoas Basin were attractive, with ExxonMobil partnering
with Queiroz Galvao E&P and Murphy Petroleum in this area.
Variscan orogeny

The success of this round indicates that recent revisions to the 419
regulations have paid off, and ANP are looking forward to the PSC Silurian
Round in June. 443*
Ordovician
Caledonia orogeny
Agencia Nacional do Petroleo

486
Cambrian

The Great Unconformity 541

Neoproterozoic
Precambrian

8 GEOExPro May 2018

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 A Minute to Read… News from around the world

Global Energy Activity

Whether for competitor intelligence, corporate evaluation or international company name to query on. Organizing the data
in a business development role, an accurate and up-to-date so consortia and their constituent companies can be queried
picture of company ownership across E&P assets is essential in the same layer gives the product additional flexibility.
for O&G companies and the service and financial sectors. But International companies are also classified by type – IOC,
how easy is it to gather and organize this content so it can be NOC, Joint Stock Company, Service and Finance – allowing
used for rapid worldwide querying and analysis? for deeper analysis of changing corporate environments.
Drillinginfo has 14 regional scouting teams gathering content Block card showing Rabat Deep Offshore II Block in Morocco from the
from multiple sources. Identifying the local company subsidiaries Drillinginfo web app.
participating in asset ownership along with % equity for over
23,000 licensed blocks worldwide is a fundamental part of each
team’s role. Tracking changes through individual farm-ins, local
company deals and name changes, or international corporate
transactions is essential in maintaining a current dataset.
All this work comes together in a spatially accurate
layer containing 5,900 local companies. These are linked
to a set of 3,000 parent companies which are maintained
through central tracking and research, providing a common

Multi-physics Reservoir Characterization

Geophysical data are widely used in reservoir characterization sound rock physics framework. However, even with the most
to determine the sub-surface lithology and fluid properties careful analysis, results based on seismic alone can prove
pre-drill. Such characterization processes must be built on a ambiguous. The widespread availability of controlled source
electromagnetic (CSEM) data on the Norwegian Continental
Shelf adds electrical resistivity to the analysis. Multi-physics
approaches, where seismic and CSEM data are interpreted
P (Hydrocarbon Sand Ip, Is)

Seismic pitfall together, can dramatically increase the certainty with which
Signi cant
Residual Gas Hydrocarbon
reservoir properties are quantified. During a three-year R&D
(from Seismic)

Saturation Saturation
collaboration with Repsol, RSI have developed a variety of
Resistive lithologies approaches to multi-physics analysis, ranging from integrated
(low porosity/tight
Wet
Sands
sands/ carbonates interpretation workflows to joint inversion algorithms. These
etc)
CSEM pitfall can be deployed in tailored workflows to extract the full value
Transverse resistance (from CSEM) from both seismic and non-seismic datasets.
Resistive Lithologies
An example from the Hoop area of the Barents Sea is
Alvarez et al., Interpretation, 6, 2018/RSI

shown here, where a multi-physics facies classification,

Wet Sand
calibrated using well log data, was used to de-risk prospects in
Residual gas saturation
the area. Only by integrating the seismic and CSEM data can
Signi cant HC saturation
the desired case (commercial oil saturation) be distinguished
from the seismic pitfall case (residual gas saturation) and the
CSEM pitfall case (resistive lithologies in the sub-surface). The
results indicated that only residual hydrocarbon is present and
8 Km.
the block was relinquished.

Asia Pacific Revisited: New Ideas, New Opportunities

Coming all the way from Singapore, SEAPEX is collaborating There will be a wide range of social activities on offer to
with PESGB to bring you the Asia-Pacific E&P Conference allow the 300 expected attendees to network, including an
at Olympia, London on June 27–28, 2018. Like the highly exclusive young professionals networking lunch, an ice-
successful SEAPEX conference, the event will feature an breaker reception, the conference evening and an affable pub
outstanding technical program with over 30 world-class crawl. A week of accompanying events will also be on offer,
speakers. The talks focus on future possibilities via new including a family-friendly Dorset field trip, an exploratory
regional perspectives, highlighting exploration successes and walk around London’s historical streets and a ‘Petroleum
opportunities on a country or play basis. Complementing the Geology of South East Asia’ course delivered by Ian Longley.
conference will be an extensive and lively exhibition floor with Find out more and secure your place now at the PESGB
over 40 booths, including a dedicated farm-out zone. website.

10 GEOExPro May 2018

The Future of Geoscience
and Engineering
Jane Whaley

ENVOI specialises in upstream

The 80th EAGE Conference and Exhibition, taking place June 11–14 acquisition and divestment (A&D),
in Copenhagen, Denmark, offers the most cutting-edge, relevant and project marketing and portfolio advice
insightful papers chosen from the largest ever number of submissions for the international oil and gas industry.
received by EAGE. The topics cover geophysics, reservoir engineering,
near surface and much more and will be complemented by a selection
of fascinating papers on petroleum engineering from the Society
of Petroleum Engineers. This will be the most impressive multi-
disciplinary technical program ever. Every day will see 16 fascinating
parallel oral and 11 e-Poster sessions, meaning that delegates will be able
to choose from over 400 hours of talks, discussions and presentations.
This is also a fantastic opportunity to explore the latest technology,
innovations and services on offer from over 350 of the most important
companies in geoscience, engineering and energy production. At the ACTIVE PROJECTS
exhibition you will meet the people behind the products and services
AUSTRALIA
that have defined the industry, as well as new companies seeking to
(Offshore exploration)
pave the way to the future. An excellent opportunity to network with
your peers from across the world, this exhibition is not to be missed! CENTRAL ASIA
You can also learn new skills through intensive short courses and (Onshore production/exploration)
develop your professional profile with six broad-ranging workshops.
COLOMBIA
(Onshore exploration)
Missed Pay: GABON
Key to Future Success (Offshore exploration)

‘Missed pay’ makes spectacular discoveries! Just think about Alta, Dvalin, GHANA
Maria, Ivar Aasen and Cara on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) (Offshore exploration)
– all discoveries that were made fairly recently following previous dry KAZAKHSTAN
wells ‘ages ago’. The secret to success is detailed analyses of data from
(Onshore appraisal/development)
wells that were poorly sampled, or misinterpreted. In some cases, the
presumed dry wells give indications of having drilled through reservoir PARAGUAY
rocks containing hydrocarbons or the presence of hydrocarbons up-dip. (Onshore exploration)
One of the key learnings is therefore that dry wells also need to have a full
UK: EAST MIDLANDS
log-suite, including samples of fluids and pressure tests. These data could
(Onshore appraisal/development)
one day constitute the basis for a new and surprising discovery.
A special session will be devoted to the topic of missed pay during UK: NORTH SEA
the NCS Exploration – Recent Discoveries conference, which will be (Offshore exploration)
held May 23–24 at the Scandi Fornebu, Oslo, Norway. The session
has been convened and will be chaired by Jon Halvard Pedersen,
petroleum system analyst at Lundin Norway. The opening talk ‘Oil
VISIT WWW.ENVOI.CO.UK
Shows – a Hitchhiker’s Guide’ will give insight to what shows actually
are. Several case studies will be given, which will hopefully encourage FOR MORE INFORMATION
curious geologists to take another look at forgotten wells.

GEOExPro May 2018 11

A Minute to Read… News from around the world

Registration Open for URTeC 2018

With a new boom in unconventional plays well underway, the boundaries and continue as the premier event focused on the
timing of a meeting on unconventional resource technology latest science and technology applied to exploration, appraisal,
could not be better. Registration is now open with early bird analysis, and development of unconventional resources.
pricing for the sixth Unconventional Resources Technology URTeC unites the disciplines by bringing the entire asset
Conference, to be held at the George R. Brown Convention team together under one roof, concentrating on all things
Center, July 23–25 in Houston. After the incredible success unconventional. URTeC is comprised of three sponsoring
of the 2017 conference, URTeC 2018 looks to push the organizations: Society of Petroleum Engineers, American
Association of Petroleum Geologists, and Society of
Exploration Geophysicists plus nine endorsing organizations:
American Rock Mechanics Association, American Institute
of Chemical Engineers, Association for Iron and Steel
Technology, American Society of Civil Engineers, American
Society of Mechanical Engineers, Society for Mining,
Metallurgy and Exploration, Society of Petroleum Evaluation
Engineers, Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts,
and the Minerals, and Metals and Materials Society. This
multi-society collaborative platform brings depth to the
technical base of the conference, providing cross-discipline
information and innovation exchanges that sustain and propel
the industry’s ongoing success.

Globe: Earth’s Evolution Unlocked for Better Exploration

Geoscientists working within oil and gas exploration and new understanding of the evolution of their area of interest and
ventures groups know that the judgements they make can enables them to better understand the factors controlling
have wide ranging repercussions. The pressure to make the hydrocarbon formation and preservation. By evaluating basins
right decisions means that all companies are looking for new, within a regional context and not simply in isolation, Globe
innovative ways of gaining a competitive edge. To meet this delivers novel and distinctive insights into both emerging
demand, the natural resource exploration experts at the Getech areas and the most explored basins of the world.
Group developed Globe; a product that delivers a unique view Importantly, Getech has understood that ease-of-use is also
of the Earth’s evolution over time and provides new insights key to the successful deployment of any system, so Globe is
into petroleum development in the world’s oil and gas basins. delivered on Esri’s industry-leading ArcGIS technology. Using
Globe is a comprehensive geoscience knowledge-base this fully-featured and familiar GIS environment means that
that provides petroleum geoscientists with a thorough Globe is as simple to access as it is beneficial to use.

Big Continent and Big Opportunities

The 17th Annual Africa Conference convened by the Houston compared to ultimate field production. There will be panel
Geological Society and the Petroleum Exploration Society discussions on Exploration in Africa – Past, Present and Future;
of Great Britain will be held September 12–13, 2018 at the Keys to Exploration Success; and Disaster Avoidance, all
Norris Conference Centre, Houston. The program’s theme ‘Big featuring senior management from major African players.
Continent, Big Ideas and Big Opportunities’ covers technical The program includes a seismic showcase where data from
presentations on the petroleum opportunities highlighted by the across Africa will be on display and there will be a series of
recent discoveries in West Africa along the transform margin, expert mini-workshops focused on key ideas and exploration
salt basins and emerging areas of the Senegal and Mauritanian concepts in Africa. More information can be found at the
margins, as well as continued exploration in East Africa offshore HGS website.
and new play ideas on onshore rift
basins. New play concepts/ideas in
mature offshore areas of Libya and
Egypt and the latest trends in the
carbonate reefs similar to the Zohr
discovery will also be discussed.
The meeting will feature sessions
on post-appraisal of discoveries in
the past decade, highlighting initial
estimates of major discoveries

12 GEOExPro May 2018

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 Cover Story: Technology Explained

DARTs and Drones:

The Future of Onshore Seismic
The challenges associated with geophysical acquisition and 3D imaging
in areas of complex topography and environmental sensitivity are being
revolutionized by a multi-partner project spearheaded by Total. JANE WHALEY

There is a long-held adage that two heads Biodegradable Sensors the cost and HSE risks of operations’.
are better than one – so why not 25? Back in 2015, Total began to consider One of the first questions to address
That was very much the approach innovative ways to tackle these issues was how to put recording sensors in
taken by the R&D department at and rapidly realized that finding a place without using personnel on the
supermajor Total, when faced with successful solution using only inhouse ground. For this task Total teamed
the issue of acquiring high quality resources was not feasible. “We up with Wireless Seismic, a leading
onshore seismic over difficult terrain needed to access modern disruptive innovator in real-time and cable-
with minimum environmental and technologies to address many of the free seismic data acquisition systems
societal impact. Conventional onshore issues,” explains Pierre-Olivier Lys, for the oil and gas industry. Their
acquisition systems tend to require Innovative Acquisition Manager at unique technology allowed Total to
many people on the ground, physically Total E&P’s Research and Development develop a revolutionary system of
laying out lines of multiple sensors, Center in Pau, southern France. “To receivers deployable through drones,
which in mountainous terrain and poor do this we needed to go outside the transmitting data via a high-speed,
weather conditions can be treacherous company – and in some cases outside real-time radio telemetry system.
for the personnel. In rainforest and the industry.” Thus, the Multiphysics These recorders, known as DARTs
other highly vegetated areas, this also Exploration Technology Integrated (Downfall Air Receiver Technology)
requires hacking paths through the System (METIS) project was born, with are, as the name implies, shaped like a
undergrowth and disturbing wildlife the mission to ‘improve the quality and dart and can impale themselves in the
and possibly indigenous communities, speed of data acquisition through real- ground in an upright position. Each of
all very undesirable outcomes. A totally time quality control and processing, the prototype wireless sensors weighs
new approach was required. while at the same time slashing both under 700g and is less than 50 cm long.
Total/RPS

14 GEOExPro May 2018

 Wireless Seismic/RPS/Total
The drones were designed
by RPS to carry a number of
DARTs simultaneously.

Ultimately, their size and weight will

be decreased (300g and 25 cm long),
and all components will be harmless
to the environment. The body today is
made of biodegradable polylactic acid SAFT, recently acquired by Total, data to be transmitted from the sensors
(PLA), a type of plastic, and the research and the multidisciplinary research to intermediate antennas, which in turn
teams are already working with existing organization VTT Technical Research send the information on to a central
technologies to ensure that eventually Centre of Finland, which in this project location using the radio telemetry
every part of the DART, including is specializing in printed and hybrid system. This communication system is
the battery and sensors, will have a electronics and biopolymer studies. therefore providing real-time data, which
negligible environmental footprint. Once the DARTs are in place, can be analyzed to create preliminary
To this end additional partners in the Wireless Seismic provides the seismic images to monitor the quality of
project are battery specialist company recording infrastructure that allows the incoming data, so changes can be made

In the pilot project the DARTs successfully embedded themselves in the ground and transmitted data. They are designed to be biodegradable, leaving no
trace after the survey is completed.

Total

GEOExPro May 2018 15

Cover Story: Technology Explained

year or two after that.”

Total
To ensure that the footprint on
the ground is as limited as possible in
environmentally sensitive areas, Total
have teamed up with aeronautical
experts Flying Whales to create a
multipurpose inflatable airship. This
will transport all the equipment for
the seismic sources, plus any material
required to set up camps in the survey
area. At the end of the project, all non-
biodegradable material will be removed
from the site using the airships and
the area will be allowed to return to
nature. “We consider the airship a very
important aspect of the project,” Pierre-
Olivier adds.

Finding a location to drop the DARTs through the rainforest canopy can be challenging.
Further Innovations
Another major partner in this project
to acquisition parameters to ensure ground is free of people and animals is the geophysical services company
optimum results from the survey. before they are released. Geokinetics. As specialists in the
“Late in 2017 we undertook a acquisition and processing of seismic
Flying Darts and Whales pilot study in Papua New Guinea, a data in challenging environments
The DARTs will ultimately be deployed country which presents some of the worldwide, Geokinetics will ensure that
by fleets of autonomous drones that most challenging terrain for seismic all aspects of data production, from
undertake a multiphysics safety in the world,” Pierre-Olivier explains. survey design and modeling to seismic
clearance check before releasing the “During this pilot we successfully processing and imaging, are integrated
sensors over prearranged optimized deployed about 60 DARTs in only a in order to provide the optimum
positions. These locations have to be few hours using a single drone, and we solution. The company’s expertise in
chosen with care, particularly in dense were able to recover seismic data live logistics and project management as
forest, to ensure that the sensors can from these sensors, which proved that well as operation control and HSE will
reach the ground through gaps in the the method worked. For our next pilot, be vital to the successful outcome of the
foliage and will be able to penetrate which we will undertake in 2019, we project.
the forest floor. Another collaborative aim to deploy 4,000 sensors on a 50m “In the first pilot project we were
partner, RPS, is responsible for grid from a number of drones flying in primarily interested in the logistical
designing and flying the drones and concert. Ultimately, we intend to use aspects of how to convey the sensors
for the DART deployment, while METIS in its first industrial application to their chosen locations, and to
satellite data, LiDAR and airborne by 2021, before commercializing it a recover seismic traces in real-time,
electromagnetic
A simulation of the airship which will be used to transport equipment to and around the survey area.
and gravity
companies provide Total

the information
needed to
precisely model
the surface before
the sensors
are dropped to
ensure they can
reach their target
point through
the canopy. They
are released
from about 20m
above the trees,
and multi-sensor
cameras are used
to check that the

16 GEOExPro May 2018

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thanks to the use of a relatively shothole drilling material must be through the use of the purpose-built
simple portable downhole airgun flown to the base camp and then on airships rather than helicopters and,
source,” Pierre-Olivier explains. to numerous source locations, the by making the sensors biodegradable,
“One thing we discovered from the ability to deploy a large number of there is no need to send survey teams
pilot was that the DART sensors do receivers – it is estimated that the out to recover them, which as well as
not all embed themselves vertically, drones could safely deploy about 4,000 being environmentally preferable, has
which decreases the quality of the receivers per day in harsh vegetated financial and HSE advantages.
data submitted. As a result, we are environments, and up to 40,000 per
investigating using multicomponent day in open environments – means A Holistic Change
microelectromechanical sensors that fewer sources will be required, “At the beginning, it seemed like a
(MEMS) in the DARTs to replace the which has advantageous safety and cost crazy idea, and some people doubted
existing geophones, which will help implications as well as being better for it could be achieved – but in the team
eliminate that problem and also allow the environment. we knew it was possible,” Pierre-Olivier
us to keep the DART environmental Real-time processing and rapid says. “We did not initially anticipate
footprint to a minimum, as MEMS subsurface image delivery allows the that the project would be so big, with
are considerably smaller. As a interpreters to drive the survey by so many partners, but METIS has
consequence, the DARTs will also assessing the quality of the data acquired grown to encompass all aspects of an
be much lighter, which should assist and the illumination of the geological onshore survey and can be adapted
deployment. formations directly and locally. They to accommodate all geological data
“Having successfully validated the will therefore be able to adjust and in the field, no matter how complex.
deployment mechanism, we are now optimize the acquisition plan in real time It is ideal for resolving the challenges
considering a variety of innovative based on results, if necessary adding or of 3D seismic acquisition and real-
source options, because the currently relocating sensors easily with the drones. time processing in hard-to-access
available source technologies are This means that the time between environments, such as foothills, but
significantly more expensive and completing the acquisition and finalizing can also be adapted for deserts or
potentially more dangerous when the processing will be reduced and the areas crowded with infrastructure,
used in these particularly challenging value of the information significantly or possibly in areas with unexploded
terrains. We are therefore in the increased, leading to quicker and better ordnance, and for a variety of
process of finding even more partners decision making. applications, from conventional 2D
for the project and are testing a range Real-time decision making is faster surveys to microseismic acquisition
of new sources. Ultimately, we expect and involves fewer people, while and seismic monitoring.
that more than 25 companies and drone deployment reduces personnel “METIS is revolutionary because it
organizations will be involved in this requirements on the ground as well, addresses an entire acquisition system
collaborative endeavor.” so there are significant financial holistically instead of one little piece
savings in this aspect of projects at a time, in order to optimize HSE,
Cost Reductions undertaken through METIS. Further quality, cost and turn-around time,” he
Bearing in mind the fact that all cost reductions are anticipated concludes.

GEOExPro May 2018 17

Exploration

Awaiting Discovery?
The US Atlantic Margin
Covering an area roughly the size of California and Texas combined, the
US Atlantic margin is underexplored, but prospective basins along the
margin may once again be open to exploration.
VSEVOLOD EGOROV, GeoExpera
The US Atlantic margin is virtually and the central and northern African recoverable resources and respective
unexplored. Ten lease sales were held coast, extensive exploration activity probabilities for the Atlantic OCS for oil
in the Atlantic Outer Continental has yielded numerous large oil and gas to be between 1.150 (95%) and 9.185 (5%)
Shelf (OCS) between 1976 and 1983. discoveries in strata similar to those Bb and gas to be 12.80 (95%) to 68.71
The entire region has been penetrated found along the US Atlantic margin. (5%) Tcf.
by a total of only 51 wells, all drilled Yet the US Atlantic OCS remains a true
between 1975 and 1984. Of those, five frontier for exploration companies and New Administration – New Direction
were COST (Continental Offshore an area that could keep the country The current National Outer
Stratigraphic Tests) wells and 46 a top energy producer. In the latest Continental Shelf Oil and Gas
industry exploration wells. assessment, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Leasing Program, adopted in 2016,
Along the adjacent and conjugate Management (BOEM, 2014/2016) includes ten lease sales for the Gulf
Atlantic margins of Canada, Ireland, estimated undiscovered technically of Mexico and one for Alaska, but

North Atlantic gravity map including key discoveries off Canada and north-west Africa. The prominent gravity high that trends south out of Nova Scotia
and into the US portion of the Atlantic margin marks the extent of the shelf and closely follows the Mesozoic carbonate platform edge.

Modified from
Egorov, 2017

18 GEOExPro May 2018

nothing off either the west or east
coasts of the US. This current leasing
program, which covers 2017–2022,
puts 94% of the US OCS off limits to

Egorov et al., 2014

exploration. Encouraged by letters
from members of both the US House
of Representatives and the US Senate,
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke
proposed a new National OCS
Leasing Program for 2019–2024 that
includes 47 potential lease sales in 25
of the 26 planning areas. If adopted
as proposed, this Draft Proposed
Program could result in over 90% of
the total OCS acreage and 98% of the
undiscovered, technically recoverable
oil and gas resources in the federal
OCS being made available for future
exploration and development. Nine
lease sales would occur in the Atlantic
Region, with the first two, which
would cover much of the US Atlantic
margin, scheduled for 2020.
The new leasing program is
currently in the development process,
which includes stakeholder and public
feedback, along with new scientific
information to further refine the
geographic scope of leasing areas. The
2017–2022 National OCS Program US Atlantic margin bathymetry map showing three areas drilled (Georges Bank Basin, Baltimore
took about a year and a half to Canyon Trough, and SE Georgia Embayment) during a ten-year exploration period that ended
in 1984. Only a few wells in the Baltimore Canyon tested non-commercial gas flows. The red line
complete and will be in force until the outlines the US OCS protraction area’s boundary.
new program is approved.
data, including Spectrum Geo, whose a source of sediments and a major zone
Available Data seismic depth-converted cross-sections of weakness. It partially accommodated
Although no wells have been drilled are shown in this article.. Mesozoic extension by ‘unbuckling’
since 1984 and no major geophysical Developments in space technologies along pre-existing thrust faults and
surveys were conducted offshore US have led to the emergence of satellite sutures. Triassic-Jurassic grabens and
East Coast, there have definitely been altimetry-derived gravity and half-grabens are well documented
some advances in both available data continuous improvement of this onshore along the margin and
and research. Additional information worldwide offshore dataset. Various propagate offshore in the northern part
can also be gleaned from exploration magnetic data were also compiled of the US margin. Detailed offshore
work and discoveries in other areas over the years. Both gravity and distribution of these extensional
along the Atlantic margins. magnetics have proved valuable in the structures requires additional studies.
Legacy seismic data have limitations understanding of continental margins However, they are not as obvious and
in resolution and high-frequency and petroleum exploration along these widespread as in many other parts of
content, but although overall not of margins. the Atlantic, indicating that a large
up-to-date quality, they contain lots portion of the offshore sediments was
of useful information. According Geological Assessment probably deposited during a passive
to BOEM (2014/2016), 239,000 The closing of the Iapetus Ocean and (post-rift) margin regime.
line-miles (385,000 line-km) of 2D the Laurentia-Gondwana collision in The BOEM defined five major
seismic were collected during the Carboniferous-Permian time led to the Jurassic-Cenozoic depocenters
exploration activities from 1966 formation of the Appalachian fold and along the margin: the Georges Bank
into the 1980s. Most of these data thrust belt. Following these events, the Basin, Baltimore Canyon Trough,
are publicly available. Additionally, Late Triassic – Early Jurassic extension Carolina Trough, South-East Georgia
a number of seismic companies initiated the opening of the Atlantic Embayment, and Blake Plateau Basin.
undertook reprocessing, migration between North America and Africa. Three of these areas were drilled,
and depth-conversion of these legacy The Appalachian orogen acted both as penetrating Cenozoic, Cretaceous,

GEOExPro May 2018 19

Exploration

and in most cases Jurassic sediments. was related to listric fault-controlled comprising Albian contourites, gravity
Few wells within the Georges Bank deltaic reservoirs within the inner deposits and base of slope turbidite
Basin and the South-East Georgia shelf (Hudson Canyon 598 area). fans. In 2014 Kosmos announced the
Embayment reached underlying discovery of the Great Tortue gas field
Paleozoic metasediments. The deepest Conjugate Analogs offshore Mauritania and Senegal with
well was drilled in the Baltimore While petroleum exploration off the Cenomanian and Albian turbidite
Canyon Trough and reached a depth of US east coast practically stopped after reservoirs. These deepwater plays also
6,584m. the 1980s, it continued to the north exist offshore US but are yet to be
Expanding on the mid-continent in Canada and along the north-west tested.
onshore success of discoveries African coast, the conjugate margin to
associated with Paleozoic reefs, the the US Atlantic OCS. Studying analogs Canadian Plays Trending South
majority of the offshore drilling from conjugate margins has proved Exploration offshore Canada’s east
efforts were focused on similar to be a great exploration approach, coast remains active. The Jeanne d’Arc
structures. Many interpreted resulting in many major discoveries on basin off Newfoundland remains
pinnacle reefs within the Mesozoic both sides of the Atlantic. The subsalt the only oil-producing province
carbonate platform were drilled but discoveries offshore Brazil (Tupi along the North American Atlantic
resulted in dry holes. These results and others) were followed by similar margin. The Late Jurassic and Early
were attributed to an absence of a discoveries off Angola; the Jubilee Cretaceous sandstones produce nearly
hydrocarbon charging system, while turbidite play discovery offshore Ghana 35% of Canada’s light crude, making
some of the ‘reefs’ turned out to be led to the discovery of analogous Newfoundland and Labrador the
volcanics. Yet another concept was plays off Sierra-Leone and French second largest oil-producing province
brought into exploration from Gulf Guiana. Studying these analogs is key in Canada. Recent light oil discoveries
Coast and Gulf of Mexico salt basins. to predicting US offshore plays and in the deepwater Flemish Pass Basin
The early interpretation of seismic estimating hydrocarbon resources. are opening up a new oil and gas
data from the Baltimore Canyon Recent exploration along the north- frontier offshore the province.
Trough indicated very prominent salt west African coast has led to several Natural gas fields discovered in
diapirs. However, drilling results, significant discoveries pertinent to the 1970s to 90s offshore Nova Scotia
additional seismic data and later re- exploration off the US east coast. lie just north of the US east coast
processing all demonstrated that salt The largest offshore discovery of OCS. Reservoirs include Late Jurassic
diapirs do not exist in the Baltimore 2014 was the SNE-1 field offshore dolomitized carbonates and Late
Canyon Trough and are absent along Senegal. The hydrocarbon-bearing Jurassic to Early Cretaceous fluvial,
most parts of the margin, with the reservoir was defined by Cairn Energy deltaic, and shallow marine sandstones.
possible exception of the Carolina as an Early Albian sandy pro-delta More recently, oil companies have
Trough area. A few wells tested deltaic turbidite apron and delta-fed ramp. leased deepwater blocks, some in an
deposits but found a disappointing These deposits are within the extent area next to the Georges Bank just
dominance of shales and siltstones of a Jurassic-Cretaceous carbonate north of the border, and 3D wide
and an absence of good quality platform. Following SNE-1, the FAN-1 azimuth seismic has been shot prior
reservoir rocks. The only proven play discovery was made outboard of the to drilling. Shell has drilled two wells
with non-commercial gas discoveries platform within deepwater sediments in the deepwater Shelburne Basin and

West to east regional seismic section across the Georges Bank Basin showing major geologic features that include rift structures, the Mesozoic
carbonate platform edge, and seaward dipping reflectors that indicate transitional crust. Corresponding gravity and magnetic profiles are presented
across the top. Red boxes show approximate settings of the three plays shown in the figure on page 21. (Modified from Egorov, 2017. Seismic data
courtesy Spectrum Geo.)

20 GEOExPro May 2018

(a) Crustal types and some of the potential plays
found along the Atlantic margins. Many of these a
plays depicted here have not been tested in the
US Atlantic margin; (b) Intra-graben structures,
stratigraphic pinch-outs towards structural highs,
and hydrothermal dolomites; (c) Shelf shallow
marine/deltaic sand reservoirs in the roll-over
fault-controlled structural traps; (d) Deepwater
channels and fans. (Egorov, 2017. Seismic Data
courtesy Spectrum Geo.)

BP plans to drill a deepwater prospect

approximately 300 km offshore Nova
Scotia sometime this year. This is the
only well expected in the area in 2018
and its results are highly anticipated.
Similar plays trend south and can be b
expected along the US Atlantic margin
where they have either not been tested
or tested only within three small areas.
Meanwhile, an enormous portion of
the OCS remains unexplored. Based
on available data and analogs from
continental margins, BOEM has
identified ten potential offshore plays,
including shallow and deepwater
reservoirs both structurally and
stratigraphically controlled.
Mature source rocks have yet to
be identified along the US Atlantic
margin. Non-commercial gas
discoveries in the Baltimore Canyon
Trough provide proof of a working
petroleum system and suggest that
mature source rocks are present off
the eastern US coast. Wells have c
penetrated potential Cretaceous source
rocks that were immature where
drilled but could be mature seaward.
Jurassic source rocks present in the
productive basins off eastern Canada
are expected to trend south along the
US Atlantic margin.

First Steps
It took years of intensive acquisition and
analysis of geophysical and geological
data and, eventually, exploratory
drilling before success came to the
basins adjacent and conjugate to the d
US Atlantic margin. Time will tell if
any of the prospects and plays lining
the US East Coast will be tested. First
steps are starting to take shape in
the form of proposed lease sales and
new regulations governing oil and gas
activity. Then it will be up to the oil
and gas companies to obtain leases and
explore the frontier basins lying just off
the east coast of United States.

GEOExPro May 2018 21

Industry Issues

Mind
the
Two serious gaps are looming in the industry:
firstly between global production and
demand, and secondly between experienced

Gaps
explorationists and the new generation of
geologists and geophysicists who will be needed MIKE LAKIN
Envoi Limited
to find fresh reserves to fill the first gap.

At most conferences and industry

meetings so far this year, including the
recent Global APPEX A&D Conference in
London, much of the talk has been about
a resurgence in oil price, an associated
growth in upstream international deal
making and a return to more buoyant
E&P activities. The curtailment of
production by OPEC and lower influence
of US resource plays have kept the world
adequately supplied and allowed the oil
How far into the future?
price to rebound – but is the future of oil
and gas all rosy? I think not, but perhaps not for the reasons don’t need – or want – to work 9–5 each day for 48 weeks a
many might imagine. year any more.
If the 55-year-old-and-over geologists and geophysicists
Gap in Capability – we’ll call them the 1st generation – are allowed to retire
Since the extended 1984–2003 price crash, when the oil without the industry harnessing their knowledge and hard-
price was between $10 and $27, the upstream E&P industry earned experience, and there is a 25-year gap between them
seems to have done little to properly prepare for the gap in and 3rd generation explorationists (with the 2nd generation
exploration capability that has been evident for some years. missing), how can the younger explorationists be expected to
This is the result of a missing generation of explorationists, decide where to drill and find new reserves of hydrocarbons
primarily geologists and geophysicists, who were not hired as successfully as in the past, without the benefit of all those
in sufficient numbers in these years, and the effect of this mentors and their experience? Unless we put into action
will start ‘hitting the buffers’ soon. To be more specific, this some plans to fill that gap now and to find enough new
means the loss of a significant proportion of the world’s hydrocarbons, the world’s reserves and the ability to keep
exploration experience – in other words, the only people up with the demand for hydrocarbons could be severely
who are qualified to define where hydrocarbons have been affected.
generated and where wells should be drilled to find it.
Most of them are over the age of 55 and, having joined the Technology to the Rescue?
industry at or before 1984, are reaching retirement age and “Aa-ha,” I hear you say, “technology will make the difference,
making it easier to find hydrocarbons, so less
G&G people will be needed – and anyway,
AAPG Member Demographics.
we’ll all be using electrical cars in 10 years so
won’t need more oil…”
AAPG/Envoi Limited

Really? Can the current infrastructure be

that easily upgraded all over the world to cater
for seven times the electrical power this would
demand, even if we were able to build the
new power stations which will be needed to
generate that massive increase in power? And
what will be the source of that power? Nuclear?
OK, perhaps not, so gas then – which, by the
way, is found by explorationists in the E&P
sector!
Also, it is suggested, any decline in
conventional reserves production will simply
be filled by fracking and unconventional
production from the US anyway. There is no

22 GEOExPro May 2018

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doubt that the world’s energy mix is changing and yes, there production and demand, together with the looming scarcity
is also no doubt that in time oil will almost certainly become of experienced explorationists who will be needed to find new
the new coal, but I think that will not be for 20 or maybe 30 reserves to replace those produced over the next 20 years –
years – probably more. For an example of just how long such before all the alternatives sources of energy are able to take up
transitions really take, just look at the years it took from the the slack and decrease the dependence and need for as much
invention of the internal combustion engine (reportedly 1853, oil – should be a concern.
when a patent request was granted for ‘Obtaining Motive Two reasons perhaps to ‘Mind the Gaps’!
Power by the Explosion of Gasses’) to the first
effective mass manufacture of the motor car Outlook for shares in primary energy.
in the 1920s and 30s; or the fact that diesel 100%

2018 BP Energy Outlook

engines did not replace coal-fired steam
engines until the mid-1960s, despite their Coal
existence long before then. 80%
New Reserves Needed
There is also now concern as to when and if US
resource plays will actually make enough money 60%
to live up to the recent hype and the massive
investment that has gone into them. If they do,
the noticeable lack of equal recent investment 40% Oil
in conventional production, which is still
responsible for more than 90% of the world’s oil,
will see a widening gap between global demand 20% Gas
and the ability to source it.
The transition to new fuels and efficiency
Non-fossils†
has started, but the oil business is far from
finished. It will be needed for a good few years 0%
yet, but the possibility of a gap between global

GEOExPro May 2018 23

GEO Physics

A Simple Guide to
Depth Conversion: Part I
Continuing our series of ‘simple guides’ to aspects of geophysical processing,
we look at the parameters involved in this important but complex subject.
ASHLEY FRANCIS, Earthworks Reservoir
Seismic reflection data records the two-way travel time Sources of Velocity Measurements
(TWT) to a reflection event from the surface. Depth Velocity measurements come from a variety of methods but
conversion is the process by which interpreted seismic the three most important sources for depth conversion are
horizons (and time domain seismic itself) are converted seismic processing velocities, sonic logs from well data, and
from the travel time domain to the depth domain. (Note that checkshot and VSP surveys, also obtained from wells.
depth migration is a seismic imaging technique that improves Seismic processing velocities in their most basic form are
reflector positioning. Depth migrated data is often converted the so-called stacking velocities. Seismic processing requires
back to time and then depth converted conventionally as this curving events on gathers to be flattened using the NMO
gives greater flexibility for testing alternative velocity models.) stretch correction before they can be stacked. The stretch
Depth conversion can be simple or complex. Approaches factor is related to the RMS average velocity and so NMO
to the technique vary all over the world and are dependent correction gives an estimate of the velocity profile at each
on the play scenario and geological overburden. Depth point it is picked in the dataset. The stretch factor is small
conversion is a big, technical topic for a short article, so we are for deep events and increases in magnitude for shallow
going to try to make some general comments and highlight a events.
few points that are perhaps less widely known. Wells give us depths to geological markers and by tying a
When predictions of depth values are made at multiple well to the seismic using a synthetic seismogram the seismic
regular points on a grid pattern then we tend to view the time events that are interpreted can be related to the geology. A
result as a depth surface. Smooth, best estimate predicted well depth and a seismic horizon time to the same event can be
depth surfaces of this type are used for multiple purposes used to define a so-called pseudo-velocity and these are often
including drilling prognosis (well forecasts), in-place used in depth conversion.
hydrocarbon volume estimation (surfaces) and reservoir Well velocity information is obtained from both
modeling (surfaces). checkshot data (or better, from more detailed VSP survey
The standard practice use of depth surfaces for making first arrival times) and from sonic logs. Checkshot and VSP
depth prognosis for well targeting purposes is entirely surveys give direct measures of both average and interval
valid. However, the use of the same surfaces for in-place velocity by recording the travel times and depths from
hydrocarbon volume estimation is not valid. A discussion of surface to a series of geophone locations along the length of
this and the role geostatistics plays in addressing this problem the well.
was given in a previous article ‘A Simple Guide to Volumetrics’ Sonic logs are calibrated using checkshot data, resulting in
(GEO ExPro Vol. 12, No. 3) the calibrated velocity log (CVL). The CVL is the best velocity
information we have and combines the benefits of checkshots
Rock Velocity and sonic log data.
To convert time reflections to a depth surface we need
to know the velocity. The depth is then estimated Figure 1: Well velocities compared to seismic velocities show bias (left panel)
from the simple geophysical relationship that depth = but a good correlation and therefore calibration is possible (right).
velocity x time. 2110

The velocity of a rock is a fundamental physical R=0.853

property related to its hardness. As a simple rule of thumb, 2100

if you hit a rock with a geological hammer, fast rocks go

Stacking Velocity (m/s)

2100

‘ding’ and slower rocks ‘thud’ (or even ‘squelch’!). 2090

For depth conversion, velocity varies with rock type, 2050

Bias

depth of burial and pore space factors such as porosity 2000 2080

and the presence of microfractures. In general, the

1950
slowest velocity we encounter would be sea water, which 2070

is typically 1,500 m/s. The fastest velocities we commonly 1900

1900 1950 2000 2050 2100

come across would be the matrix velocity of rocks such as 2060

sandstones, limestones and dolomites and igneous rocks, 1:1 Scales 1925 1935 1945 1955 1965 1975

where the velocity reaches 6,000–6,500 m/s. Well Velocity (m/s)

24 GEOExPro May 2018

 Well Velocities: Well data are usually very sparse and cover
Well very little area in a regional depth conversion. For this reason,
Velocity
Map well information is often used to define functions that relate
the interval velocity behavior to the regional trends in the
geology. There is a very rich family of functions available to
+ choose from, but the most popular approaches are:
• Constant interval velocity
Stacking • Well velocity maps
Velocity
Trend
• Depth/time functions
• Velocity/time functions
• Velocity acceleration functions
Kriging with External Drift Some forms of velocity functions and, in particular, linear
Figure 2: Combining well and seismic velocity data using geostatistics to acceleration functions of the form V0+kZ (where V0 = reference
obtain the advantages of both datasets. velocity, k is the velocity gradient, and Z is depth) are very dear
to the heart of many a geophysicist. There are sound reasons
Practical Depth Conversion for their use, but some of the associated practices have become
Seismic Velocities: Without well information the only rather prescriptive and should be re-considered.
source of velocity data is through the seismic processing The first point to make about V0+kZ velocity functions
accompanying seismic reflection data. Seismic velocities is that they are strictly linear. This is both good and bad.
have some useful characteristics – for example, they Good because they avoid the bias of using average well
cover the survey area with relatively dense sampling. velocities from the crest of a structure to depth convert a
Unfortunately, seismic velocities are potentially inaccurate, flank where the velocity might be expected to be higher
insensitive to velocity changes in deeper layers and noisy. due to compaction; bad because compaction effects are not
Because of the noise, seismic velocities should be filtered or linear and so velocity functions can become non-physical
smoothed before use. Kriging using an explicit nugget (noise) quite quickly outside of the depth range of the data from
model is a good choice for this task. which the function was derived. For this reason, it is good
Seismic velocities can be used as an average velocity practice to examine proportional horizon slices through the
to a horizon for single layer depth conversion, or the Dix instantaneous velocity field at different levels within the layer
formula can be used to convert to interval velocities for to check the velocities are not physically too high or too low.
use in a multi-layer depth conversion. Seismic velocities Another problem lies in a popular practice of (typically)
are inaccurate (biased) and can over- or underestimate calculating a global gradient k from a group of wells and then
the actual velocity by as much as 10–20%. Resultant depth backing out an apparent V0 at each well. The V0 values are then
prognosis will have similar error magnitudes, but the over-interpreted by the geophysicist as a physical parameter
uncertainty in gross rock volume (GRV) is less affected by whose spatial pattern represents differences in burial history
bias in the velocity field than it is by local variation and so (typically uplift). As well data are sparse and noisy this is almost
the GRV uncertainty will be less affected. certainly an over-interpretation and is usually just regression
If well data are also available, then seismic velocities can of noise. Only if groups of wells exhibited different V0 (for the
be calibrated and used to provide regional trends away from same gradient k) might an uplift interpretation be justified
well control. This can be done geostatistically using methods (Figure 3). In general, V0 mapping methods are usually just
such as kriging with external drift or collocated co-kriging. error residual corrections in disguise and should be avoided.
Alternatively, a simple linear regression calibration can be In the next issue we will continue this article by discussing
used. Figure 1 shows a comparison and calibration of seismic the key steps involved in the depth conversion process.
velocity to well data and Figure
2 shows the combination of both Figure 3: Two interpretations of V0. On the left the variation in V0 is simply the noise in the data extrapolated
to datum. On the right, two different groups of wells are on the same gradient but different V0 at datum,
data types geostatistically. suggesting different uplift histories.
The value of using seismic
velocities diminishes quickly V0
Velocity V0 V0
Velocity
as the depth (or time) to
targets increases due to poor
velocity sensitivity to deeper
reflections. The importance
of seismic velocities also
Depth

Depth

diminishes as more well control

{
becomes available. Although
useful, seismic velocities are Uplift
the lowest quality source of
velocity information for depth
conversion.

GEOExPro May 2018 25

Hot Spot

A new feature brought to you in association with NVentures.

Renewed Excitement in Vaalco, Perenco and others are working

up the shelf and shallow plays. Adjacent

Deepwater Gabon acreage in F12, F13, E14 is understood

to be subject to negotiations in the Bid
Round announced by DGH in 2016.
Gabon has a long history of oil Ezanga salt, provides all the ingredients
exploration on- and offshore. The last for giant oil discoveries. The Prize
two decades saw production onshore The risks are still high: the gas and The development of this large oil play in
and along the shelf dominated by Shell gas condensate discoveries suggest other deepwater pre-salt Gabon is significant for
and Total, the Tullow JV, and juniors kerogen types or greater burial histories; the industry in West Africa. A Cretaceous
Vaalco, Perenco and M&P. Significantly, at least one major inversion event play, challenged by deep structural targets
both Total and Shell sold the majority affecting source, trapping and overall usually under salt, thus requiring the
of their production in 2017, indicating charge mechanism has been documented; latest 3D processing and interpretation,
their retreat from the mature onshore. charge retention is complicated by faulted this margin is yet to reveal a full-cycle
All eyes are on the big prize of salt seal; and the required juxtaposition of success story as envisaged and proposed
world-class oil discoveries in deepwater, source and reservoir may not be present. by avid Brazil-watchers. Kwanza has
however. The most recent newsflash in disappointed to date, but there are
support of this is Boudji-1, drilled by The Players encouraging signs of a Lower Cretaceous-
Petronas and Woodside, with reports of a In addition to Shell and Total, Petronas sourced petroleum system succeeding
90m gross oil column pre-salt. Following have a commanding position in the in the Mauritania/Senegal area, Gulf
poor results at Sputnik, and gas and region with blocks F14 (Boudji-1) and of Guinea and south-west Africa. The
condensate at Diaman and Leopard, this E13. Repsol will operate the next E13 well industry is determined to discover the
discovery of liquid hydrocarbons has (Luna Muetse Ivela 1), Noble have a strong truth behind the concept of vast oil
galvanized the deepwater players. position in Block F15 (Douku Dak) and volumes in pre-salt in West Africa near
Woodside an excellent spread of interests the limits of exploration technology.
The Play from Diaba to F15, E13 and F14. Impact
The petroleum system is predominately Oil & Gas, with a strong West African
the Lower Cretaceous play, with deepwater portfolio, hold blocks D13 and
potentially large structural prospects D14 in ultra-deepwater, with very large
in the pre-salt. Prospectivity certainly pre- and post-salt prospects based on high
exists post-salt, in well-imaged marine quality modern 3D. To the south-east in
clastic turbidites, channels and fans shallower water, Spectrum have acquired
in the Upper Cretaceous and Oligo- a large multiclient 3D survey in a similar
Miocene. However, very large pre-rift pre-salt play in the Gryphon area, and
faulted structures, with lower trap risk
and larger prospective volumes, lie
beneath the complex Aptian salt.
The Aptian Gamba reservoirs are
proven onshore and nearshore, as are
the Dentale sandstone formations. Both
comprise high poroperm fluvio-deltaic
syn-rift clastics, with lacustrine deltaic
facies seen onshore.
Source rocks, perhaps lower risk post-
Boudji, include Albian anoxic shales and
Cenomanian and Turonian post-salt.
Below the Albian, and underpinning
this exciting new oil province are
Apto-Barremian Melania lacustrine
shales, with recorded 20% TOC Type I
kerogen. The combination of this prolific
source, thick Dentale sands in very
large structural traps in rotated syn-rift
fault blocks, sealed by late Apto-Albian
transgressive marine shales and the

26 GEOExPro May 2018

Africa Oil Week 2018 is the meeting place for Africa’s upstream oil and
gas markets. The event brings together senior leaders of governments,
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www.africa-oilweek.com
Exploring
Papua New Guinea has become one of the world’s most exciting exploration regions, with
Map showing location of
significant petroleum potential in the Gulf of Papua. Searcher Seismic, in cooperation with the the new and reprocessed
Searcher (in conjunction
Department of Petroleum and Energy (DPE) and BGP, have acquired over 32,000 line-kilometers with Spectrum) 2D seismic
of long-offset, PSDM-processed 2D seismic in the Gulf of Papua. This dataset has revealed exciting data in the Gulf of Papua,

Papua New
with the location of
new potential and has highlighted the prospectivity in the Gulf of Papua. the foldout line below
highlighted in black.
The interpreted line below is oriented south-west to north-east and
shows a regional seismic line in the Gulf of Papua, where seismic stack

Guinea
data is blended with seismic interval velocity. Better seismic acquisition
and imaging has allowed for a more confident identification of the
Basement and Moho. The improved seismic quality also permits a
robust definition of faults and structural style in the Gulf of Papua.

28 GEOExPro May 2018 GEOExPro May 2018 30

Hydrocarbon Potential of the Gulf of Papua
Interpretation of new and reprocessed data reveals clear identification of promising plays.
SAID AMIRIBESHELI, DARIUSZ JABLONSKI and ANDREW WELLER, Searcher Seismic
The Gulf of Papua (GOP) has been acknowledged as a 4. Lower Cretaceous to Upper Permian basins with the
potential premier hydrocarbon region. Discoveries at Middle Triassic and Permo-Carboniferous successions
Pasca, Pandora and nearshore Uramu have demonstrated considered analogous to the Bowen and Galilee Basins
the prolific charge presence analogous to other areas located onshore Queensland in Australia.
in south-east Asia (Jablonski et al., 2018). Exploration 5. Lower Permian to Upper Carboniferous basins are
efforts in the deepwater GOP have been hampered by most likely economic basement.
paucity of seismic data and some early models have 6. Basement to Moho package allowing differentiation
suggested limited and geologically young sedimentation between continental, transitional and oceanic crust
on top of the unknown age basement, most likely of and consequently refinement of existing plate tectonic
oceanic origin (Struckmeyer, 1994). models.
Between 2015 and 2017 about 32,000 km of 2D With a more confident identification of a Basement and
long-offset, high-resolution, broadband seismic Moho marker, the interpretation of the shipborne gravity
was acquired by Searcher Seismic, demonstrating and magnetic data has allowed for a better understanding
the clearest picture yet of several depositional of the depth to basement and the composition of the crust,
packages, often separated by tectonically significant which is interpreted to be most likely of continental origin
unconformities. This is also supported by PSDM (non-oceanic; Lowe, 2016). These observations have
reprocessing of 12,972 km of the historical 2D data. been incorporated into a regional picture that connects
Several stratigraphic subdivisions have been proposed geographically distant regions like onshore eastern
in the GOP. Whilst a Tertiary to Jurassic sequence Australia, PNG and New Zealand.
is generally accepted, the older section is still poorly Synchronization of high quality seismic data and
understood and limited by a lack of well information and regional synthesis studies allow a more comprehensive
poor legacy seismic imaging. Acquisition of new seismic play identification in the GOP. Several, often vertically
data and reprocessing of historical data has led to the stacked, plays have been identified in the GOP (Jablonski
identification of several angular unconformities, each et al., 2018). These are summarised as:
suggesting distinctive tectonic packages that have not • Middle Triassic to Upper Carboniferous reservoir/seal
been previously recognized, as described below: pairs analogous to the Bowen and Galilee Basins in
1. Recent to Pliocene basins defined between the present- Queensland;
day sea floor and Woodlark Basin break-up unconformity. • Lower Cretaceous to Upper Triassic reservoir/seal pairs –
2. Miocene to Paleocene basins bounded by an primary targets in onshore and offshore PNG exploration;
unconformity at the top and the Coral Sea break-up • Break-up structures of various ages;
unconformity at the base, which corresponds to the • Miocene pinnacle structures analogous to the Pasca and
C21 magnetic anomaly (5.2 Ma to 60 Ma). Pandora gas discoveries;
3. Upper Cretaceous basins defined between the Coral • Pliocene detached basin floor fans;
Sea and Tasman Sea break-up unconformities (60 Ma • Compressional fold belt features, some up to 500 km
or 79 Ma). long, not tested in deepwater.
Paleogene
Slope Fans? Zoom-in of
Paleogene Basin
Floor Fans?
the regional
Paleogene compressional line as shown
features (gravity driven)
in the foldout,
illustrating
the main
geological
features and
structural
elements.
Mesozoic? compressional
features

Mesozoic rotated
fault blocks

Compression predate
Searcher Seismic

extension
Mesozoic synrift
Source rock?
Saucer-shaped
Coral Sea Breakup volcanic sill
unconformity

GEOExPro May 2018 31

The Malvinas Basin: Revisiting Prospectivity
New regional reprocessed 2D seismic reveals the prospectivity and hydrocarbon potential
offshore Argentina.
DARIUSZ JABLONSKI, Searcher Seismic
Argentina, an area of world class petroleum potential, has sporadic despite early success with the Sea Lion oil
experienced growing demand for high quality, regional datasets discovery. The 2016 Darwin-1 360 MMb condensate-
in advance of upcoming bid rounds. The Malvinas Basin, rich discovery testifies to the high exploration potential
offshore Argentina, appears increasingly promising, as newly in the region. Hydrocarbon occurrences in the area are
reprocessed 2D seismic reveals older play types and source rock widespread at various stratigraphic levels. A vigorous
potential. In this highly prospective region, all exploration play post-well analysis is currently being conducted by
elements – structure, reservoir, seal, source rocks, maturity Searcher Seismic to further understand drilling
and timing – are in place. Both extensional and compressional outcomes within the region.
structural styles exist with multiple stacked reservoir levels and With the approaching bid rounds and the release of
world class oil-prone source rocks. new data offshore Argentina, the future is exciting for
Several prospective play levels have been identified in the exploration in this region. Searcher’s newly reprocessed
Malvinas and surrounding basins in this extensional and seismic will enable more confident identification
compressional setting, including (in order of exploration of hydrocarbon occurrences and exploration plays,
prospectivity): essential for petroleum exploration.
• Valanginian to Albian lacustrine to shallow marine
sandstones, Upper Eocene to Lower Miocene shallow marine
to basin floor sandstones, Middle Miocene to Pliocene
Searcher Seismic

basin floor fan sandstones and Turonian shallow marine

sandstones, all charged by up to six hydrocarbon systems;
• Lower to Middle Jurassic fluvio-deltaic sandstones that
potentially contain age-equivalent Los Molles Formation
source rocks that would provide in-situ charge (a new play in
the Malvinas Basin);
• Upper Cretaceous reefs identified by Geleazzi (1998);
• Upper Jurassic break-up unconformity transgressive
sandstones charged by Los Molles and Vaca Muerta sources;
• Basement highs that may be transgressed by mature Los
Molles Formation.
The Searcher Seismic 2018 broadband pre-stack time
migration (PSTM) reprocessing flow allows for the identification
of these plays. The seismic below demonstrates four different
stratigraphically-aged rifts, each potentially
with mature source rocks, as well as eight Searcher de-ghosted PSTM migration seismic line, illustrating stacked rifts and additional
stratigraphic section of the Early Jurassic and older age, and some of the main plays present
different plays including two new ones in in the Malvinas Basin (Jablonski, 2017).
Upper Jurassic break-up unconformity Turonian & Pliocene Basin
transgressive sandstones and Lower to Younger Floor Fans?

Middle Jurassic fluvio-deltaics with in-situ

Albian to Valanginian
migration from the Los Molles source shefal sandstones

rock equivalent. It is also possible to note

clear differentiation between volcanics Albian-A
ptian

and sediments and between the Upper and

Oxfo
Lower Tobifera Formations.
rdian
-Tith
Basement onia
n

Within the Malvinas and surrounding

on and offshore basins well density is Upper Toarcian
To Callovian

highly variable. Onshore, basins such

as San Jorge and Astral-Magallanes are Lower Tobifera
Upper Tobifera
Volcanics

covered by thousands of wells. However,

Volcanics
Lower
Jurassic
& Older
offshore the well locations are sparse, with Lower to Middle Jurassic
fluvio-deltaics?
Searcher Seismic

most of the exploration drilling completed

in the 1980s. The North Malvinas and
South Malvinas drilling was also relatively

32 GEOExPro May 2018

Globe
Earth’s Evolution
Unlocked for
Better Exploration

To meet the demand for even better decision

making in exploration and new ventures,
Getech’s Globe geoscience Knowledge base
delivers a unique view of the Earth’s evolution
over time and provides new insights into
petroleum development in the world’s
oil & gas basins.

www.getech.com/globe
 Exploration

Czeching It Out:
The Potential of Central Europe
Central Europe has been not only at the forefront of the development of NEIL CARDY
modern geology but has one of the oldest roots of the modern oil industry. Cogent Petroleum
There has been a long history of people Oil from the Carpathians

Przykuta
exploiting hydrocarbon seeps throughout From this simple beginning the oil
Central Europe since Roman times. and gas industry developed across
Staszic’s 1806 map (see GEO ExPro, Central and Eastern Europe, with
Vol. 13, No. 6), for example, identified discoveries from Austria in the west to
numerous oil seeps in the Northern Romania in the east centered around
Carpathians. During the 1850s the Polish the Carpathians. By 1900, Romania was
pharmacist Igancy Lukasiewicz was the largest oil producer in Europe and
experimenting with ‘rock oil’. He was the the third largest in the world, as well
first person to distil crude oil in Poland as the first country to export gasoline.
and developed the first paraffin lamp However, following the Second World
in 1853. In 1854 he opened the world’s War, the region was isolated from the
first ‘oil mine’ at Bóbrka in Poland, rest of the world’s oil industry, which
where the original wells were hand dug has led to it being relatively unknown
and about 1.2 x 1.2m in size. The early today. This isolation has also resulted in
mines or wells were up to 15m deep, the development of national, rather than
but eventually reached depths of 150m, international, names for stratigraphic
and by 1868 there were 60 hand-dug and structural units which makes
An old rig at the Bóbrka petroleum museum in
wells around Bóbrka – two of them are understanding the geology of the region southern Poland.
still in use! The original site is now the more difficult, especially when looking
Igancy Lukasiewicz Museum of the at older maps and reports. Eastern Europe and has a complex
Petroleum Industry (see their website: These hydrocarbon discoveries all geological history. This article gives
www.openairmuseum.pl/skansen/ fall within the Carpathians, which are a simple overview of the geology and
bobrka). In 1856, Lukasiewicz opened the the eastern extension of the European hydrocarbon-producing zones of the
world’s first industrial oil refinery (or oil Alps. This mountainous region spreads region – anything more is beyond the
distillery, to be accurate). across seven countries of Central and scope of even a series of articles.

The Apuseni Mountains in Romania divide the Pannonian and Transylvanian Basins.
Nicu Farcas

34 GEOExPro May 2018

 Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
(modified after Golonka and Picha, 2006)
The Carpathians are typically
composed of three lithological zones:
the outer Flysch foldbelt of sandstone
and shales, a central metamorphic
belt (forming the highest peaks of over
2,500m), and an inner belt of volcanics.
Within this arc are three basins: the
Vienna Basin in Austria, Czech Republic
and Slovakia; the large central Pannonian Simplified geological map of the Carpathians and surrounding area. The Carpathian mountain
range can be seen to form an arc running from west to east through the Czech Republic, Poland,
Basin centered in Hungary; and the Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine and Romania.
Transylvanian Basin in Romania to the
east. These three central basins, along with of Neogene sediment-filled sub-basins petroleum area of the region and the
the outer Flysch zone of the Carpathians which overlie deformed and faulted reservoir rocks reflect the complex
and associated thrust belt, make up the nappes of Mesozoic, Paleozoic and geological history of the area. Around
hydrocarbon provinces of the region. Precambrian rocks, extending some 600 62% of the region’s oil production
km from east to west and 500 km from comes from Tertiary (Neogene and
The Pannonian Basin north to south. The structure of the Paleogene) sediments and a further
The name Pannonian comes from the region is the result of the convergence 24% from Mesozoic carbonates, with
Roman Province of Pannonia which and collision of the European plate with crystalline basement reservoirs making
partially overlapped the basin, although smaller continental plates to the south up a further 5%; 70% of natural gas
in Hungary it is referred to as the during the Cretaceous and Miocene. production is from Tertiary reservoirs.
Carpathian Basin. It is a complex system The basin has been the primary It is common for production

GEOExPro May 2018 35

Exploration

Republic and Slovakia. As with the

Pannonian Basin, production comes
from a range of formations including
fractured Triassic carbonates in the
underlying nappes and multiple mid-
Miocene sandstones.
In 1913 oil was discovered at the
Egbell field in what is now Slovakia but
was then the Austro-Hungarian empire.
In the following years several more
fields were found and in 1949 the largest
oil field in Central Europe, Matzen, was
discovered with total estimated reserves
of 510 MMbo.

Transylvanian Basin
The Transylvanian Basin is the only
one of these hydrocarbon-producing
regions that lies within a single country,
Romania. It is also the only region in the
Drilling rigs in western Galicja in 1881. Now part of Poland, this region included the world’s first ‘oil
mine’ at Bóbrka. Carpathians that produces no oil, but
it represents nearly 70% of Romania’s
to come from multiple zones. For gas field found in 1917 and the first natural gas resources. It is separated
example, the largest oil and gas field commercial oil discovered in 1937. It is from the main Pannonian basin by the
in Hungary, Algyö, produces from estimated that over 5,200 exploratory Apuseni Mountains to the west and is
fractured Paleozoic metamorphics and wells were drilled between 1935 surrounded on all other sides by the
Miocene conglomerate and sandstone. and 1990 in Hungary alone. In 1994 Carpathians. The ranges were uplifted
Elsewhere, there are wells which Hungarian oil production reached an during the Pliocene to Holocene
produce from weathered and fractured all-time high of 46,000 bopd, but since resulting in the shape of the basin.
granites, quartz porphyria, mica and then it has shown a steady decline and Over 7,500m of sediments were
carbonate schists as well as Miocene currently averages around 14,000 bopd. deposited in the deepest parts of the
conglomerates and sandstones. basin near the center and along the
Similarly, there are numerous source The Vienna Oil Basin north-eastern edge. The sediments have
rocks, ranging from Triassic organic- The Vienna Basin is the smallest of been disturbed by the movement of thick
rich shales and marls in the basement the basins within the Carpathians Miocene evaporites which have formed
complex through to Cretaceous and and extends through Austria, Czech salt domes up to 15 km in diameter in
Miocene formations. The Miocene shales
Pumps on the Matzen field in Austria in the Vienna Basin. Discovered in 1949, it is the largest field in
and marls are thought to be the principal
Central Europe.
source of oil and gas in the region.
The Pannonian Basin has relatively

Techcollector
high geothermal gradients, averaging
3.6°C/100m, so these organic-rich
formations generate hydrocarbons
at relatively shallow depths, with oil
typically generated between 2,000
and 2,500m and gas below 5,000m.
It appears that there is considerable
migration both vertically and
horizontally, with the reservoirs often
being found in thermally immature
rocks. Within the basin most oil
reservoirs are between 500m and
2,500m deep and the gas reservoirs
slightly deeper.
Since the first hand-dug wells in the
1850s the area has been extensively
explored and about 500 fields have been
discovered, with the first commercial

36 GEOExPro May 2018

the central part of the basin and north-

Moahim
south diapiric folds along the perimeter.
Unlike the Vienna and Pannonian
Basins, the Transylvanian Basin is the
result of much more localized tectonic
and sedimentary activity. The whole
process of source rock and reservoir
deposition, hydrocarbon generation,
migration and accumulation occurred
during the Miocene and Pliocene.
The source rocks are Miocene
non-marine and brackish water shales
and the gas appears to be generated
from organic material that is dispersed
throughout the formations rather than
from a single rich source rock. The thick The Carpathian National Park in Ukraine.
evaporites that underlie these sediments
effectively separate the basin from there. This has resulted in the molasse thrust over older platforms. This region
any deeper hydrocarbons migrating deposits being integrated into the contains the world’s second largest
from older formations. The reservoirs flysch nappes, forming the complicated producing oil mine at Sarata Monteoru
consist of Miocene to Pliocene marly geological assemblage of the folded and where the oil is produced from galleries
sandstones forming hydrocarbon traps thrusted flysch belt and the overlying 240–320m below the surface. Two
such as domes and anticlines through Carpathian foredeep. petroleum systems have been identified:
salt diaprism of the underlying Miocene the Moesian Platform Composite TPS
evaporites. Several Petroleum Systems and the Dysodile Schist-Tertiary TPS.
The basin has been explored for A number of Total Petroleum Systems The former stretches from the edge
more than a century, with the first (TPS) have been identified over the region. of the flysch zone in the west to the
natural gas being discovered in 1909 In the Northern Carpathians three Black Sea in the east. It contains most
and Romania’s largest natural gas field, separate systems have been identified. of Romania’s oil reserves in Miocene
Deleni, discovered in 1912. The length Moving from north to south and from reservoirs, as well as Triassic, Jurassic
of exploration combined with the young to old, these are: the Isotopically and Cretaceous reservoirs. The younger
geological complexity is thought to limit Light Gas TPS, the Mesozoic-Paleogene Dysodile Schist-Tertiary TPS includes
the number of fields left to discover, Composite TPS, and the Paleozoic Oligocene and Miocene flysch deposits.
although little work has been done on Composite TPS.
the geology below the evaporite layer at The Isotopically Light Gas TPS Great Opportunities
the base of the Neogene. is located within the undisturbed As can be seen from this very brief
Miocene molasse of Austria, Poland and overview of the region, there is a great
The Carpathian Outer Flysch Ukraine and is predominately methane diversity in the geological environments,
This is the outermost zone of the in structural or stratigraphic traps. as well as the types of hydrocarbons,
Carpathians and is 1,300 km long, The Mesozoic-Paleogene Composite both in their formation and preservation.
stretching along the whole length of TPS includes most of the Polish and Central Europe is one of the oldest
the mountain range. It is formed from Ukrainian oil fields that are found both developed oil and gas regions and
Cretaceous and Paleogene sediments – in Paleogene and Cretaceous flysch despite the amount of exploration and
the flysch which have been thrust onto nappes and in the Paleozoic-Mesozoic production that has taken place in the
the European foreland. As the name basement, with Miocene molasse last 164 years there are still fields to be
suggests, flysch is a sequence of repeated deposits often providing the seal. The found. The complexity of the geology of
sedimentary rock layers which were Paleozoic Composite TPS extends the region along with the exploration
deposited on the edge of an orogenic belt. from the eastern Czech Republic along history suggests that there are still likely
They are typically formed by turbidity the Polish border into south-western to be numerous small discoveries to be
currents and the Carpathian Flysch was Ukraine and consists of Paleozoic made. This may not attract the attention
one of the areas where the concept of formations underlying the flysch and of the larger oil companies but could
deepwater turbidites was developed in molasse, which act as a seal. This system potentially offer smaller companies great
the 1950s. is deeper and much less understood opportunities. In addition, there are
The flysch basins were thrust over than the younger, shallower systems. relatively unexplored areas such as below
the stable European platforms during The eastern and southern part of the the evaporites in the Transylvanian
the Cretaceous and Miocene in a series Carpathians borders the Transylvanian Basin or the deep Paleozoic Composite
of nappes which overrode the molasse Basin in Romania. Again, there is a TPS in the northern Carpathians which
deposits that were being deposited series of flysch deposits that have been may offer new prospects.

GEOExPro May 2018 37

GEO Education

Resources Boosted by Billions

Unconventional hydrocarbon volumes have taken the headlines recently
– but how are these figures worked out and why are they so big? TIM DALEY

In March 2016, a small UK plant or animal matter to hydrocarbons. Brent: No Wild Goose Chase
independent oil company announced Crucially, these escape the source If we view an oil field distribution map,
the results of flow tests from their rock and migrate across the strata, using the East Shetland Platform of
Horse Hill-1 discovery well, 60 km reaching porous layers, after which their the northern North Sea as an example
south of London, sparking a fierce buoyancy conveys them upwards, unless (right), we can see the trend of faults
backlash against the vision of an trapped by an impermeable layer. An reflected by the blobs approximating the
American-style frack-fest across the anticline or a tilted fault block can form field outlines, indicating where Jurassic
rural idyll of the Weald (see GEO ExPro such a trap, filling until the fluids spill sands of the Brent Group, segmented
Vol. 13, No. 5). While stressing that no from a leak point into the next structure by tilted fault blocks, are overlain by
rocks had been fracked in the making or onwards up-dip. sealing shales. Take the mighty Brent
of the oil flows, the press release The direct result is that such oil Field, the oil giant whose discovery in
outlined very promising oil rates and gas fields are discrete structures, 1971 set in motion the exploitation of a
from Jurassic strata: 323 bopd from with oil migration focused towards vast new hydrocarbon province (GEO
an established Portland sandstone structural highs or fault blocks. For ExPro Vol. 14, No. 2). During 40 years
play and also 1,365 bopd from two sure, exploration successes are usually of production the field has produced
Kimmeridgian intervals characterized grouped along structural trends that almost 2 Bbo and 6 Tcfg, approximately
as ‘tight’ reservoirs. The latter grabbed are close to and above the mature half and three quarters respectively of
media headlines, as it was revealed that source ‘kitchen’, but otherwise, each the original estimated hydrocarbons
up to 124 Bbo could lie beneath the is individually assessed. The in-place in place. Today, this vast hydrocarbon
commuter belt of southern England. hydrocarbon volume of an undrilled factory is being decommissioned and
Press reports emphasized that this prospect or discovery is essentially a the first of the giant platforms has
is an ‘in-place’ resource estimate of simple calculation of structure volume, arrived on Teeside, north-east England.
all the oil zones encountered and reduced by multiplication to reflect the
would need confirmation from future proportion of net sand thickness and its 2P or Not 2P
drilling results across the 3,266 km 2 porosity, accounting for water content Only now, near the end of Brent’s life,
evaluation area. Even so, how can such and the compression factor related to we can be confident of exactly how
an enormous volume be justified by its depth. Finally, the all-important much oil will be produced – but as
one well, when the latest government recovery factor is applied to provide the geologists we are required to estimate
estimate (2017, UK Oil and Gas reserves figure – those hydrocarbons the producible reserves throughout a
Resources as at end 2016, ogauthority. that can be produced. field’s life. According to the Society of
co.uk) attributes ‘only’ 43.5
Bboe produced to date from
the whole of the UK North
Conventional Oil Play

Daley
Sea?
Anticline trap
Conventional Beginnings
When I started work as a Fault trap 1
Salt dome trap
seismic interpreter in the
Indicative depth in km

mid-1980s, there was only 2

conventional oil and gas
and it was vital that we
learned how to assess for the 3
ingredients and requirements
for an economic oil or gas Oil 4
field, as understood then. A
prerequisite is the presence
Unconformity 5
of a source rock, often a black
shale with a high organic
content, which is gently
heated as it is buried by Seal Salt Reservoir Source rock
sediments, transforming the Oil volume in-place = volume of structure * % net reservoir * porosity * oil saturation

38 GEOExPro May 2018

 UK Oil & Gas Authority
Shale oil assessment area of the Weald Basin, southern England, with inset at roughly the same
scale part of the East Shetland Platform of the northern North Sea with oil fields in green .

Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the industry ‘most likely’ or ‘P50’ result. The low Reservoirs Can be Tight
declared arbiter of such assessments, to case is associated with ‘P90’, for which The Brent Field is an example of how a
be classified as reserves, hydrocarbons there is a 90% chance that the actual good reservoir with 20–25% porosity
must be discovered, recoverable, reserves are higher. The range between can be a prolific producer. Of course,
commercial and remaining. Proven P90 to P10 is routinely used to describe some reservoirs disappoint; the oil may
reserves (1P) are often considered the range of possible reserves from the be there, but stored in smaller pores
to be only those associated with the outcome of a successful exploration of low porosity sandstones which are
forecasted production (decline curves) well. poorly connected, inhibiting the flow of
from wells already on stream. Probable Confusion might arise with this hydrocarbons, quantified by rock core
reserves (proven plus probable, hence usage in the production world. Even measurements as permeability. Such
2P) could include new drilling or well a proven oil reserve can have a low, reservoirs are dubbed ‘tight’; a good
interventions already approved and most likely and high case depending reservoir would have permeabilities of
financed, while possible reserves (3P) on pessimistic or optimistic forecasts tens to hundreds of millidarcys, a tight
include those assessed volumes for of production decline and could be one would be a single millidarcy or less.
which there is not yet a development referred to as P90, P50 or P10 cases. Tight reservoirs have long been
plan. During the life of a field,
reserves initially classified as 2P and SPE Resources classification framework.
3P are developed and re-categorized PRODUCTION

SPE
as 1P before being produced.
COMMERCIAL

Other discovered but undeveloped RESERVES

RESERVES
hydrocarbons are considered contingent
TOTAL PETROLEUM INITIALLY-IN-PLACE (PIIP)

while undrilled structures are indicated 1P

1P 2P
2P 3P
3P
as prospective.
DISCOVERED PIIP

Increasing Chance of Commerciality

However, P also stands for Proved
Proved Probable
Probable Possible
Possible
probability and the market is often
confused between 1P, 2P, 3P versus P90,
CONTINGENT
CONTINGENT
SUB-COMMERCIAL

P50, P10. This confusion arises from RESOURCES

RESOURCES
the exploration practice of assessing
the range of volumes associated
1C
1C 2C
2C 3C
3C
with an undrilled prospect. When
minimum, most likely and maximum
reservoir parameters were multiplied, UNRECOVERABLE

it was realized that the minimum

volume could be minutely small while PROSPECTIVE
PROSPECTIVE
UNDISCOVERED PIIP

RESOURCES
RESOURCES
the result of combining maximum
values correspondingly huge. In a bid
to rationalize results, Monte Carlo Low
Low Best
Best High
High
Estimate
Estimate Estimate
Estimate Estimate
Estimate
simulation is used, in which thousands
of realizations sampled from the range
UNRECOVERABLE
of prospect parameters are plotted and
the resulting probability curve has a Not to scale Range of Uncertainty

GEOExPro May 2018 39

GEO Education

stimulated by hydraulic Unconventional Shale Oil Play

fracking, when water is pumped

Daley
down the well at pressures high
enough to fracture the reservoir
by expanding and extending 1
existing natural fractures,

Indicative depth in km
improving the permeability
by the resulting network of 2
interconnected flow paths.
Outcomes can be further 3
improved if the injection fluid
is charged with proppant, like
4
sand, which props open the
cracks even after the pressure
is relaxed. Such an operation Unconformity 5
can easily require 1.3 million
litres of water, plus a hundred
tonnes of proppant, propelled Mudstone Salt Source rock = shale oil
downhole at pressures of 10,000 mature for oil
psi or greater. Sandstone Source rock
For many years fracking was Shale oil volume in-place = thickness * area where mature * % of bound oil in source shale
limited by drilling technology
to vertical or slanted wells, but since either stored within the micro-porosity the distribution and thickness of the
the turn of the century, the impact of or chemically bonded (‘adsorbed’) to the objective shales and outlining where
this operation has been transformed organic constituent of the source rock. they are both mature for hydrocarbon
by its deployment in horizontal In either case, they remain in-situ and generation and have the required brittle
wells. The ability to drill and frack do not flow, even when their confining property. The mapped area of each
multiple intervals along the target pressure is liberated by the drill bit. Cue prospective interval is continuous across
strata has enabled the development hydraulic fracking, which releases the the fairway (in contrast to conventional
of hydrocarbons from previously hydrocarbons from along horizontal oil fields) and characterized by barrels
unpromising reservoirs. boreholes, and we have the basis of the stored per unit area.
unconventional shale resources. So, in the case of the Horse Hill-1
Now Source is Reservoir To determine the amount of oil and tight reservoirs, the prospective areas
Although I had worked on numerous gas in place for the prospective shale and parameters of the various target
tight reservoirs through my career, beds, we must estimate the proportions shales and tight limestones were mapped
never did I think that the source rock of free (but tightly held) and adsorbed and aggregated beneath the Weald.
itself could become prospective. It hydrocarbons. The former is derived The reported result gives an average of
seemed that, while highly organic from bulk density on wireline logs 38 MMb/km2 across an area of 3,266
shales could source oil, they are also the and the latter by assessing the total km2 – hence 124 Bbo in place. It is by
archetypal seal beds, being minutely organic content, preferably calibrated to its nature a widespread resource and
grained and impermeable. But it has measurements from rock core. Crucially, awaiting confirmation drilling, but the
turned out that the right sort of shale, when estimating the volume potential volumes certainly catch the headlines,
preferably brittle or riddled with for a shale play, the hydrocarbons particularly if fracking is to be employed.
fissures, can be exploited commercially are attached to the reservoir and
when stimulated by hydraulic fracking. not constrained to structural highs. Recovery Position
The hydrocarbons in such rocks are Play areas are defined by mapping The oil industry of the USA has been
transformed by shale and fracking;
Brent Delta being decommissioned at Teeside in October 2017.
oil production has been boosted by
over 4 MMbopd and unconventional
Daley

plays are contributing half the gas

currently produced by the country.
The technology, however, requires
intense operations; horizontal wells
are sequentially fracked in 6 to 12
sections and 6 to 8 wells are typically
drilled from each well pad, with some
provinces drilling a thousand or more
such wells a year. Individual well

40 GEOExPro May 2018

flows tend to decline quite rapidly, so recover a billion. An optimistic view of and political factors will dominate any
continued new drilling is required to the average cumulative production per development plan.
keep production rates at a plateau. And well of a million barrels would require Now that the Brent Delta platform is
all this effort typically recovers 3–6% of 1,000 wells to be drilled from over a on view in Teeside, we can get a sense
oil or 15–25% of gas originally in place, hundred well pads. While the drilling of the scale of development it took to
much less than conventional reservoirs. operation is time-limited compared produce the North Sea resources that
But how would reserves be assigned to production, the public perception were comfortably out of sight. The trouble
for such a widespread resource? The use around water usage, gas leakage and with onshore developments is that they
of decline curves is still preferred to induced earthquakes will provide fertile are always in someone’s backyard; the
define proven reserves but they require ground for a ferocious opposition, scale required to develop shale plays in
careful calibration, as many producing even before discussions against the the UK will take some hiding.
wells experience a precipitous fall continued development of fossil fuels. Sources: UK Oil and Gas plc website,
in flow before a stable, low rate is Today’s estimates of what oil might be UK Oil and Gas Authority; SPE 2011:
established. In 2011 the SPE updated produced could only be considered as Guidelines for Application of the Petroleum
their guidance for reserve estimates, ‘technically recoverable’, as the economic Resources Management System.
suggesting that probable reserves for
Anti-fracking protest near the Horse Hill site in 2015 – despite assertions that fracking would not be used.
shale gas could include 2 or 3 drill
locations beyond current production,
© Copyright Ian Capper

as long as they lay within a contiguous

and appraised region. Likewise, possible
reserves could extend the probable area
in a similar manner.

In Plain Sight
If I were to speculate that just the tight
Kimmeridgian limestones that flowed
in Horse Hill-1 were the primary
interest, development of the cited 20
Bb in place across the region might

GEOExPro May 2018 41

 GEO Tourism

Rocky Mountain High:

Aspen, Colorado
Aspen’s superlative alpine scenery, the result of the region’s fortuitous location during
multiple orogenies, draws jet-setters from around the globe and presents geologists
with a tantalizing puzzle to deduce when and why these beautiful mountains arose.
LON ABBOTT and TERRI COOK
In 1879, intrepid miners searching for gold and silver high in Hunter S. Thompson, whose run for sheriff in 1970 cemented
central Colorado’s mountains braved the dangerous climb the town’s reputation as a countercultural mecca, were among
up and over the Continental Divide. As they descended the its most famous residents.
western slopes, the men discovered the Roaring Fork Valley, Today the town continues to draw a steady stream of
a region of soaring, crimson-colored peaks surrounded by movie stars, musicians, and executives. Aspen is so popular,
lush, green vales incised by crystal-clear streams. The area’s and buildable land so scarce, that its real estate is among the
rich ores quickly attracted thousands of people. In just over a most expensive in the U.S., with a median house price of $2.6
decade the main settlement, which was soon renamed Aspen, million. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a multi-millionaire
surged to nearly 12,000 people, and its silver production to immerse yourself in the region’s spectacular scenery.
assumed global importance. Although the town’s population Several short excursions, including the highest paved crossing
plummeted after the price of silver crashed during the panic of North America’s Continental Divide, bring visitors face
of 1893, the foundations had been laid for one of the Rockies’ to face with beautiful views and the chance to examine the
poshest and most celebrated resort towns. geologic upheavals that have transpired during the last 300
In 1950, just three years after Aspen Mountain opened million years to produce the town’s historic mining wealth
its first ski lift, the town became the first site outside Europe and its modern ‘white gold’ – powder skiing.
to host the World Alpine Championships, an event that put
this surprisingly laid-back town squarely on the jet-set map. The Maroon Bells: Ancestral Rockies’ Legacy
Singer-songwriter John Denver, who made Aspen famous with The gorgeous Maroon Bells, a pair of 14,000-foot-high
‘Rocky Mountain High’ and other tunes, and ‘gonzo’ journalist (4,260m), bell-shaped peaks south-west of Aspen, are an icon

Aspen, one of the Rockies’ most affluent resort towns, was originally founded by silver miners.
Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

42 GEOExPro May 2018

 Glenwood

©2018 Google. Image: Landsat / Copernicus

Springs

of Colorado’s alpine grandeur. The Mount Sopris

sight of the bells’ scarlet slopes
mirrored in the still waters of
Maroon Lake, especially during the Aspen
fall when the valley’s dense groves
of aspen trees glow golden yellow The
and the summits are dusted with Grottos
Ashcroft Independence
snow, is among North America’s Pass
Maroon Bells
most photographed vistas. Maroon
Lake is a 10 km shuttle-bus drive,

➤
bike ride, or cross-country ski jaunt
up a beautiful glacial valley from
30 km N
© 2018 Google

the Aspen Highlands ski area. Image Landsat / Copernicus

The Maroon Bells, like many peaks in the Elk Range west so the Precambrian crystalline rocks underlay a notably
of Aspen, have a distinctively different appearance compared thin sedimentary section that was quickly eroded, thereby
to most Colorado peaks because they consist of layered producing Colorado’s quintessential crystalline peaks. But in
sedimentary rocks rather than the more typical Precambrian the Aspen area, the Laramide rise of the Elk Range inverted
granite and gneiss. The reasons for this difference relate to the Central Colorado Trough, whose layered rocks, most
the geographies and tectonic styles during two different prominently the deep red Maroon Formation, comprise most
mountain-building episodes – the 300 Ma Ancestral Rockies of the range’s spectacular peaks, including the Maroon Bells.
Orogeny and the 70–40 Ma Laramide Orogeny, the seminal
event that determined the location of today’s mountains. Independence Pass: Roof of the Rockies
Transpressional faulting during the former raised The drive east of Aspen up to Independence Pass, the crest of the
two ranges — an eastern one located on the footprint Sawatch Range, the largest and tallest of Colorado’s Laramide
of the modern Front Range, just west of the capital city ranges, ascends the highest paved crossing of North America’s
of Denver, and a western one that ran from modern-day Continental Divide. Deep snow closes the pass each winter, but
Grand Junction to Durango. Although the entire Paleozoic its snaking switchbacks, narrow pavement, and spectacular
sedimentary section was eroded from both ranges to scenery make it a great summer driving or cycling adventure.
expose the Precambrian Unlike the crystalline peaks that comprise most of the Colorado Rockies, the Maroon Bells are carved from
crystalline bedrock, these distinctive synorogenic sedimentary rocks deposited in a trough between two Ancestral Rocky Mountain ranges.
rocks were preserved in
the intramontane lowland
known as the Central
Colorado Trough, in which
Aspen lies. The synorogenic
Maroon Formation was
added on top, resulting in a
five-km-thick sedimentary
sequence in the Trough.
The next major tectonic
event to affect Colorado,
during the latest Cretaceous
and early Tertiary, was
the Laramide Orogeny.
Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

Most of the discrete ranges

built during this event
rose in approximately
the same location as the
earlier Ancestral ranges,

GEOExPro May 2018 43

GEO Tourism
Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

The drive over Independence Pass, the Continental Divide’s highest paved crossing, offers tantalizing scenery and the chance to reconstruct key events
that shaped the southern Rockies.

A trip over Independence Pass also provides an After a kilometer the granite gives way to welded tuff as you
opportunity to track some of the key tectonic events that cross the ring fracture of the 34 Ma Grizzly Peak Caldera,
shaped today’s southern Rockies. By the Jurassic, erosion had one of the numerous rhyolitic and andesitic volcanoes that
erased the last vestiges of the Ancestral Rockies topography, erupted across the Colorado Rockies between 37–24 million
and subduction had commenced along the west coast of North years ago. The cause of this so-called ‘Ignimbrite Flare-up’
America. That plate compression initiated the Sevier Orogeny, in the aftermath of the Laramide Orogeny is yet another
producing a series of fold-and-thrust belts that stretch from tectonic puzzle.
the Canadian Rockies in the north to western Arizona in
the south. Colorado, by contrast, was a lowland traversed by Ashcroft: Ghosts of the Past
sluggish, meandering rivers. After a Cretaceous rise in eustatic The ghost town of Ashcroft, located along the Castle Creek
sea level flooded that lowland, Colorado became part of the Road south of Aspen, is one of the best places to explore the
Western Interior Seaway, in which more than two kilometers Aspen area’s rich mining legacy. The town was built during a
of marine shale accumulated. Those marine rocks host many two-week period in 1880 by a group of intrepid prospectors
of Colorado’s most important oil and gas systems, including in led by ‘Crazy’ Charles Culver and W.F. Coxhead. By 1883, the
the Denver Basin and the Piceance Basin west of Aspen. camp had a population of close to 2,000 and hosted a school,
One puzzling attribute of the Laramide Orogeny is the fact sawmills, and 20 saloons. Although Ashcroft’s initial silver
that deformation in Colorado occurred 1,000 km from the production was fantastic, the deposits were shallow, and big
active tectonic boundary in California. Geologists explain strikes in Aspen soon lured away most of the inhabitants. By
this unusually large gap between trench and mountains by the turn of the 20th century, only a handful of single men
invoking nearly flat subduction of the Farallon Plate, which remained, and they reportedly spent most of their days in the
produced a compressional stress field unusually far to the east. local bar rather than working their claims. By 1939, all of the
The Sawatch Range consists of a large anticlinal arch original inhabitants had passed away. Today, visitors can stroll
bounded on the west by the Castle Creek reverse fault that past more than a dozen false-fronted buildings, labeled with
lies just west of Aspen. The Independence Pass road ascends interpretive signs, to learn more about the silver camp’s history.
the dome’s western flank, with the drive affording sweeping The rich silver lodes in Ashcroft, Aspen, and other nearby
alpine vistas of the range’s Precambrian granites. The pass camps all formed when magma bodies and accompanying
stands a lofty 12,095 ft (3,687m) above sea level. After you mineralized fluids intruded the crust during the Laramide
catch your breath, it’s worth strolling along the gentle trail Orogeny. They are part of a belt of Laramide-age plutons
that traverses the wildflower-filled tundra south of the pass. called the Colorado Mineral Belt. Although such magmatic

44 GEOExPro May 2018

belts commonly form during orogenies, they are usually
oriented perpendicular to the subduction direction.
Paradoxically, the Colorado Mineral Belt is oriented
north-east – south-west, parallel to the direction of plate
subduction. This unusual alignment presents yet another
puzzle associated with the Laramide Orogeny that geologists
continue to grapple with.

Fruits of a Hot Mantle

As puzzling as many Laramide characteristics are, these
attributes form just part of the riddle that scientists have yet
to solve to explain why Colorado even hosts mountains today.
Several lines of evidence indicate the Colorado Rockies cannot
be explained solely as the result of the Laramide Orogeny.
There’s no better locale to contemplate this puzzle than the
world’s largest hot springs pool at the historic Glenwood Hot
Springs Resort, located adjacent to the Colorado River in
Glenwood Springs, 65 km from Aspen.
The pool’s water is derived from the Yampah Spring, which
issues 8,500 liters per minute at a toasty 50°C. The mineral-
rich water is then diluted to 34°C in the main pool. According
to both heat flow and seismic data, these and many other hot
springs scattered throughout the Colorado Rockies are the
product of unusually warm mantle underlying this region.
Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

It is this warm, buoyant mantle that supports the state’s

high topography, not the typical crustal root that sustains
most other compressional mountain ranges. Seismic data
reveal the absence of a root beneath the Colorado Rockies,
and structural studies document 10–20% crustal shortening
during the Laramide. Isostatic calculations indicate that The Roaring Fork River tumbles over Precambrian granite at The
mountains produced by such modest crustal shortening and Grottos along the drive up Independence Pass, which climbs over the
thickening would, on average, be only half as high as today’s Laramide-age Sawatch anticline.
average 3,000m-high range.
Although scientists generally agree that Colorado’s the modern mountains rose. Mount Sopris, the summit that
mountains are supported by warm, buoyant mantle, they dominates the vista on the return drive to Aspen, illustrates
lack consensus regarding when that mantle heated up and the crux of this debate. It is one of several impressive Elk
Range peaks that consist of light gray,
The Aspen area’s dramatic scenery is enhanced by the stark contrast between the Maroon 34-million-year-old granite. Those
Formation’s vivid red sedimentary rocks and numerous light-gray middle Cenozoic intrusions, one
of which is Mount Sopris, the peak on the left skyline.
plutons likely formed in magma
chambers that fed Ignimbrite Flare-up
volcanoes similar to the Sawatch
Range’s Grizzly Peak Caldera. Many
scientists argue that mid-Tertiary
mantle heating is what produced the
huge volume of magma that fed the
Flare-up, as well as the rise of the
modern Colorado Rockies due to
associated thermal expansion. But other
scientists who note that a vigorous
cycle of erosion commenced across the
region sometime between 5–10 million
years ago argue that mountain uplift in
response to mantle heating at that time
Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

is likely what triggered that erosion.

Contemplation of these tectonic
puzzles provides geologists with an
added incentive to relax in and enjoy
Aspen’s captivating alpine scenery.

GEOExPro May 2018 45

Industry Issues

Commercializing LAURA ROBERTS

PDS Group

Bright Ideas How easy is it to translate academic

research into a commercial business?

Oil company sponsorship of applied expertise, including: industry downturn, driven by a strong
geosciences research is undergoing a • In-depth commercial understanding desire to improve the technologies
renaissance after the past few years of the petrotechnical software market, used by geoscientists, especially in the
of drought and doubt. Given the particularly in view of disruptive reservoir modeling space, Viki O’Connor
competitive drivers of sponsoring changes caused by cloud-hosting and and Ben Meyer quit their day jobs and
companies, however, is this really next-generation data sciences platforms; set about engaging with various groups
effective in generating innovative • Petrotechnical software R&D by looking to commercialize their R&D. To
technologies which can become robust teams with the experience and most of their colleagues (and a fairly large
commercial products, readily accessible insight required to turn raw academic subset of their friends and families), their
by industry professionals from research into robust, affordable venture seemed foolhardy. But tapping
mainstream modeling platforms? E&P products; into their network proved fruitful and
has a reputation as a sluggish adopter • Commercial leadership able to they were surprised by the number of
of new technologies – but there are execute effective marketing strategies opportunities that presented themselves.
some barriers to change. There’s no lack and complex enterprise sales; One such opportunity was the chance
of ideas, and anyone with professional • Organizational maturity and financial to work with world-class researchers
geomodeling experience will admit to resources sufficient to engage and at the University of Leeds, who wanted
frustration with the status quo. The real support the global market. to explore the commercial applications
challenge in translating good academic So, how to take the first steps? Read of the sedimentological databases they
research into commercially viable the experience of a couple of geologists had developed, including the Fluvial
offerings is that it requires sustained taking theirs! Architecture Knowledge Transfer System
resource commitment and the skillful (FAKTS), Shallow Marine Knowledge
orchestration of multi-disciplinary Applying Clastic Analogs Store (SMAKS) and Deep Marine
teams with broad-ranging skills and Around the low point of the recent Knowledge Store (DMAKS).

How do you inform geomodels using analog observations in a consistent, auditable and repeatable fashion?

46 GEOExPro May 2018

 S. Cobain
Google Earth 39°29’S 65°34’W
The laterally accreting macroform – a sedimentological feature on the architectural element scale. (a) Modern example – Rio Negro, Argentina; (b) Ancient
example – Karoo Basin, South Africa. The geometries and statistics of the neighboring elements are stored within the University of Leeds databases.

During their previous careers, Ben Ben and Viki were quickly able to find the FAKTS database in 2016, PDS Group
and Viki’s work had largely focused a suitable partner. PDS Group has a launched the product in April 2017 as
on identifying the weaknesses and long-standing reputation for delivering Ava Clastics: a technology that facilitates
limitations of existing geomodeling software solutions for the oil and gas the effective application of analog
software and developing solutions, industry and their leadership team, databases to reservoir models. “Users of
integrating them into existing headed up by Group Managing Director, Ava Clastics will have seamless access
mainstream platforms like Petrel™ Steve Daum, were supportive of their to a rich set of analogs, delivered via
(*Mark of Schlumberger). The venture. The pair joined PDS in 2016 to user-friendly, commercial software. This
opportunity to collaborate with the work directly with their engineering, will enable them to interrogate the data
researchers was appealing because marketing and sales teams to turn the intelligently, asking contingent ‘what
applied sedimentological research concept into a commercial product. if’ questions to improve geomodeling
continues to have far-reaching “Collaboration between academia accuracy,” says Professor Bill McCaffrey,
implications for industries undertaking and industry partners is vital for the Director of the Turbidites Research
subsurface geological modeling; in acceleration of technology application Group at the University of Leeds.
particular, the improved definition of the in upstream E&P workflows, and we The University scientists then signed
uncertainty space through more realistic are very excited to represent Leeds’ an extended agreement with PDS
representation of sedimentary bodies world-class clastic databases,” explains Group to commercialize the other two
can support more robust exploration Steve. “Augmenting and enhancing databases, which enabled the inclusion
and development decisions. They saw them with intuitive workflows will help of SMAKS into Ava Clastics in late 2017,
the potential of these databases for E&P operators improve their ability which will be followed later in 2018 by
tackling some of the known pain-points to predict what lies between their the addition of DMAKS, thus completing
of existing geomodeling tools, primarily wells, reducing uncertainty through the original vision for the product.
the structured application of databases geologically-grounded facies modeling.” “It is an exceptional achievement
of clastic sedimentary analogs to directly Following an initial agreement with on the part of the academics that
inform both existing and potentially the University of Leeds researchers for they’ve been able to align the interests
new facies modeling algorithms and
The team at the launch of Ava Clastics in Houston 2017.
approaches.
The initial product vision would
PDS Group

allow them to target these well-known

bottlenecks; however, the pair needed
a commercial partner to bring the
product concept to life.

Finding a Partner
“When we sat down together and
sketched out our initial ideas for the
Leeds researchers, we could see the
potential of the opportunity, but needed
help to tackle the four key challenges of
commercialization,” explains Ben, now
Managing Director of PDS UK.
It was through their network that

GEOExPro May 2018 47

Industry Issues

a gap in the market for a technology that

PDS Ava Clastics (PDS Group)

would address this problem from the
perspective of the geologist.
As a result, in May 2018 PDS will
be launching Ava Saturation, realizing
Matt’s ambition to provide geologists
with direct support for this critical part
of the E&P workflow. Building on the
experiences of the Ava Clastics team
taking their product to market, Matt
and his team are looking forward to the
market response to their new technology.
“As a geologist who has worked for
many years for operators of all sizes, I
became frustrated by the ad hoc and
repetitive nature of saturation modeling
workflows. I often asked myself if there
was a better way than working with
laborious spreadsheets or trying to use
Generating realistic sedimentary architectures within reservoir models. A result from Ava Clastics, other software applications designed
shown in Petrel™ (Registered trademark of Schlumberger).
for users from other disciplines,” Matt
of different research groups to deliver Bridging the Gap explains. “PDS has enabled me to
these databases,” says Viki, who is now Following the launch of Ava Clastics develop my initial ideas and work with
Director – Geoscience International for in early 2017, PDS were approached by people with different skillsets to create
PDS. “It also shows that a commercial a number of groups and individuals an elegant solution which will appeal
company like PDS can work successfully interested in their ability to deliver high to geologists like me. I’m excited by the
with universities to incorporate their quality solutions to market quickly. impending product launch!”
academically developed products into a One of these individuals, Matt Bowyer, “We hope to continue broadening
compelling commercial business.” had developed an idea for a product our footprint in the geomodeling
based around an underserved but space,” adds Viki. “We really think that
Successful Collaboration critical reservoir modeling workflow, now is the perfect time to embrace
“The joint-venture between researchers namely water saturation modeling. The emerging technologies, both within
from the University of Leeds and derivation and application of saturation the domain and externally, blending
PDS Group shows how a carefully height functions is often left to the these with expert geological insight to
balanced collaboration can result in the production geologist, with no clear audit impact the bottom line. There are so
successful commercialization of world- trail linking the hard work done by the many groups out there with great ideas
class research,” says Bill. petrophysicist to the final results utilized and we look forward to collaborating
In the long term, the PDS team see by the reservoir engineer. Matt identified with them in the years to come.”
many opportunities emerging from their
ongoing partnership with the University Structured incorporation of available log data can support efficient saturation modeling workflows.
of Leeds. Ben believes that “the next step
should be to try and move beyond making PDS Ava Saturation (PDS Group)

representations of facies assemblages and

make data-supported representations of
depositional systems at different scales
to inform many workflows, including
intelligent upscaling and process-
modeling. With their source-to-sink
approach, the researchers will continue
to produce an understanding of these
systems in the rock record, which we can
then tie into E&P workflows.” From the
university’s perspective, Rachael Spraggs,
Executive Director, Petroleum Leeds, says
“we’re excited about Ava in its own right,
because its success will confirm Leeds
as a place where world class research,
innovation and impact coincide.”

48 GEOExPro May 2018

New Light on
!

Offshore northern Argentina has attracted very little industry interest over the years. A lack of success
!
! ! !
!
!

in exploration campaigns in the late 1960s and mid-1990s can now be largely attributed to a lack of Map showing
!

Argentina deepwater
understanding of rift basin/rifted volcanic margin architecture and to inadequate acquisition and imaging Argentina survey outline.
technology. Recent billion barrel discoveries in analogous basins on the Atlantic margin, utilizing state-
! !
!
!
! !
! !

Northern Argentina
! !

of-the-art seismic and drilling technology with current geological concepts on source rock and reservoir
!
!
!

! !
!

development, suggest this underexplored part of the world could be one of the last frontiers for both
!
!

shallow and deepwater exploration. !

A subset of 22 lines from a new long-offset 2D exploration survey acquired from 2017 to 2018 was used in
this analysis, along with shipborne and regional satellite-derived gravity and magnetic data. The available
New seismic data offshore Argentina reveals extraordinary seismic data was a mixture of conventional and broadband PSTM and PSDM processing offering greatly
enhanced imaging, which is essential for future exploration on this margin. Acquisition of the full dataset !! !
!
!

structures in an underexplored region.

!!! ! !
! !!
!
!
!!
!
!! ! !!!
!! !!
!
! ! !

was completed in April 2018, with final processing scheduled for delivery in late Q2 2018.
!
! !
!! !
!
!

0 137.5 275 550

km

Top Cretaceous
!
!!

Clinoforms
Mixed turbidite-contourite systems
in Cretaceous package

Break-up Unconformity

>2,500m post-rift
cover in deep basin

Aptian source?

Syn-rift source?

Syn-rift filled half graben associated with transfer zone

50 GEOExPro May 2018 GEOExPro May 2018 52

A Hibernating Giant?
The new long-offset data reveals insights into crustal architecture.
HANNAH KEARNS, KARYNA RODRIGUEZ and STEVE DEVITO, Spectrum
Northern Argentina has a continental volcanic rifted relationship as well as the uneroded anticlines may act as
margin, segmented by major transfer zones which reflect hydrocarbon traps sourced by Permian, Carboniferous,
the pre-existing Gondwanan structural fabric. The and Early Cretaceous syn-rift source rocks.
individual rift basins along this margin initially formed The Colorado and Salado Basins that formed following
from intracratonic rifting within the paleo-continent north-west to south-east extension prior to the east/west
of Gondwana during the middle Mesozoic, and evolved extension that resulted in the opening of the South Atlantic
into a true passive margin following the separation of the can be clearly seen superimposed on the predominantly
South American plate from the African plate in the early compressional pre-rift architecture (see figure top of page
Cretaceous. The evolution of the Argentine margin was 54). Multiple syn-rift packages within grabens are well
far more complex than had been previously understood. imaged on these lines and have been recorded in wells.
Only 26 exploration wells have been drilled on the
northern margin (north of 47°S), with none in water
depths greater than 100m and all located at least 15
License Round Information
km inboard from the continental shelf edge. The last In December 2017, the Argentine Ministerio de Energía
offshore well in this area (Pejerrey x-1) was drilled by y Minería previewed the first new offshore Argentina
Shell in 1997. During the mid-1990s, a handful of wells license round in more than 20 years. In 2018 two large
were drilled, mostly by major oil companies, without any areas will be opened to tender: the northern deepwater
commercial success. Argentina Basin and the offshore Austral and Malvinas
Recent academic work has focused on understanding Basins. This will be followed in 2019 by a license round
the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean, rifted margins, covering the southern deepwater Argentina Basin.
and ocean basins. This work, combined with industry For the northern deepwater Argentina Basin and the
exploration in other deepwater, rifted passive margins Austral and Malvinas Basins, the official opening is
around the world, has led to a much better perception of planned for July 2018, with bids due in late November
the Argentine margin for future exploration. 2018. Final regulations on qualification, block size,
work programs and fiscal terms will be published with
Seismic Observations the official declaration.
Crustal Architecture: Long-offset seismic data acquired

MINEM license round preview, December 2017

with a 12 km cable has enhanced the Moho signature
significantly. Interpretation of the Moho has allowed
us to develop conclusions about the nature of the crust
and the position of the continent ocean transition zone
(COT). Seaward Dipping Reflector (SDR) zones are easy
to distinguish on the high quality seismic dataset and the
varying acoustic signature and thickness of different SDR
packages allow us to make inferences about the volume of
magmatism at the time of rifting. Transfer zones observed
on strike lines cut by numerous strike-slip faults appear
to correlate with thinning and offsetting of these volcanic
SDR packages. The imaging at depth outboard in the deep
basin is of high quality, allowing clear identification of SDRs
quenched by first flooding and the onset of oceanic crust.
Pre-Rift Structuration – Shallow Water Potential:
Pre-rift structuration is associated with orogenic events
from the Neoproterozoic, Cambro-Ordovician and the
Permian. Onshore, in the Sierras Australes, pre-rift
rocks exhibit box fold structures which evidence these
compressional events, and we can trace similar events
in the seismic data extending into the offshore region.
Many structures have been eroded at the break-up
unconformity level but the forelimbs and backlimbs of
the folds are still present. This truncated stratigraphic

GEOExPro May 2018 53

Post-Rift Deposition – SW NE
Deepwater Potential:
Further offshore there Top K C
Breakup U/
is seismic evidence
that tilted fault blocks
are present inboard
from the inner SDR
packages, and a Kudu-
Top Paleozoic
type play may exist
within continental sands
interbedded with flood
basalts, sourced by syn- Paleozoic Cape Fold Belt thrusts?
or pre-rift organic-rich
sediments. Just above the Moho clearly imaged
break-up unconformity
we can identify a thin,
acoustically opaque
but laterally extensive
package which bears a
striking resemblance to Strike line showing the Colorado Basin.
the prolific Aptian-age
source rock on the conjugate Namibian and South African periods where ocean currents were apparently much weaker
margins (see main foldout line). Approximately 2,500m in the Paleogene and Cenomanian-Turonian, when the
of post-rift cover is present in the deep basin, providing depositional environment in the deepwater setting would
sufficient burial for source rocks to mature. have been ideal for source rock deposition.
This presents a case for a high quality source rock with
sufficient burial depth to generate hydrocarbons overlain Extraordinary Structures Revealed
by numerous stacked, mixed turbidite-contourite drift Newly acquired long-offset seismic data offshore Argentina
mounds and confined channel complexes throughout the reveals extraordinary structures in a margin that has
Cretaceous and Cenozoic. These clearly demonstrate the remained underexplored. The potential for deepwater
alternating dominant bottom current directions at the source rocks is ever-present, and the data provides exciting
time of deposition (see below). Drift mounds comprise insights into the pre-Cretaceous continuation of the Cape
predominantly muddy, fine-grained silty sediments, whereas Fold belt from South Africa, with excellent images of rift
the intervening confined channel complexes are likely grabens and large contourite deposits. The upcoming
to consist of coarse-grained well-sorted sands with high licensing round in May 2018 has the potential to make
net:gross – ideal reservoirs for hydrocarbon accumulations. Argentina the new South American giant in oil and gas
Acoustically opaque packages are also identifiable during exploration.
Deepwater strike line flattened on Top Cretaceous, showing the migrating Cretaceous channel complexes and changing bottom current directions.

54 GEOExPro May 2018

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Recent Advances in Technology

Finite Difference Modeling: Part I

Become Expert in Five Minutes
LASSE AMUNDSEN,
I recoil with dismay and horror at this lamentable plague ØRJAN PEDERSEN, and
of functions which do not have derivatives. MARTIN LANDRØ
Letter to Dutch mathematician Thomas Joannes Stieltjes (1856–1894) from
French mathematician Charles Hermite (1822–1901).

Newton, 1666: Leibniz, 1674: Landrø, 2014:

“I’ve invented calculus!” “I’ve invented calculus!” “Really? Sounds a little bit… derivative.”

The history of calculus does not begin with the findings of the English mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1726) and the German philosopher
and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). Their calculus was the culmination of centuries of work by many mathematicians. Newton and
Leibniz argued over who had first invented calculus: Newton made his discoveries in 1664–1666, but his findings were not published until 1693. Leibniz worked
between 1672 and 1676, but published the results in 1684–1686, before Newton. In 1711, the controversy was taken to court. The Royal Society appointed a
commission to investigate the charges, which found Leibniz guilty of plagiarism; perhaps not that surprising since Newton was the president of the Royal
Society. Years after Leibniz’s death, the mathematical community came to realize that Newton and Leibniz had made their discoveries independently.

In computational mathematics, finite-difference (FD) methods difference schemes as applied to linear partial differential
are numerical methods for solving differential equations by equations. In 1949 he worked with meteorologists Jule Charney
approximating them with difference equations, in which finite (1917–1981) and Ragnar Fjørtoft (1913–1998) on numerical
differences approximate the derivatives. Many outstanding weather prediction, and von Neumann’s Fourier method was
texts have stimulated the development of the calculus of given a rigorous treatment in their joint publication in the
finite differences. One of the first, presented in a form suited periodical Tellus (Charney et al., 1950).
to the needs of students and teachers, is that by the English For hyperbolic equations the FD method has played and is
mathematician George Boole (1815–1864), who published the still playing a dominant role, starting with the work of, e.g.,
Treatise on Differential Equations in 1859, followed in 1860 by Friedrichs, Lax, and Wendroff in the 1950s and 1960s (Lax,
the Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences. 1954; Lax, 1961; Lax and Wendroff, 1964). Standard references
In 1928, the German-born American mathematician on FD methods are the books of Forsythe and Wasow (1960)
Richard Courant (1888–1972) published the theoretical and Richtmyer and Morton (1967).
fundament for the solution of problems of mathematical Today, FD methods are the dominant approach to
physics by means of finite differences. Among other things, numerical solutions of partial differential equations
Courant and coworkers defined the FD approximation for the (Grossmann et al., 2007). For wave equations solved in
wave equation, and the famous Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy seismics, the FD method is accurate and robust (Fornberg,
(CFL) condition – a necessary condition for convergence 1988; Etgen et al., 2009; Robertsson and Blanch, 2011; Ikelle
while solving partial differential equations numerically by the and Amundsen, 2018). We note that the FD method was
method of finite differences. introduced in 1966 by Yee to discretize the differential form of
Considerable progress in FD methods was made during and Maxwell’s equations. Alterman and Karal (1968), Boore (1970,
after WWII, when practical applications became possible with 1972), and Kelly et al. (1976) then applied the FD method
the use of computers. John von Neumann (1903–1957), the applied to seismology and seismics. They used a displacement
Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, and computer formulation with conventional grids, which yielded
scientist, developed the von Neumann stability analysis, known instability problems in models with high-velocity contrasts.
as Fourier stability analysis, used to check the stability of finite Virieux (1984, 1986) introduced the stable staggered-grid

56 GEOExPro May 2018

velocity-stress FD schemes, following Madariaga (1976) In the limit we obtain the derivative:
who introduced the staggered-grid formulation for dynamic
modeling of earthquake ruptures.
We can now reveal the inner secrets of finite-difference
High School Math experts. The approach they take to solve differential equations
Calculus (from Latin calculus, literally ‘small pebble’; the is simply to approximate differential operators such as by a
small stone the ancient Romans used in counting and difference operator such as:
gambling) is the mathematical study of continuous change.
One way to think of calculus is as the study of functions of
time or of space. There are two different types of calculus, for some small but finite Δt. Likewise, they approximate by:
differential calculus and integral calculus. Differential
calculus divides functions into different pieces and tells us
how they change from one moment to the next. Integral
calculus joins or integrates the small pieces together and However, due to the discretization of the functions, the
tells us how much of something is made by a series of difference approximation makes an error. The error for the
changes. first derivative of f=t 3 , as seen in equation 2, is 3tΔt + (Δt)2.
In high school, you learn that differential calculus is We will return to these errors in Part II of the series.
concerned with finding the instantaneous rate of change
(i.e., derivative) of a function’s value, with respect to changes The Wave Equation
within the function’s arguments. The derivative of a function The laws of physics are generally written down as differential
with respect to a variable is denoted, after Leibniz, by: equations, or relations involving rates at which things happen;
that is, derivatives. A differential equation expresses a
relationship between a function and its derivatives. If we know
where f represents the pressure field in acoustics and t the the function and its derivatives at a particular point or time,
time. When a derivative is taken twice, the notation is: then this information, together with the differential equation,
can be used to determine the function over its entire domain.
One example is the wave equation. It is a second-order linear
partial differential equation which describes how waves, such as
When the function f(t,x) depends on more than one variable, sound, light and water waves, travel. The French mathematician
a partial derivative: Jean le Rond d’Alembert (1717–1783) was the first to find and
solve the 1D wave equation – now known as d’Alembert’s
solution in his honor. Ten years later, Leonhard Euler (1707–
is used to specify the derivative with respect to one (or more) 1783) solved the three-dimensional wave equation.
of the variables. Here, we study the 1D equation for the acoustic pressure field :
In high school, you also learn that the derivative of the
function f with respect to the variable t is defined as:
where c is the propagation speed of the pressure wave, and s
is the source. In seismics, the source is an airgun that injects
high-pressure air into the surrounding water.
If the first derivative exists, the second derivative may be
The wave equation alone does not specify a physical
defined as
solution; to obtain a unique solution we need to set initial
and boundary conditions. Demonstrations may start with an
initial profile of the pressure wave u(t = 0 , x) = I(x), being at
For example, with the equation f=t 3 we know that if t=1, rest =0.
then f will be 1; if t=2, then f=8; if t=10, then f=1,000. The
derivative of f most of us know is 3t 2 . By use of equation 1, For seismic problems, we use I(x) = 0 where there is no
one finds: pressure wave before the source is activated. Boundary
conditions fix the pressure at the start x = – L and end x =+L of
the computational domain. The condition u(t , ± L)=0, often

Figure 1: To compute the wave field u at time-space

t+∆t location (t+Δ t , x) (black dot) we use the wavefield
at two previous times t and t– Δ t at three space
locations x– Δ x, x, x+Δ x (red and blue dots).
t

t–∆t
x–∆x x x+∆x

GEOExPro May 2018 57

Recent Advances in Technology

known as a homogeneous Dirichlet condition, will mirror

the wave. It reflects the wave into the domain with opposite
sign of amplitude. The condition is known as
a homogeneous Neumann condition. As the wave hits the
boundary, it runs up to the double amplitude, and propagates
back into the domain again.

Amplitude
Solving the wave equation means finding p in terms of t
and x. It turns out that solving the wave equation, as most
other differential equations, can be quite hard, and there is no
general method that solves every differential equation. We will
generally focus on finding a numerical solution to the wave
equation by using computers.

Ready to Go
To solve the wave equation by computer, we discretize the time
and space variables (see Figure 1), replace both second derivatives Time
in the wave equation with finite differences, and obtain: Figure 2: In a homogeneous 1D medium, the FD solution of the wave
equation produces a wave that moves outwards from the source without
change. The four Mexican hat signals are recorded at four different
locations. This result agrees with d’Alembert’s solution, discovered in 1746.

This solution is a time marching scheme, where the next source. Indeed, the waveform is the Mexican hat wavelet
value of the wavefield at the discrete time t+Δ t is computed traveling outwards from the source without change.
from current values known at time t and the previous time
t– Δ t . For every next time step, the source is activated with its Solution for Non-Constant Velocity
current value. We let the velocity take the form of the long-wavelength sine-
The choice of time step Δ t is dependent on the grid size Δ x. model
It turns out that as we increase the time step while keeping the
grid size fixed, the FD method eventually becomes unstable. and run the FD scheme with velocities c0 =2,000 m/s,
Likewise, if we decrease the grid size while keeping the time Δ c =500 m/s and λ=250m. We set the pressure to zero at the
step fixed, we run into stability problems. To know how to end of the computational domain and display the pressure
change the time step with changes in grid size in order to wavefield in Figure 3 as a 2D color plot over distance and
maintain stability, we revert to the famous CFL condition for time. Observe that the wave changes sign after hitting the
stability, which for our wave equation has the form pressure-free ends of the domain.
where is the maximum velocity in the model. In Part 2 of this series, we will discuss the numerical errors that one
can make in FD modeling and bring you the latest research on how
There is little need to know much more at this point. You can
to eliminate errors caused by the time-stepping of the wavefield.
now leap on the train to a job as a geophysicist in the oil industry
References available online.
with whistles and fanfare as you chug out of the station.

Solution for Constant Velocity Figure 3: FD solution of the 1D wave equation in the long-wavelength sine
When the velocity is constant, and the source is a point model. The source is located at the center distance of the model (*), and
monopole source, located say at x = 0, the wave equation has the wavefield is recorded at all distances and times. At the endpoints of
the analytical solution of an outgoing wave from the source: the model, the wavefield is fixed to zero, so that the wave is mirrored into
the model domain with opposite sign in the amplitude (colors change
from dominantly red to blue).
where S is the time integral of the source signature s in the *
wave equation. The pressure wave is not altered as distance
x increases. (In 3D, however, the pressure wave decreases in
amplitude with distance.)
Let’s check if the FD solution to the wave equation
reproduces the analytical solution. The source is located at x = 0.
It is given a time signature that is a time derivative of a Ricker
Time

signature, sometimes called the Mexican hat wavelet:

where fM is the peak frequency of the signal, and t 0 is

time where the zero-phase Mexican hat has its maximum
amplitude. Parameters are c0 =3,000 m/s, Δt=0.00058 s,
Δx=2.5m, and fM=10 Hz. The output is displayed in Figure 2
as time traces at four different recording locations from the Distance

58 GEOExPro May 2018

 Processing & Imaging

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GEO Profile

Making
Connections
Denise Cox, President of Storm Energy and President-Elect of the AAPG, loves geology and wants
JANE WHALEY

to let a global audience understand more about the role of geoscience in energy solutions.
Although she did not work it out for a while, Denise Mruk Cox was working part time as a reservoir geologist at
destined to be a geologist and world traveler. Geology was written in Marathon Oil’s Denver Research Center (DRC),
the stars for her: she was told by an astrologist while still at school, “You where she further developed her interest in
enjoy working with the Earth.” carbonates. After graduation in 1985 this led to a
From mucking around in the mud in her backyard as a toddler in full time offer of work at the DRC and ultimately
southern central New York, she rapidly progressed to hiking the tree- a 20-year career with Marathon, in Denver and
covered glacial hills around her home and to exploring the Devonian Midland and Houston, Texas where she specialized
outcrops of the Finger Lakes region. When she wasn’t outside she in the application of new technology to carbonate
had her nose in a book, her other favorite pastime, exploring other petroleum reservoirs and later the evaluation and
continents and other times. development of unconventional reservoirs.

Intersection of Science and Art

Coming from what she describes as “very modest roots”, Denise was of
the first generation in her family to go to university. It was not until her On location in West Texas
second year at the State University of New York at Binghamton that she and ‘in the pink’ with a
new discovery, 2014.
took a class in geology – and even then, it was only because in her first
year she balanced the science and math subjects at which she excelled
with an elective course in Arabic; it was her Arabic professor who
recommended she tried geology. Almost immediately, she knew geology
was what she wanted to do.
“I love that geology is the marriage of science and art,” Denise
explains. “You need creativity to see something on the Earth’s surface
and know how it looks in the subsurface, and science and math to
support that vision. Geology is at that intersection – I believe in
STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics),

Denise Cox
not just STEM. Geological features and processes can be
described equally by drawing a picture, or by using scientific and
mathematical formulae. Interestingly, I find that many geologists
have artistic skills, particularly music. The people in geology are
also diverse and from such a range of backgrounds that they
reflect the diversity of the subject itself.”
Despite her late start in geology, Denise graduated
with an Honors BS in the subject and was awarded
the Glenn G. Bartle Award for excellence in
geology. Her career began as a technician
with the US Geological Survey in Denver,
Colorado on a 9-well Uranium and Thorium
coring project. She soon realized that to have
a career as a geologist, she would need a
further degree. She attended the University
of Colorado, Boulder, a perfect choice of
location given her interest in the outdoors,
and took a masters in geology, which
included courses in petroleum geology and
a thesis on the diagenesis of the Permian
Capitan Formation in West Texas. Whilst
completing her research she was also

60 GEOExPro May 2018

March 2018
Connecting and Networking

Denise Cox
The job with Marathon had initially come about through
people Denise met during one of the industry-led seminars
during her masters study. She is a great believer in networking
and describes herself as a ‘connector’. “I hear many ideas but
when I make a connection on how it can be developed and
implemented, I want to share it with the world.”
Denise provided some insight on making connections at
work. “When I started a new job I would do ‘rounds’, finding
out what everyone’s role was in the group and what were
their processes – types of maps, cross-sections, analyses – for
exploration or development. Because of this I knew what person
A was doing and how it might help person B, if only C would
provide the data.” This proved very useful when the exploration
industry began to introduce less rigid subject-led management
structures, and probably resulted in Denise being chosen to
Denise working in Marathon’s office in Midland, Texas in 1988.
lead one of Marathon’s first multi-disciplinary teams.
“One of the best pieces of advice I can offer young “Also, try to take all the experience and leadership
and experienced people alike, is to network and make opportunities offered to you. You may not feel you are ready
connections,” she says. “When you’re hired or transferred for a transfer or management role, but if someone approaches
into a new group, talk to the people you work with and you with one, it is because they’ve seen technical or leadership
question them about what they are doing, and why. It helps traits in you that mean you ARE ready.
you to understand their perspective and recognize how your “To undergraduate students I would suggest that they get
knowledge and project contribute to the team’s objectives. the best fundamental geoscience education that they can
And when you find someone really passionate about their job, at a college or university which has the best connections to
learn from them!” the industry where they want to work. Good choices lead to
What else would Denise suggest to young people starting good choices.” Denise adds: “If possible, take courses in data
out in the industry? “To those already working: don’t be analytics and geostatistics; these are really important to have
afraid to say, ‘I don’t understand’. Accept and learn from your on your resume in today’s job market.
mistakes – we all make them. I’ve drilled my share of dry “For graduate studies, the best geoscientists are the ones
holes; the important thing is to understand why, so the next who have seen the most rocks, so make sure you get out in the
well gets drilled and is a success. field and if possible do a field or core-based thesis.”

Unplugged and hiking with Maggie in the Colorado mountains, 2002.

Denise Cox

GEOExPro May 2018 61

GEO Profile

Career Choices Permian Basin in Europe.

In 2004, Denise decided not to permanently relocate to “I also agreed to stand for AAPG President because
Houston when Marathon consolidated their production I get to connect with current and future members,” she
offices there. She joined her husband, Kurt, also a geologist, continues. “It’s great to realize how many people are working
as a technical consultant for Storm Energy, the company he on energy solutions at any time, somewhere in the world!
built through an acquisition and successful prospects. They On a recent AAPG trip to the Middle East I was impressed
moved to Panama City and she now heads up the company, by the talented and well-spoken men and women I met.
as Kurt has a new career as a writer. They understand their crucial role as geoscientists in the
“Storm Energy has what I think is a unique business petroleum industry and are passionate about providing new
model,” she explains. “We started as a consultancy doing ideas to explore for and develop low cost, reliable energy.
technical evaluations and then putting prospects together The women were particularly interested in career options, so
in the Gulf Coast and Permian Basin. This has evolved into they were pleased to see a woman in a prominent leadership
working with expert partners – geophysicists, petrologists, position.
engineers, and landmen – to undertake technical “I am also keen to use the role of AAPG President to work
and economic evaluations of both conventional and cooperatively with other professional organizations to talk
unconventional US projects for acquisition or investment. about ‘sustainability’. Geoscientists as well as petroleum
We are able to secure partnerships for project operations and companies have an important part to play in global energy
financing and have not yet used the traditional private equity solutions. With our subsurface knowledge and technical
route to secure funding. I think this partnership model abilities, we can help address the economic, environmental,
should appeal to younger geologists with about 10 years’ and social issues that face the petroleum industry and
experience who have an idea they want to develop. Again, it’s the next generation. To that end, I’m working with Max
all about connecting with the right people to work together Brouwers from Shell on an AAPG Energy Transitions Forum
– and doing what we all love: exploration and maximizing – A New Era for Geoscience – to be held in Amsterdam later
recovery of reserves!” Denise likes to refer to herself as the this year.”
‘spatula’ of the oil business – she likes to get the last drop of
oil out of existing oil fields. Making a Difference
“While I was happy in the corporate world, and had “Like many people, I want to give something back,” Denise
corporate management aspirations, there are a lot of says. “I was keen to participate in organizations like the AWG
advantages to my role as a small independent. I love the because I was the recipient of a Chrysalis Scholarship to help
strategic side of the business, and the fact that we make our finish my masters, so I know how vital these funds are. As
own policies – such as moving the office to Colorado for a a past Chair of the AAPG Grants-in-Aid Committee, I also
couple of months every year, to unplug, go back-packing, established a scholarship in my family’s name, ‘the Mruk
and hunting for something other than oil.” Among her many Family Grant’. We need to make sure that scholarship funds
interests, Denise is also an avid wild mushroom collector. are available so future geoscientists can answer some of the
questions that we’ve yet to address.
Leadership Roles “I know I’ll never have enough time to do everything
Denise has always been active in professional societies that interests me, but if I’ve made enough connections to
such as the American Association of Petroleum Geologists have made a difference – then I’ll know I’ve helped the next
(AAPG), Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG) and generation to ‘go forth and make the world a better place’,” she
the West Texas Geological Society. She was President of concludes.
AWG in 2014–15 and is at present President-Elect of AAPG,
Denise as AAPG Secretary, with Charles Sternbach, DPA President, connecting
due to take up the presidency in July this year – only the with students at AAPG’s International Convention in Singapore 2012.
third woman in the 100-year history of the society to have
Denise Cox

this role. I ask why she decided to stand for election to this
prestigious post.
“Firstly, because I was asked, and as I said, my advice
is not to turn down an opportunity to lead,” she replies.
“Also, I love what I do, so this role gives me a chance to
communicate a global perspective of geoscience and the
importance of the petroleum industry in energy solutions.
The AAPG is US-based, but importantly has Regions in
Africa, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the
Caribbean, and the Middle East; AAPG truly has a global
reach. After all, geology crosses borders; it is a systems
science, not a geographically-bound one. For example, there
are Paleozoic geological systems throughout the world and
we can benefit from the knowledge of petroleum systems say
in the Permian of West Texas compared with the Southern

62 GEOExPro May 2018

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[email protected] [email protected]
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GEOExPro May 2018 63

GEO Media

A Play for Oil

A Play for Oil: The Stories Behind the Discovery and Development of Oil and Gas.
By Tim Daley. Springer, 2018. JOE GREEN
This autobiography of a geoscientist is emphasized, which not only made areas of Pakistan and Borneo all remind
a very well-constructed and exciting the move from 2D to 3D seismic us that this serious business has its
review of the oil exploration industry possible, but also brought about the lighter moments.
over the past four decades. luxury of doing seismic interpretation In Chapter 8 our hydrocarbon
It starts as it means to continue on individual desktops. Do we have ‘seismic interpreter’ reveals his
with descriptions of the fun involved smartphone seismic yet? concern for communities through
in taking part in undergraduate field his involvement in trying to establish
trips to undertake surface geological Showing Humanity whether high pressure fracking in
mapping in Spain. Thereafter, we However, the magic of this book is its Oklahoma and Lancashire is causing
are reminded that hydrocarbons are humanity. The geophysics world can be earthquakes. He wonders how
discovered by figuring out where the ‘nimbyism’ can be satisfied when we
sedimentary reservoir rocks might be have movies apparently showing
located, under land or ocean, flaming faucets?
together with their source Spending a summer in the
rocks and the hydrocarbon Karachaganak field in Western
trapping process. Enhancing Kazakhstan, he speculates that the
these fundamental rolling steppes are to a certain extent
principles, however, Tim protected by the dangers of the oil
emphasizes the necessity of and gas operation. The hydrocarbons
collecting and interpreting being produced are contaminated
seismic data, in order to locate with highly poisonous hydrogen
prospective reservoirs and sulfide gas, which means that the
drill them. Therefore, from whole production area is treated as
this point early in the book, he an exclusion zone. The resultant
always describes himself as a barring of the population at large
‘seismic interpreter’. has therefore created a protected
After Spain the author wildlife habitat. It is at this point
graduated from Oxford, that this geoscientist reveals his
progressed to a Masters in interest in bird watching as well
Geophysics at Durham University as rocks, and proves he is very
and started work with Esso in knowledgeable on the topic.
Esher in Surrey in the UK in the The final chapter reminds
early 1980s. His later employers us that the oil and gas industry
included UK independent Lasmo, exists because the world’s
as well as ENI and BG. Much time population demands the
was spent in remote locations in luxury and convenience
Asia, Africa and Latin America. that hydrocarbons provide.
The reader is presented with We shall replace it with
basic information on the various alternative energy sources
technologies involved in the given time, but until then it
process of prospecting, drilling and is good to be reminded of the work and
testing for oil and gas. Naturally, effort undertaken in the search for oil
there are several pages describing a bit awesome with its mega-computing throughout the world.
the seismic acquisition process and, physics speak, its massive seismic boats Tim should be proud of providing
unsurprisingly, an entire chapter on and huge, all-terrain trucks, but related us with this honest, informative and
seismic interpretation. However, this stories from Blackpool to Balikpapan exciting read, which I note has a Library
technical content is not too scary, with keep our feet firmly grounded. The of Congress reference. It should be in
good simple diagrams to assist our mysterious whisky bottle in the violin every library and we readers should also
understanding. case, crossing the Danube to Romania; spread the word.
The transformation of technology the all-terrain taxi in Ecuador; and the Read Tim’s article on resource estimation
from analog to digital is also cocktail and beer parties in remote on page 38.

64 GEOExPro May 2018

 Introduction to
Exploration Geophysics
with Recent Advances
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GEOExPro May 2018 65
Exploration Update
Brought to you by GEO ExPro and Drillinginfo.

Bahrain: Unconventional Discovery Dwarfs Reserves

In early April 2018 Bahrain’s Higher Committee for Natural
Resources and Economic Security announced a ‘highly
significant’ offshore discovery of tight oil and deep gas in the
2,000 km2 Khaleej Al Bahrain Basin, which extends off the
west and south-west coast of the island. The exact location has
so far not been revealed; however, in 2016 operator Bapco let a
turnkey contract to Schlumberger for the drilling and testing
of two exploratory wells, and the Key Hawaii jack-up was
operating in the extreme south of the Bahraini sector between
mid-March and mid-October 2017.
The Oil Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Khalifa,
said that the discovery was estimated to have 80 Bb tight oil in-
place, with 13.7 Tcf of associated gas, with deeper gas amounting
to 10–20 Tcf in-place – figures which dwarf Bahrain’s existing
known reserves. The 80 Bb figure is reported to be a P50
estimate and is thought to apply to the entire resource play.
Bapco pointed out that the presence of a layer with moderate
conventional reservoir properties on top of an organic-rich target under the Bahrain Field, and it is possible the figures for
source rock creates a unique self-sourcing and trapping system, the current find conflate the offshore and onshore potential.
enhancing production and economic viability. Two Halliburton-operated appraisal wells have been
Earlier Bapco technical documents suggest the oil may be agreed for 2018 and Bapco is in discussions with IOCs and
reservoired in Jurassic Hanifa-Tuwaiq Mountain Formations. major service companies on partnerships to exploit the
In 2012, light oil (43° API) was recovered from the source resources. To date, worldwide, no unconventional resources
rock interval in this formation, establishing the potential for have been exploited offshore, but an optimistic production
unconventional plays. The deep gas is probably reservoired in start date of 2022–2023 has been touted. The Minister added
the Paleozoic Jauf and Tawil Formations (Pre-Khuff), which that they expected the resources to support production of
are deeper levels than the Khuff gas identified in the onshore 200,000 bopd and 1 Bcfgpd.
Bahrain field. The source rock for the Pre-Khuff gas is the This discovery could provide a much-needed boost to the
geographically extensive Silurian Qusaiba Formation. Thermal Bahraini economy, although with energy sales accounting
history modeling suggests gas generation in the Oligocene- for 87% of the government’s total income (2016), Bahrain has
Miocene. Deep (Pre-Khuff) gas has long been an identified been trying to diversify its economy.

Guyana: Another Stabroek Success

On February 28, 2018, ExxonMobil confirmed that the
Pacora-1 NFW detected 20m of high-quality, oil-bearing
sandstone in the offshore Stabroek Block in Guyana. The
well spudded on January 29, 2018 with the Stena Carron
drillship and was drilled to a TD of 5,597m in 2,067m of
water. This latest Guyana-Suriname Basin well is located
about 6.2 km north-west of the Payara discovery, in an area
covered by 3D seismic, recently acquired by PGS. The Pacora
resources will therefore be incorporated for development into
those of the giant Payara field, which is planned as the third
development offshore Guyana.
ExxonMobil and its partners have a multi-phase
development plan for the Stabroek Block, which will help
take Guyana’s forecast petroleum production to more than
500,000 bopd in the coming years. The Payara discovery
was announced in January 2017, with the discovery well
encountering more than 29m of high-quality, oil-bearing
sandstone reservoirs. Looking ahead, ExxonMobil has laid out first project, Liza Phase 1, which is on track for March 2020,
a potential multi-FPSO development solution for its Stabroek with development drilling beginning in 2018, and the second
Block. The company is progressing with selecting the floating project, Liza Phase 2, planned for 2022 utilizing a multi-FPSO
production concept for the development of Pacora and Payara, development solution. ExxonMobil operates the block with
which could be sanctioned by 2023–2024. This will follow the 45% WI, Hess with 30% and Nexen (CNOOC) with 25%.

66 GEOExPro May 2018

HOSTED & ORGANISED BY FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS

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Q&A

Encouraging Partner Employment

Anyone in the exploration industry who has worked abroad would agree that it is important that all
family members are happy with an expat posting, including ensuring a spouse or partner can find
suitable employment. Françoise van Roosmalen explains how Permits Foundation can assist in this.
What is Permits Foundation? countries and providing evidence from surveys of employers,
Permits Foundation is an international non-profit initiative, expat employees and partners to show the importance of
established in 2001, which aims to encourage governments to allowing partners to work. We cover the economic benefits of
improve work permit regulations to make it easier for spouses attracting highly qualified talent to support investment and
and partners of expatriate staff to gain employment during an growth, as well as the positive impacts on adjustment and
international assignment. More than 40 major international integration, health, and well-being.
companies have joined the Foundation because dual careers Policy changes do not happen overnight – we need to be
are such a key factor in employee diversity and mobility. patient and persistent. But with many countries now allowing
spouses, partners and sometimes children to work, it is clear
What prompted its start-up? that working together through Permits Foundation creates a
The founding companies recognized the needs of expatriate triple win for countries, employers and families!
families and the growth of dual careers, so partners could
continue working or, at least, have the choice to do so. It raised What are your major successes to date?
the idea of working together globally to address an issue that Since we started, 30 countries now permit spouses or
affects men and women of all nationalities all over the world partners to work and there are clear signs of a growing trend
and is essential for equal opportunity and diversity. It also to acknowledge family needs, including the recognition of
creates a more attractive climate for international mobility; unmarried and same-sex partners.
governments and companies realized that partner access to Currently, almost all European or EU countries allow
employment in the host country was a key factor in attracting family members of skilled foreign workers to work, either
and retaining talent. under national provisions or the EU Blue Card or Intra
The Foundation has grown rapidly, demonstrating the Corporate Directive (ICT) scheme. As an example, the
breadth of concern and quality of support for international ICT Directive proposal did not initially include a provision
dual careers in both the private and public sector. to enable direct access to work for spouses or partners of
transferees, but thanks to our advocacy, this was included in
How do you work with governments and employers? the final Directive. We have been successful in influencing
Our goal is for recognized partners to be allowed to work change in the USA, Hong Kong, Japan and more recently in
on their ‘dependent’ pass, without further bureaucracy. Brazil, and are continuing to make headway in India, engaging
Each country needs an individual approach, though there further in South Africa and exploring opportunities in China.
are common steps in planning every campaign. We start by Finally, faced with immigration challenges in the UK
checking the current status of family members in the (Brexit) and US, we are working actively to prevent
country’s immigration legislation and we meet with policy roll-back.
companies in the country to get a feel for the
wider social, political and economic context What can we do?
and whether there is potential for change. If Now that you have learned about our global
this is positive, we form a local network of advocacy work and the positive impact it
our sponsor companies and others who has on dual careers, we encourage you to
can advise us on the legal aspects and raise awareness of Permits Foundation
government relations. (www.permitsfoundation.com) within
The next step is to identify key decision your organization and wider network. We
makers and other stakeholders and find are also interested in receiving feedback
whether the change needs an act of from anyone who has experience of
parliament or a ministerial decision. We applying for a work permit in any country
gather local evidence and prepare a position that does not yet allow partners to work
paper, write letters and organize meetings on their dependent permit.
with policy staff, members of parliament
and ministers of state, as the local Françoise looks after sponsor
circumstances require. relations and accounts for
We approach it Permits Foundation. Her
Foundation

constructively and colleagues include international

Permits

advocacy advisor Helen Frew

diplomatically, sharing and and Foundation director
best practice from other Michiel van Campen .

68 GEOExPro May 2018

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Global Resource Management

Oil Demand Still Conversion Factors

on the Rise Crude oil

1 m3 = 6.29 barrels
1 barrel = 0.159 m3
1 tonne = 7.49 barrels
“As the world learns to do more with less, demand for energy
will be met by the most diverse fuels mix we have ever seen.”
Natural gas
Spencer Dale, BP group chief economist
1 m3 = 35.3 ft3
1 ft3 = 0.028 m3
2040: that is only 22 years from now (remember 1996?). BP is once again looking
into the crystal ball, all the way up to 2040, with the results presented in their most
recent Energy Outlook (2018 edition)*. Energy
A prerequisite to understanding future energy demand is GDP (Gross Domestic 1000 m3 gas = 1 m3 o.e
Product) forecasts as a function of population growth. According to BP, world GDP 1 tonne NGL = 1.9 m3 o.e.
will more than double during the next two decades, broadly in line with growth
seen over the past 25 years. And, as the global population reaches 9.2 billion, more
than 2.5 billion (500 times Norway’s population!) will be lifted from low incomes. Numbers
BP therefore concludes that global energy demand will increase by about 35% as Million = 1 x 106
global prosperity increases. China and India will account for half of this demand. Billion = 1 x 109
That figure is not controversial. Trillion = 1 x 1012
Forecasting the future energy mix is, however, always controversial. BP’s view
is that oil, gas, coal and non-fossil fuels (hydro, nuclear, renewables) will each
Supergiant field
contribute around 25% in 2040.
Recoverable reserves > 5 billion
Renewables will constitute 14% in 2020, with an annual growth of 7%. This
makes up 40% of the increase in energy supplies. Remember, with an annual growth barrels (800 million Sm3) of oil
of 7%, it takes ten years to double the production. Consequently, the world needs equivalents
a much stronger growth in renewables if these sources are to replace fossil energy
before 2040. Giant field
For the oil industry, it is comforting to read that BP believes that demand for oil
Recoverable reserves > 500 ­million
will grow by 0.5% p.a. during the 2020s. However, demand is projected to plateau
barrels (80 million Sm3)
in the 2030s. Moreover, demand for natural gas will grow strongly at 1.6% p.a. and
during the next 20 years it will overtake coal as the second largest source of energy. of oil ­equivalents

“The date at which oil demand will stop growing is highly uncertain and
small changes in assumptions can lead to vastly different estimates.” Major field
BP Energy Outlook 2018 Recoverable reserves > 100 ­million

The world is likely to demand large quantities of oil for many decades to come, barrels (16 million Sm3)
BP concludes. of oil equivalents
Halfdan Carstens

Historic oil price

Crude Oil Prices Since 1861
Nominal Real (2014 dollar)
140

120
US Dollars per barrel

100

80
©BP p.l.c. 2018

60

40

20

140
1870

1900
1861

1880

1890

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010
2016

* www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/energy-outlook.html

70 GEOExPro May 2018

 Mexico Well Data
The Missing Piece
TGS has been authorized by the National
Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) to process and
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companies exploring in offshore and onshore Mexico.

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These packages provide key coverage of all basins

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wells with ties to TGS’ existing offshore 2D survey,
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© 2017 TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company ASA. All rights reserved.

 multi-client seismic
ARGENTINA

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A
Legend
C N
Argentina Deep Water: 37,800 km
Deep Water Permit: 443,800 km2
Q
UI EW
Austral-Malvinas: 13,900 km
SI
Austral-Malvinas Permit: 284,500 km2
E1Blocks TIO
N

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[email protected]
+44 1483 730201