Exploration in the post-Macondo world!

Thursday, October 07, 2010
Inmarsat Conference Centre




Looking for presentations and videos from this conference? Scroll down - the links are in the agenda below

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This event is designed for people who need a current view of worldwide oil and gas exploration opportunities and the likely shape of the future industry - such as exploration managers, operators, investors, banks, exploration technology and service providers and tanker operators.

Topics covered include impact of Macondo, European shale gale, West Africa deepwater, Jamaica, Russia, Carpathians, power of independents, advances in on and offshore seismic technology.

Over 100 delegates registered - registration just £450

Introduction from conference producer David Bamford (previously head of exploration with BP):
The Macondo disaster will have major, global, impact on exploration for new oil and gas reserves. From the 'knee-jerk' reactions in Washington to the more thoughtful responses by regulators everywhere, explorers may exit the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, and then face dramatically increasing costs and potential liabilities elsewhere. At one extreme, companies may have to have a significant market capitalisation before they are deemed capable of carrying the risk of dealing with the financial consequences of a major spill.

Companies that remain committed to deep water exploration will look increasingly towards areas outside the United States - to the South Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Arctic perhaps.

Many companies, but especially smaller ones, will turn to onshore exploration - perhaps to the still relatively unexplored areas of Russia and the FSU, to onshore Africa.

Do we have the technologies to explore these new frontiers; do we know how to explore onshore? Broadly the answer is Yes, we do - with one exception. Whereas, for the last 15 years, regional 3D seismic has been a key enabler of exploration activity offshore - the dominant contributor to deep water success, the high cost of land (and transition zone) 3D - based on the use of cables - is a major and significant barrier to success onshore.

These issues are wide-ranging and we - the Finding Petroleum team - have devised the agenda below so that we in the industry can begin to say "This is the way forward!".

Day One

9:30 Welcome by David Bamford

9:35 David Bamford - Director Finding Petroleum Impact of Macondo: Do we now know what happened? What does it mean for global exploration? David Bamford is 63. He is a non-executive director at Tullow Oil plc and has various roles with Parkmead Group plc, PARAS Ltd and New Eyes Exploration Ltd, and runs his own consultancy. He writes regular articles for OilVoice and ROGTEC and is a co-founder of Finding Petroleum. He retired from BP in 2003, after a 23 year career spent initially in research & technology, then the geophysics function, business unit leadership, and finally BP's global exploration programme. Finding Petroleum Finding Petroleum was established to help the oil and gas industry network, and stay up to date on the latest technological developments. It does this via hosting regular events, distributing their colour magazine - Digital Energy Journal, and with an online social network of nearly 700 members. More...

10:00 Jim Farnsworth - Cobalt International Gulf of Mexico & West Africa Deep Water Jim Farnsworth is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience. Prior to joining Cobalt, Jim was at BP, where he served in various capacities since 1983, and since 2002 was Vice President of World-Wide Exploration and Technology. In this role, he was responsible for BP's global exploration strategy and execution. Prior positions at BP include: VP of North America Exploration; VP of Gulf of Mexico Exploration; and Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Production Manager. Mr. Farnsworth earned his B.S. in Geology from Indiana University and his M.S. in Geophysics from W. Michigan University. Cobalt International Energy, L.P. is a private oil and gas exploration and production company focusing on the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and offshore West Africa. The company was formed in 2005 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Cobalt currently holds a working interest in 225 leases in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Blocks 9 and 21 offshore Angola, and in the Diaba License offshore Gabon. Cobalt’s financial sponsors include Goldman Sachs, Carlyle/Riverstone, First Reserve Corporation, KERN Partners, and Management. Cobalt International Cobalt's strategic objective is very clear: to create distinctive value for investors by exploring for oil in the largest hydrocarbon rich plays in the deep offshore waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and West Africa, with an emphasis on sub-salt and pre-salt exploration, development, and production. More...

10:30 Chris Matchette-Downes - VP Business Development MD Oil The Caribbean, especially Jamaica Chris is a Petroleum geological consultant and owner of MDOIL Ltd. He was also a founder member of EAX and was the Vice President of Business Development, East Africa Exploration from early 2005 until the end of 2009. Chris experience includes ten year's geological geochemical scientific / technical experience, including 5 years at the wellsite; fifteen year's global E&P business development, UK/Europe, Africa, Near, Middle and Far East, Australia and North and Central America & Sri Lanka. High lights include building a G&G team together to bid on UKCS blocks; securing PSA option offshore Tanzania and South Africa; helping to secure further Western Indian Ocean assets in Seychelles, Madagascar and Kenya; setting up Jamaica's ongoing first oil and gas bid round. Running for TPDC the 3rd Tanzanian licence round; building new petroleum geochemical understanding for East Africa and co-founder of EAX and MDOIL ltd. MSc & BSc. MD Oil MDOIL's purpose is to assist overseas governments promote their neglected oil and gas exploration acreage in frontier areas to international oil and gas companies by; the analysis of vintage data sets; providing new geochemical and geological analysis; new geological understanding and modern digital data packages for license to oil companies. More...

11:00 Tea & Coffee Break - Sponsored by Spectraseis

11:30 Alex Prokofjevs - Bernstein Research Russia - problems and opportunities Alex Prokofjevs is a Research Associate at Bernstein where he works with Senior Analyst Oswald Clint covering European and Russian Oil & Gas stocks. Alex joined Bernstein in 2009 after graduating from London Business School with a Masters in Finance. Prior to LBS, Alex had worked in M&A at SEB Enskilda, the Nordic investment banking. Besides his native Russian, Alex is also fluent in French and Latvian. Bernstein Research Sanford C. Bernstein is widely recognized as Wall Street's premier sell-side research firm. Their research is sought out by leading investment managers around the world, and they are annually ranked at the very top of acknowledged arbiters. In independent surveys of major institutional clients, Bernstein's research is ranked #1 for overall quality, industry knowledge, most trusted, best detailed financial analysis, major company studies, most useful valuation frameworks, best original research, and most willing to challenge management. In Institutional Investor's 2008 annual client survey, the leading survey by which analysts in our industry are evaluated, 100% of our U.S. Analysts were recognized as among the best in their respective fields -- more than any other firm on Wall Street. More...

12:00 Mark Enfield - Aurelian Oil & Gas The Carpathians Mark is Managing Director of PDF Limited, an exploration consultancy with particular experience in Central and Eastern Europe, and is currently highly active in this area for Aurelian Oil & Gas, on behalf of whom this conference presentation is being given. Mark is originally a structural geologist and gained his PhD in Extensional Tectonics and Basin Architecture from Imperial College, London. Mark began in the oil industry with Maxus Energy, firstly in London and then in Dallas, Texas where he worked on global New Ventures (especially Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Far East), exploration and operations (especially on- and off-shore Europe, Africa, Indonesia) and development projects (North America onshore and Gulf of Mexico). Mark left Dallas in 1994 and came back to the UK to found PDF as an exploration consultancy. Since the mid 1990’s Mark has worked extensively on Central and Eastern European projects, the North Sea, Indian sub-continent, Africa and Madagascar, South American fold thrust belts and the Near East. PDF Limited is an international petroleum exploration consultancy based in South Oxfordshire. PDF comprises 11 geoscientists, and has particular specialisations in the areas of: fold thrust belt exploration, interpretation of tectonically complex areas and difficult data sets, sequence stratigraphy, sedimentology, basin analysis and maturity modelling. Aurelian Oil & Gas Aurelian Oil & Gas was formed in 2002 by Michael Seymour and floated on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investments Market (AIM) in 2006, and it is listed under the ticker 'AUL'. Rowen Bainbridge was recently appointed CEO and Mark Reid as CFO. Aurelian focuses on Central Europe with licences in Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, and it is the operator of most of its licences. Aurelian's strategy is to apply proven technologies utilised in the rest of the world that have as yet not been applied in their operational areas due to the history of the region. Aurelian recently announced it intended to exit areas it deems non-core, most notably Romania and Bulgaria, and focus on the Rotiegendes in Poland and the Carpathians in Poland and Slovakia. Aurelian's most significant current asset is the Siekierki gas field in Poland, which is a tight gas accumulation that will be developed utilising horizontal drilling techniques and multi-stage frac’ing similar to those used in North American gas plays. Exploration will focus on the Carpathians, which have seen very little modern exploration. More...

12:30 Ken Chew - IHS European unconventional gas Dr Ken Chew is currently VP - Industry Performance for the Energy Division of IHS Inc. Ken is a geologist with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of Aberdeen, where he specialised in the study of mineral deposits. He subsequently worked for BP in Aberdeen as a petroleum geologist, mainly on the northern North Sea and in 1976 joined the academic staff of the Geology Department of University College Galway, where he lectured principally on applied aspects of geology. In 1978 he moved to Petroconsultants Ltd. in Dublin where he became the assistant manager and head of research, with overall responsibility for the company's petroleum exploration database. In 1987 Ken transferred to Petroconsultants' Geneva headquarters, heading divisions on E&P Database, Computerized Services, Geological Information and Database Support & Client Services. Early in 2006 Ken left the IHS Geneva office and has since worked for IHS out of his home in the Scottish highlands. Since the acquisition of Petroconsultants by IHS, Ken has worked on new information sets in the company analysis domain and manages the Company and Country statistical modules of the IHS PEPS (Petroleum Economics and Policy Solutions) online database. He also carries out analysis and consultancy based on the Energy Division's international E&P database, with particular emphasis on global hydrocarbon supply and resources (conventional and non-conventional) and on E&P company performance. He has lectured and published on many aspects of worldwide hydrocarbon E&P, on E&P databases, database standards and on information management. IHS IHS (formerly Technical Indexes), is a leading global source of critical information and insight dedicated to providing the most complete and trusted information and expertise. IHS product and service solutions span four areas of information that encompass the most important concerns facing global business today: Energy, Product Lifecycle, Security, and Environment, all supported by Macroeconomics. By focusing on our customers first, IHS enables innovative and successful decision-making for customers ranging from governments and multinational companies to smaller companies and technical professionals in more than 180 countries. More...

13:00 Lunch

14:15 Dr Keith Myers - Founding Partner Richmond Energy Partners Exploration performance of smaller companies After completing a Ph. D. at Imperial College, Keith joined BP in 1987 as a geologist. Following a variety of technical roles, he became a Senior Commercial Advisor in 1996 when he led several major negotiations for new business access as well as Business Strategies for BP’s business in West Africa and BP’s Strategic Alliance with Statoil. Since 2000 Keith has been an advisor to numerous energy companies on strategy and partnership issues Keith founded Richmond Energy Partners in 2006 to provide independent advice to investors in smaller oil and gas companies. Richmond Energy advise some of the largest funds and institutions investing in the sector. Keith takes a keen interest in oil sector governance and served on the organising committee of the Good Governance of the National Petroleum Sector Project at the think tank Chatham House. Richmond Energy Partners Richmond Energy Partners was founded in 2006 and provides independent advice to investors in smaller oil and gas companies. It provides advice to some of the largest funds and institutions investing in oil and gas. Dr Myers has a Phd from Imperial College, London and joined BP as a geologist in 1987, eventually becoming senior commercial advisor at BP in 1996, leading negotiations for new business access for BP in Angola and in its strategic alliance with Statoil. More...

14:45 Bob Heath - Technical Marketing Manager iSeis Wireless Onshore Seismic - “Getting it Together” The notion of acquiring land seismic data without resorting to cables is far from new. For more than three decades, this industry has been giving birth to various technologies to make the task in some sense “more possible”. However, modern wireless hardware comes from a different gene pool and the offspring is expected to cope in a world needing independent, low weight, nodal, continuous recording capabilities. It must be happy in very awkward environments where cable cannot go, and provide ultra-large numbers of channels to record higher quality data. There are already about a dozen new era systems vying for attention - though not all have been used in anger and some wonder how many will get past their first post- natal examination. This hardware falls into two broad categories: (A) that which has neither any ability to send data to the recorder nor pick up remote control commands from it, and (B) that which can be remotely controlled, and return some amount of data, ranging from QC/status to the whole seismic record. While (generally speaking) Group A hardware is lower in cost to buy and to use, it now seems that only group B has any chance to see adulthood in large enough numbers to make the drastic changes that the land industry needs. But there is now a new twist in this story. Whereas cablefree continuous record systems have made new acquisition techniques possible (or at least, more practical) they also exposed the next weakest link of the chain - the source controllers. The role for such equipment, devised in an era when all sources were well behaved and under the strict control of the recording system, has now drastically changed, with vibrators, and even some impulsive land sources, required to operate in what looks like an unrestricted free-for-all. This paper discusses the necessity of instrumentation “getting it together” such that geophysicists are no longer limited by restrictive equipment, and may indulge their imaginations to devise surveys which suit exploration requirements not hardware limitations. Professional Qualification: Previous Vice Chairman SEG Technical Standards Committee, SEG Silver Medal. Member of EAGE, SEG, PESGB. BSc (Hons) Physics, University of Southampton. Experience & Organization: Involved in land seismic acquisition techniques, engineering and marketing since 1976. Written large number of articles and papers, given talks, on modern land acquisition. Probably given more talks/articles on cablefree acquisition and future land recording instrumentation than any other. Accomplishments: Involved in the start up of large number of new seismic instrumentation companies, research and marketing of new seismic systems and techniques. At forefront internationally of bringing new technologies to improve land seismic. iSeis iSeis is part of the Seismic Source Company, established about ten years ago to research and design new advanced and specialised source control systems, and is now the world's largest independent company involved in vibroseis research. In 2008 iSeis was established to develop the world's first Next Generation cablefree land seismic system. Taking on board lessons learned from other systems, customer feedback and the better integration of source control suited to cablefree recording, iSeis is now a leading developer of land acquisition hardware. Currently its equipment is acquiring data from what is believed to be the largest seismic spread ever lit up at one go - about 300 sq.miles. More...

15:15 Martin Bett - CEO Stingray Geophysical Ltd The light bulb as a symbol of innovation and other things – how to enlighten your reservoir The light bulb has long been used as a symbol of innovation, denoting the origination of a smart idea, the sudden flash of understanding or insight into how to achieve something - often in a new, different and pioneering way. Yet this very symbol of innovation, the incandescent light bulb, has been banned from sale within the EU since September 2009 to force the uptake of more energy-efficient light bulbs. There are a number of parallels between this and the emergence of fibre-optic based seismic permanent reservoir monitoring (Seismic PRM) solutions. By “listening with light”, optical sensing systems allow operators to maximise production and total recovery whilst reducing risk and cost over the life of a field. Yet, although the business case is compelling, in both situations, adoption has been resisted. This presentation will explore some of the parallels between the slow adoption of energy-efficient light bulbs and Seismic PRM and postulate on the logical reasons behind illogical behaviour. It will also suggest some approaches for improving our industry’s ability to adopt new technologies in a more timely manner and access the benefits earlier, having a positive and proactive impact on our stewardship of precious hydrocarbon resources. Martin Bett has over 30 years’ oil industry experience working in operational and management positions for Schlumberger, Landmark, I-NET, Trade-Ranger and QinetiQ. Prior to founding Stingray Geophysical, he has established and grown businesses in Europe, USA, South America and Africa, and has a track record for closing large transactions for new and pioneering products and services. Martin has a BSc in Geophysics from Southampton University, UK, and an MBA with Distinction from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Lausanne, Switzerland. Stingray Geophysical Ltd Stingray Geophysical, a TGS Company, provides advanced Permanent Reservoir Monitoring (PRM) solutions to the global oil and gas industry, enabling increased production and recoverable reserves at lower through-life cost and risk through improved reservoir management strategies. By 'listening with light' using Stingray's reliable, permanently installed Fosar® fibre-optic sensing arrays, oil companies benefit from high quality, cost-effective and repeatable seismic on demand in all field scenarios. Together with its global network of trusted partners, and as a part of TGS, Stingray delivers complete, integrated seismic PRM from planning, through active and passive seismic acquisition, to processing and reservoir solutions. More...

15:45 Brad Birkelo - Spectraseis Novel seismic reservoir characterization The fluid content of reservoir rocks is probably the single most important piece of information about an oil and gas reservoir. Typically this is measured during the logging of wells for exploration and field development. Once production starts the fluid system changes and can only be measured by drilling and logging more wells, which still only provides a snapshot in time. Low Frequency (LF) seismic data provides a surface measurement of reservoirs fluids and can be repeated quickly and cost-effectively. LF fluid signals are generated through the interaction of the earth’s natural energy with the reservoir. No active source is required and acquisition logistics are relatively light. LF seismic data has potential applications at any point in the exploration and production lifecycle where a measurement of the fluid system is useful. By offering a unique and complementary measurement of the reservoir fluid system that integrates with conventional G&G data to paint a more complete picture of oil and gas reservoirs, LF seismic data improves outcomes, from reducing exploration risk through to mapping remaining reserves. Brad Birkelo, a 24-year member of SEG, has served the Society in a number of capacities over the years. He was secretary-treasurer in 2006–07, chaired the Finance and Audit Committee in 2007–08, and is vice-chairman of the Strategic Finance Policy Committee for 2007–09. He served as chairman of the DISC Subcommittee (2003–05) and the SEG/EAGE Joint DISC Committee (2004–05), and was a member of the Committee on Nominations (1999–2001). He is currently a member of the Continuing Education, Membership, Online Technology, and Online Content committees. Birkelo previously served as president of the Permian Basin Geophysical Society (1998–99). He is an active member of SEG, AAPG, EAGE, and the Geophysical Society of Houston. Birkelo received his MS in geophysics from the University of Kansas (1987) and degrees from the University of Minnesota (BS geology in 1982 and BS geophysics in 1983). He recently joined Spectraseis as principal geophysicist where he will work on integrating low-frequency passive seismic data with conventional oil and gas data. He is an owner of Digital Prospectors, an oil and gas consulting firm, and managed their Houston, USA, office for the past 10 years. Prior to Digital Prospectors, Birkelo worked for Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, USA, and Odessa, Texas, USA, where he processed and interpreted seismic data on numerous exploration and development projects. He has also worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division; Kansas Geological Survey; Minnesota Geological Survey; and Delta Environmental Consultants. He is a licensed professional geoscientist in Texas. Spectraseis Spectraseis is the principal technology and service provider in the fast-emerging field of low frequency passive seismic geophysical surveys to help oil and gas companies more efficiently find and produce hydrocarbon reserves. Spectraseis researches and applies proprietary technologies, on land and offshore, to acquire and analyze low frequency (<10 Hz) seismic background waves continuously present in the Earth’s subsurface in order to identify spectral attributes indicating the likely presence or absence of hydrocarbons within a survey area. The resulting information can greatly reduce the risk and improve the success rate of costly oil exploration and drilling activities and improve decision-making throughout the life of a field. Broad adoption of the company's technology by the global oil and gas exploration and production industry can be expected to save billions of dollars each year which is currently expended on non-productive exploration surveys and dry wells, as well as greatly improve the industry's environmental performance. Spectraseis was established in 2003 and is privately held. Warburg Pincus and Hydro Technology Ventures, a unit of StatoilHydro, are significant shareholders, together with the company’s management team. More...

16:15 Closing Tea & Coffee

Day Two

9:30 Welcome by David Bamford

9:35 David Bamford - Director Finding Petroleum Impact of Macondo: Do we now know what happened? What does it mean for global exploration? David Bamford is 63. He is a non-executive director at Tullow Oil plc and has various roles with Parkmead Group plc, PARAS Ltd and New Eyes Exploration Ltd, and runs his own consultancy. He writes regular articles for OilVoice and ROGTEC and is a co-founder of Finding Petroleum. He retired from BP in 2003, after a 23 year career spent initially in research & technology, then the geophysics function, business unit leadership, and finally BP's global exploration programme. Finding Petroleum Finding Petroleum was established to help the oil and gas industry network, and stay up to date on the latest technological developments. It does this via hosting regular events, distributing their colour magazine - Digital Energy Journal, and with an online social network of nearly 700 members. More...

10:00 Jim Farnsworth - Cobalt International Gulf of Mexico & West Africa Deep Water Jim Farnsworth is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience. Prior to joining Cobalt, Jim was at BP, where he served in various capacities since 1983, and since 2002 was Vice President of World-Wide Exploration and Technology. In this role, he was responsible for BP's global exploration strategy and execution. Prior positions at BP include: VP of North America Exploration; VP of Gulf of Mexico Exploration; and Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Production Manager. Mr. Farnsworth earned his B.S. in Geology from Indiana University and his M.S. in Geophysics from W. Michigan University. Cobalt International Energy, L.P. is a private oil and gas exploration and production company focusing on the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and offshore West Africa. The company was formed in 2005 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Cobalt currently holds a working interest in 225 leases in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Blocks 9 and 21 offshore Angola, and in the Diaba License offshore Gabon. Cobalt’s financial sponsors include Goldman Sachs, Carlyle/Riverstone, First Reserve Corporation, KERN Partners, and Management. Cobalt International Cobalt's strategic objective is very clear: to create distinctive value for investors by exploring for oil in the largest hydrocarbon rich plays in the deep offshore waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and West Africa, with an emphasis on sub-salt and pre-salt exploration, development, and production. More...

10:30 Chris Matchette-Downes - VP Business Development MD Oil The Caribbean, especially Jamaica Chris is a Petroleum geological consultant and owner of MDOIL Ltd. He was also a founder member of EAX and was the Vice President of Business Development, East Africa Exploration from early 2005 until the end of 2009. Chris experience includes ten year's geological geochemical scientific / technical experience, including 5 years at the wellsite; fifteen year's global E&P business development, UK/Europe, Africa, Near, Middle and Far East, Australia and North and Central America & Sri Lanka. High lights include building a G&G team together to bid on UKCS blocks; securing PSA option offshore Tanzania and South Africa; helping to secure further Western Indian Ocean assets in Seychelles, Madagascar and Kenya; setting up Jamaica's ongoing first oil and gas bid round. Running for TPDC the 3rd Tanzanian licence round; building new petroleum geochemical understanding for East Africa and co-founder of EAX and MDOIL ltd. MSc & BSc. MD Oil MDOIL's purpose is to assist overseas governments promote their neglected oil and gas exploration acreage in frontier areas to international oil and gas companies by; the analysis of vintage data sets; providing new geochemical and geological analysis; new geological understanding and modern digital data packages for license to oil companies. More...

11:00 Tea & Coffee Break - Sponsored by Spectraseis

11:30 Alex Prokofjevs - Bernstein Research Russia - problems and opportunities Alex Prokofjevs is a Research Associate at Bernstein where he works with Senior Analyst Oswald Clint covering European and Russian Oil & Gas stocks. Alex joined Bernstein in 2009 after graduating from London Business School with a Masters in Finance. Prior to LBS, Alex had worked in M&A at SEB Enskilda, the Nordic investment banking. Besides his native Russian, Alex is also fluent in French and Latvian. Bernstein Research Sanford C. Bernstein is widely recognized as Wall Street's premier sell-side research firm. Their research is sought out by leading investment managers around the world, and they are annually ranked at the very top of acknowledged arbiters. In independent surveys of major institutional clients, Bernstein's research is ranked #1 for overall quality, industry knowledge, most trusted, best detailed financial analysis, major company studies, most useful valuation frameworks, best original research, and most willing to challenge management. In Institutional Investor's 2008 annual client survey, the leading survey by which analysts in our industry are evaluated, 100% of our U.S. Analysts were recognized as among the best in their respective fields -- more than any other firm on Wall Street. More...

12:00 Mark Enfield - Aurelian Oil & Gas The Carpathians Mark is Managing Director of PDF Limited, an exploration consultancy with particular experience in Central and Eastern Europe, and is currently highly active in this area for Aurelian Oil & Gas, on behalf of whom this conference presentation is being given. Mark is originally a structural geologist and gained his PhD in Extensional Tectonics and Basin Architecture from Imperial College, London. Mark began in the oil industry with Maxus Energy, firstly in London and then in Dallas, Texas where he worked on global New Ventures (especially Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Far East), exploration and operations (especially on- and off-shore Europe, Africa, Indonesia) and development projects (North America onshore and Gulf of Mexico). Mark left Dallas in 1994 and came back to the UK to found PDF as an exploration consultancy. Since the mid 1990’s Mark has worked extensively on Central and Eastern European projects, the North Sea, Indian sub-continent, Africa and Madagascar, South American fold thrust belts and the Near East. PDF Limited is an international petroleum exploration consultancy based in South Oxfordshire. PDF comprises 11 geoscientists, and has particular specialisations in the areas of: fold thrust belt exploration, interpretation of tectonically complex areas and difficult data sets, sequence stratigraphy, sedimentology, basin analysis and maturity modelling. Aurelian Oil & Gas Aurelian Oil & Gas was formed in 2002 by Michael Seymour and floated on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investments Market (AIM) in 2006, and it is listed under the ticker 'AUL'. Rowen Bainbridge was recently appointed CEO and Mark Reid as CFO. Aurelian focuses on Central Europe with licences in Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, and it is the operator of most of its licences. Aurelian's strategy is to apply proven technologies utilised in the rest of the world that have as yet not been applied in their operational areas due to the history of the region. Aurelian recently announced it intended to exit areas it deems non-core, most notably Romania and Bulgaria, and focus on the Rotiegendes in Poland and the Carpathians in Poland and Slovakia. Aurelian's most significant current asset is the Siekierki gas field in Poland, which is a tight gas accumulation that will be developed utilising horizontal drilling techniques and multi-stage frac’ing similar to those used in North American gas plays. Exploration will focus on the Carpathians, which have seen very little modern exploration. More...

12:30 Ken Chew - IHS European unconventional gas Dr Ken Chew is currently VP - Industry Performance for the Energy Division of IHS Inc. Ken is a geologist with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of Aberdeen, where he specialised in the study of mineral deposits. He subsequently worked for BP in Aberdeen as a petroleum geologist, mainly on the northern North Sea and in 1976 joined the academic staff of the Geology Department of University College Galway, where he lectured principally on applied aspects of geology. In 1978 he moved to Petroconsultants Ltd. in Dublin where he became the assistant manager and head of research, with overall responsibility for the company's petroleum exploration database. In 1987 Ken transferred to Petroconsultants' Geneva headquarters, heading divisions on E&P Database, Computerized Services, Geological Information and Database Support & Client Services. Early in 2006 Ken left the IHS Geneva office and has since worked for IHS out of his home in the Scottish highlands. Since the acquisition of Petroconsultants by IHS, Ken has worked on new information sets in the company analysis domain and manages the Company and Country statistical modules of the IHS PEPS (Petroleum Economics and Policy Solutions) online database. He also carries out analysis and consultancy based on the Energy Division's international E&P database, with particular emphasis on global hydrocarbon supply and resources (conventional and non-conventional) and on E&P company performance. He has lectured and published on many aspects of worldwide hydrocarbon E&P, on E&P databases, database standards and on information management. IHS IHS (formerly Technical Indexes), is a leading global source of critical information and insight dedicated to providing the most complete and trusted information and expertise. IHS product and service solutions span four areas of information that encompass the most important concerns facing global business today: Energy, Product Lifecycle, Security, and Environment, all supported by Macroeconomics. By focusing on our customers first, IHS enables innovative and successful decision-making for customers ranging from governments and multinational companies to smaller companies and technical professionals in more than 180 countries. More...

13:00 Lunch

14:15 Dr Keith Myers - Founding Partner Richmond Energy Partners Exploration performance of smaller companies After completing a Ph. D. at Imperial College, Keith joined BP in 1987 as a geologist. Following a variety of technical roles, he became a Senior Commercial Advisor in 1996 when he led several major negotiations for new business access as well as Business Strategies for BP’s business in West Africa and BP’s Strategic Alliance with Statoil. Since 2000 Keith has been an advisor to numerous energy companies on strategy and partnership issues Keith founded Richmond Energy Partners in 2006 to provide independent advice to investors in smaller oil and gas companies. Richmond Energy advise some of the largest funds and institutions investing in the sector. Keith takes a keen interest in oil sector governance and served on the organising committee of the Good Governance of the National Petroleum Sector Project at the think tank Chatham House. Richmond Energy Partners Richmond Energy Partners was founded in 2006 and provides independent advice to investors in smaller oil and gas companies. It provides advice to some of the largest funds and institutions investing in oil and gas. Dr Myers has a Phd from Imperial College, London and joined BP as a geologist in 1987, eventually becoming senior commercial advisor at BP in 1996, leading negotiations for new business access for BP in Angola and in its strategic alliance with Statoil. More...

14:45 Bob Heath - Technical Marketing Manager iSeis Wireless Onshore Seismic - “Getting it Together” The notion of acquiring land seismic data without resorting to cables is far from new. For more than three decades, this industry has been giving birth to various technologies to make the task in some sense “more possible”. However, modern wireless hardware comes from a different gene pool and the offspring is expected to cope in a world needing independent, low weight, nodal, continuous recording capabilities. It must be happy in very awkward environments where cable cannot go, and provide ultra-large numbers of channels to record higher quality data. There are already about a dozen new era systems vying for attention - though not all have been used in anger and some wonder how many will get past their first post- natal examination. This hardware falls into two broad categories: (A) that which has neither any ability to send data to the recorder nor pick up remote control commands from it, and (B) that which can be remotely controlled, and return some amount of data, ranging from QC/status to the whole seismic record. While (generally speaking) Group A hardware is lower in cost to buy and to use, it now seems that only group B has any chance to see adulthood in large enough numbers to make the drastic changes that the land industry needs. But there is now a new twist in this story. Whereas cablefree continuous record systems have made new acquisition techniques possible (or at least, more practical) they also exposed the next weakest link of the chain - the source controllers. The role for such equipment, devised in an era when all sources were well behaved and under the strict control of the recording system, has now drastically changed, with vibrators, and even some impulsive land sources, required to operate in what looks like an unrestricted free-for-all. This paper discusses the necessity of instrumentation “getting it together” such that geophysicists are no longer limited by restrictive equipment, and may indulge their imaginations to devise surveys which suit exploration requirements not hardware limitations. Professional Qualification: Previous Vice Chairman SEG Technical Standards Committee, SEG Silver Medal. Member of EAGE, SEG, PESGB. BSc (Hons) Physics, University of Southampton. Experience & Organization: Involved in land seismic acquisition techniques, engineering and marketing since 1976. Written large number of articles and papers, given talks, on modern land acquisition. Probably given more talks/articles on cablefree acquisition and future land recording instrumentation than any other. Accomplishments: Involved in the start up of large number of new seismic instrumentation companies, research and marketing of new seismic systems and techniques. At forefront internationally of bringing new technologies to improve land seismic. iSeis iSeis is part of the Seismic Source Company, established about ten years ago to research and design new advanced and specialised source control systems, and is now the world's largest independent company involved in vibroseis research. In 2008 iSeis was established to develop the world's first Next Generation cablefree land seismic system. Taking on board lessons learned from other systems, customer feedback and the better integration of source control suited to cablefree recording, iSeis is now a leading developer of land acquisition hardware. Currently its equipment is acquiring data from what is believed to be the largest seismic spread ever lit up at one go - about 300 sq.miles. More...

15:15 Martin Bett - CEO Stingray Geophysical Ltd The light bulb as a symbol of innovation and other things – how to enlighten your reservoir The light bulb has long been used as a symbol of innovation, denoting the origination of a smart idea, the sudden flash of understanding or insight into how to achieve something - often in a new, different and pioneering way. Yet this very symbol of innovation, the incandescent light bulb, has been banned from sale within the EU since September 2009 to force the uptake of more energy-efficient light bulbs. There are a number of parallels between this and the emergence of fibre-optic based seismic permanent reservoir monitoring (Seismic PRM) solutions. By “listening with light”, optical sensing systems allow operators to maximise production and total recovery whilst reducing risk and cost over the life of a field. Yet, although the business case is compelling, in both situations, adoption has been resisted. This presentation will explore some of the parallels between the slow adoption of energy-efficient light bulbs and Seismic PRM and postulate on the logical reasons behind illogical behaviour. It will also suggest some approaches for improving our industry’s ability to adopt new technologies in a more timely manner and access the benefits earlier, having a positive and proactive impact on our stewardship of precious hydrocarbon resources. Martin Bett has over 30 years’ oil industry experience working in operational and management positions for Schlumberger, Landmark, I-NET, Trade-Ranger and QinetiQ. Prior to founding Stingray Geophysical, he has established and grown businesses in Europe, USA, South America and Africa, and has a track record for closing large transactions for new and pioneering products and services. Martin has a BSc in Geophysics from Southampton University, UK, and an MBA with Distinction from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Lausanne, Switzerland. Stingray Geophysical Ltd Stingray Geophysical, a TGS Company, provides advanced Permanent Reservoir Monitoring (PRM) solutions to the global oil and gas industry, enabling increased production and recoverable reserves at lower through-life cost and risk through improved reservoir management strategies. By 'listening with light' using Stingray's reliable, permanently installed Fosar® fibre-optic sensing arrays, oil companies benefit from high quality, cost-effective and repeatable seismic on demand in all field scenarios. Together with its global network of trusted partners, and as a part of TGS, Stingray delivers complete, integrated seismic PRM from planning, through active and passive seismic acquisition, to processing and reservoir solutions. More...

15:45 Brad Birkelo - Spectraseis Novel seismic reservoir characterization The fluid content of reservoir rocks is probably the single most important piece of information about an oil and gas reservoir. Typically this is measured during the logging of wells for exploration and field development. Once production starts the fluid system changes and can only be measured by drilling and logging more wells, which still only provides a snapshot in time. Low Frequency (LF) seismic data provides a surface measurement of reservoirs fluids and can be repeated quickly and cost-effectively. LF fluid signals are generated through the interaction of the earth’s natural energy with the reservoir. No active source is required and acquisition logistics are relatively light. LF seismic data has potential applications at any point in the exploration and production lifecycle where a measurement of the fluid system is useful. By offering a unique and complementary measurement of the reservoir fluid system that integrates with conventional G&G data to paint a more complete picture of oil and gas reservoirs, LF seismic data improves outcomes, from reducing exploration risk through to mapping remaining reserves. Brad Birkelo, a 24-year member of SEG, has served the Society in a number of capacities over the years. He was secretary-treasurer in 2006–07, chaired the Finance and Audit Committee in 2007–08, and is vice-chairman of the Strategic Finance Policy Committee for 2007–09. He served as chairman of the DISC Subcommittee (2003–05) and the SEG/EAGE Joint DISC Committee (2004–05), and was a member of the Committee on Nominations (1999–2001). He is currently a member of the Continuing Education, Membership, Online Technology, and Online Content committees. Birkelo previously served as president of the Permian Basin Geophysical Society (1998–99). He is an active member of SEG, AAPG, EAGE, and the Geophysical Society of Houston. Birkelo received his MS in geophysics from the University of Kansas (1987) and degrees from the University of Minnesota (BS geology in 1982 and BS geophysics in 1983). He recently joined Spectraseis as principal geophysicist where he will work on integrating low-frequency passive seismic data with conventional oil and gas data. He is an owner of Digital Prospectors, an oil and gas consulting firm, and managed their Houston, USA, office for the past 10 years. Prior to Digital Prospectors, Birkelo worked for Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, USA, and Odessa, Texas, USA, where he processed and interpreted seismic data on numerous exploration and development projects. He has also worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division; Kansas Geological Survey; Minnesota Geological Survey; and Delta Environmental Consultants. He is a licensed professional geoscientist in Texas. Spectraseis Spectraseis is the principal technology and service provider in the fast-emerging field of low frequency passive seismic geophysical surveys to help oil and gas companies more efficiently find and produce hydrocarbon reserves. Spectraseis researches and applies proprietary technologies, on land and offshore, to acquire and analyze low frequency (<10 Hz) seismic background waves continuously present in the Earth’s subsurface in order to identify spectral attributes indicating the likely presence or absence of hydrocarbons within a survey area. The resulting information can greatly reduce the risk and improve the success rate of costly oil exploration and drilling activities and improve decision-making throughout the life of a field. Broad adoption of the company's technology by the global oil and gas exploration and production industry can be expected to save billions of dollars each year which is currently expended on non-productive exploration surveys and dry wells, as well as greatly improve the industry's environmental performance. Spectraseis was established in 2003 and is privately held. Warburg Pincus and Hydro Technology Ventures, a unit of StatoilHydro, are significant shareholders, together with the company’s management team. More...

16:15 Closing Tea & Coffee