The North Atlantic - where are the big fields hiding?

Understanding the North Atlantic opportunity 0

Tuesday, October 30, 2012, London, The Geological Society

We would like to invite you register to attend our free half day forum in London on October 30th about where the big fields might be hiding in the North Atlantic and technologies which might help access them safely.

The event includes tools for accessing technical expertise from oil and gas experts outside your company; a case study of analysing ocean floor cores from offshore Newfoundland and Labrador; a look at offshore Nova Scotia; the case for Ireland; and using data from the West of Shetland.

Speakers include Ian Vann, formerly group vice president, exploration and business development with BP; Greg Coleman, formely group vice president HSE and security with BP, and Graham Scotton, formerly general manager of BP Angola.

Somewhat surprisingly the North Atlantic is beginning to feel like a poor cousin in exploration terms.

The South Atlantic has chalked up a series of new petroleum provinces – Deep Water Angola and Nigeria, the West Africa Transform Margin, maybe French Guiana, certainly the Santos and Campos basins of Brasil – with disappointment in the Falklands and offshore Namibia, perhaps.

In contrast, the North Atlantic has offered little recently, with next to nothing along the North American seaboard, disappointment offshore Greenland (so far), nothing much offshore Ireland, Spain and Portugal, not very much in the Norwegian Sea, modest discoveries West of the Shetlands……..

What is going on? Is it that the geoscience ‘fundamentals’ are simply not working for us in the North Atlantic or that we have not yet unravelled them?

Or, bizarrely, are the regulatory and fiscal regimes more difficult in the North?

Or is the North Atlantic simply a tougher, more hostile, place in which to contemplate a development?

If the latter two concerns predominate, then the discovery of big oil fields will change everything! Where might they be hiding?

Agenda

9:30 Hamish Wilson - CEO & Founder - BluEnergy Welcome & Introduction Mr Wilson was previously founder and managing director of Paras Consulting, which was acquired by RPS Energy in October 2008. He worked as an exploration geologist at BP covering the North Sea, South East Asia and Alaska, and then became BP's project manager of corporate database development. BluEnergy

9:40 Brian Smart, Greg Coleman, Graham Scotton - - Future Energy Partners Ltd 21st Century Risk Management - HSE and more Talk Description. Frontiers such as the North Atlantic pose new risks in relation to exploration, appraisal, development, production, decommissioning and abandonment. The traditional approach of companies faced with these risks is to use their own banks of understanding, to examine what others know, to invest in the generation of new understanding, and to look over their shoulders at what other operators are doing. For companies pioneering the development of a new frontier, some of these opportunities are limited. Sourcing of relevant understanding from a diverse community is therefore key, and we look at a new way of providing access to available understanding in the context of fractured basement reservoirs. Future Energy Partners Ltd Future Energy Partners (FEP) is a unique oil and gas advisory service which prides itself on technical excellence in selected fields and supplementing business management and leadership; in the face of uncertainty. We offer truthful, professional opinion and advice; no playback of what you already know, and no spin. FEP was founded by 4 senior industry practitioners who consider the challenges faced by today's oil and gas environment are going to require herculean acts of leadership and technical skill in a transforming, transitioning, industry, in order to maintain an energy supply that is sustainable and even recognisable compared to recent history. Similarly nations developing an oil and gas industry face related challenges as they seek to maximise the benefits of this new wealth-creating opportunity - in a responsible manner. Global reach FEP actively participates in the facilitation and conduct of seminars and webinars worldwide, for example in conjunction with its associate partner Finding Petroleum. Our presence reaches parts of the globe, such as: the UK, the USA, Sub-Saharan Africa, with partners wherever we work.

10:15 Paul Harrington - - GORE® Surveys Analysis of preserved ocean floor cores for hydrocarbons from the east coast of Newfoundland and Labrador Talk Description. Over 5000 offshore ocean floor cores have been taken from the Atlantic region of Canada. These cores are preserved and date back to the 1970's but were never analyzed for hydrocarbons. A selection of cores dating from 2011 back to 2001 were sampled to determine if hydrocarbon signal in detectable quantifies can be found on some of these cores. If so the scope of the project can be expanded. Any information gained from the analysis can than be used to help guide additional exploration efforts in areas where very little exploration has occurred to date. GORE® Surveys Founded in 1958, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. is a privately-held company headquartered in Newark, Delaware, USA. For more than 50 years, Gore has built a worldwide reputation for ethics and integrity in its dealings with customers, suppliers, and employees, and for taking a long-term view when assessing business situations. Today, Gore has approximately 9,000 employees, called associates, located in 30 countries worldwide, with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Germany, Scotland, Japan, and China, and sales offices around the world.

10:50 Tea & Coffee

11:15 Hamish Wilson - CEO & Founder - BluEnergy Why offshore Nova Scotia? Mr Wilson was previously founder and managing director of Paras Consulting, which was acquired by RPS Energy in October 2008. He worked as an exploration geologist at BP covering the North Sea, South East Asia and Alaska, and then became BP's project manager of corporate database development. BluEnergy

11:50 Graham Pritchard and Ian Vann - - Serica Energy The case for Ireland Talk Description. Forty years of sporadic petroleum exploration along the Atlantic margin of Ireland have demonstrated all the required elements of a major petroleum province including the discovery of a several large fields. However, partial success has not to date been converted into the intensity of exploration that the region may merit and Ireland remains something of "the orphan child" of exploration in Western Europe. Globally the last decade has seen major success in many areas previously written off by the industry particularly in Africa, both offshore and onshore, driven largely by innovative exploration and risk management by small and medium sized companies. In this talk we intend to evaluate the potential of this margin, examine some of the elements both technical and commercial that have slowed exploration and demonstrate that major opportunities remain to be explored in our own back-yard. Serica Energy Serica Energy plc is an oil and gas exploration, development and production company with activities in Europe, Africa and Indonesia. The Company has built a portfolio of properties, striking a balance between hydrocarbon-producing basins, where the chances of success are high, and untested basins where success is less certain but the rewards of success are more significant.

12:25 Steve O'Connor - Technical Manager/Senior Geologist - Ikon GeoPressure The Value of Regional Studies in the West of Shetland Talk Description. tba Stephen is a petroleum geologist who has worked with many types of oilfield data, particularly in the areas of reservoir quality, structural geology, fault seal and pore pressure. He started his career working on exploration assignments for Unocal and BP/Amoco, before returning to university to undertake MSc. in Sedimentology at Reading University, studying the Clair Field, West of Shetland. After graduating, he worked as a sedimentologist for a range of consultancies and more recently he specialized in fault seal, working for Rock Deformation Research, which included working in such areas as building structural models using Petrel, petrophysical log interpretation, analysis of fault zone properties and fluid flow on a macro to micro-scale. His current role as Technical Manager at Ikon GeoPressure involves supervising all technical aspects of worldwide project work, including producing pore and fracture pressure profiles using direct pressure measurements, petrophysical logs and seismic velocity data and incorporating results into well plans and field-scale and regional studies. He has published papers in areas such as lateral drainage/hydrodynamics and seal breach. Ikon GeoPressure Ikon GeoPressure provide global best practice in subsurface pressure analysis. Delivering consulting, training and integrated technology to reduce risk and increase success from overpressure and geopressure in exploration, development and production situations. Ikon GeoPressure are part of Ikon Science, the global geoscience technology company committed to bringing innovative geoscience technology to the upstream oil and gas industry. Ikon Science, founded in 2001, employs over 80 people and has offices in London, Durham, Edinburgh, Houston, Boulder, Lagos, Kuala Lumpur and Perth Western Australia.

13:00 Raffle prize draw, followed by lunch and refreshments

Sponsors of this event

RPS Energy
RPS Energy provides a range of technical, commercial and project management support services to the international energy industry, covering geoscience, engineering and HS&E, with offices around the world.

Chemostrat
Chemostrat is the market leader in chemostratigraphy with unparalleled global experience. We offer fully interpreted chemostratigraphy services, along with an accredited data only option (click here for more information). We have recently added stable isotope stratigraphic (SIS), magnetic susceptibility stratigraphy (MSS) and Re/Os geochronology to our portfolio of stratigraphic services. By spending a few moments on our website you can learn more about Chemostrat, the company, and the array of stratigraphic services we provide to the Oil and Gas industry.

Airbus Defence and Space
Astrium Services GEO-Information division comprises the earth observation and imagery exploitation expertise of Infoterra and Spot Image, offering sustainable geospatial solutions.

Astrium's exploration services group provides acquisition, processing, interpretation and management of geospatial data for oil, gas, mineral and engineering companies worldwide.

We provide consultancy services covering the full exploration process, from regional geological studies and natural oil seep mapping to environmental baseline analysis and terrain evaluation for pipeline and facilities planning. Our solutions cover both onshore and offshore exploration and can be delivered direct to you - in the field or the office.

The Astrium Global Seeps database covers over 60 million km² - spanning the Arctic to South America and from Europe through to the Far East and Australasia.

Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems and services. EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services.

Ikon Science
Ikon Science is a global geoprediction technology company providing industry leadership in the prediction of reservoir properties, pressures and fluids. It's RokDoc® software, Quantitative Interpretation, GeoMechanics and GeoPressure services all leverage the power of rock physics to integrate well, geopressure and seismic data to understand the subsurface. Ikon Science's RokDoc software platform and related services are used in over 200 leading oil, gas, energy and service companies throughout the world.

Ikon Science, founded in 2001, has over 200 staff and operates from 19 offices across the world. The company is privately owned and investors include Fleming Family & Partners and Tullow Oil plc.

ICOE Research
ICOE Research Limited is a project-oriented, innovative research center promoting technology and EHS management best practice for the global petroleum industry.

Future Energy Partners Ltd
Future Energy Partners (FEP) is a unique oil and gas advisory service which prides itself on technical excellence in selected fields and supplementing business management and leadership; in the face of uncertainty.

We offer truthful, professional opinion and advice; no playback of what you already know, and no spin.

FEP was founded by 4 senior industry practitioners who consider the challenges faced by today's oil and gas environment are going to require herculean acts of leadership and technical skill in a transforming, transitioning, industry, in order to maintain an energy supply that is sustainable and even recognisable compared to recent history.

Similarly nations developing an oil and gas industry face related challenges as they seek to maximise the benefits of this new wealth-creating opportunity - in a responsible manner.

Global reach

FEP actively participates in the facilitation and conduct of seminars and webinars worldwide, for example in conjunction with its associate partner Finding Petroleum.

Our presence reaches parts of the globe, such as: the UK, the USA, Sub-Saharan Africa, with partners wherever we work.

IHS
IHS is the leading source of information, insight and analytics in critical areas that shape today's business landscape. Businesses and governments in more than 165 countries around the globe rely on the comprehensive content, expert independent analysis and flexible delivery methods of IHS to make high-impact decisions and develop strategies with speed and confidence.

Fugro Robertson
Fugro Robertson is one of the world's leading geoscience companies providing services and products to the upstream oil and gas industry. The organisation is now part of the Fugro group of companies, with offices in 50 countries worldwide and headquarters in Leidschendam, Netherlands. Fugro Robertson is well known and respected throughout the world as a result of its extensive experience in virtually every known and potential hydrocarbon province.

GORE® Surveys
Founded in 1958, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. is a privately-held company headquartered in Newark, Delaware, USA. For more than 50 years, Gore has built a worldwide reputation for ethics and integrity in its dealings with customers, suppliers, and employees, and for taking a long-term view when assessing business situations.

Today, Gore has approximately 9,000 employees, called associates, located in 30 countries worldwide, with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Germany, Scotland, Japan, and China, and sales offices around the world.

Registered Delegates

Ron Daniel Staff Geologist - Suriname	Tom Davitt Business Development Fugro Gravity & Magnetic Services Ireland	Helen Turnell Principal Consultant NR Global Consulting Ltd United Kingdom
Tony Grindrod Trustee AAPG Europe United States	Martin Hodge Business Development & Project Geophysicist Geokinetics United Kingdom	Paul Johnson Managing Consultant PA Consulting United Kingdom
Paul Murphy Key Account Manager, Oil and Gas Division Airbus Defence and Space United Kingdom	Zyg Sarnowski Business Developement Geopartners United Kingdom	Robert Parker Consultant Parker United Kingdom
Dan Hughes Key Account Manager, Oil & Gas Division Airbus Defence and Space	Alex Hall Junior Explorationist GlencoreXstrata United Kingdom	Mark Foster Manager Business Development PetroLead Technologies LLC United Kingdom
Amanda Yensa Manor Consultant Amanda Yensa Manor Sole Trader United Kingdom	Amelia de Coster sale rep Gore Surveys Netherlands	Brian Smart Petromall Malta
Eleanor Murtagh Graduate Arkex United Kingdom	Alexander Chalke Partner Grosvenor Clive & Stokes United Kingdom	Valerie Clure Director Phoenix Hydrocarbon Europe Ltd United Kingdom
Lisa Barnes Sales Geophysicist ARKeX United Kingdom	James Cockings Consultant Petroleum Geologist Gulfsands Petroleum United Kingdom	John Clure Managing Director Phoenix Hydrocarbon Resources Ltd United Kingdom
Ben Pleasant Graduate Trainee in Sales and New Ventures ARKeX United Kingdom	Ed Walsingham Hannon Westwood United Kingdom	Peter Rattey Director PR Exploration Ltd United Kingdom
Alex Richards Business Manager - Oil & Gas BAE Systems Detica United Kingdom	Jayson Marks Partner Holman Fenwick Willan United Kingdom	ARUNA MANNIE Senior Exloration Geoscientist Premier Oil United Kingdom
Graham Pritchard Geologist Blue Sky Geoconsulting Ltd	David Jenkins Director Hurricane Energy plc United Kingdom	John Hother MD Proneta United Kingdom
Ken Gardiner Business Development Business Development Consultant United Kingdom	Thomas Galgut Consultant Hydrogen Group United Kingdom	Josh King Analyst RAB Capital United Kingdom
Andrew Webb Manager, Petroleum Reservoir and Economics CGG United Kingdom	Kevin Chandler Senior Product Manager - International Logs and Seismic IHS United Kingdom	Elaine Hulse Content Director Reed Exhibitions United Kingdom
Sean Waddingham Data Library CGGVeritas United Kingdom	Richard Longhurst Manager Released Data IHS United Kingdom	Kes Heffer Director Reservoir Dynamics Ltd United Kingdom
Ceri Roach Geologist Chemostrat Ltd United Kingdom	Adrian Heafford Senior Geologist IHS United Kingdom	Roger Doery Retired Retired United Kingdom
Anne Benfedda Marketing Manager Chemostrat Ltd	Mark Diaz Director IHS Markit United Kingdom	Steven McTiernan Retired United Kingdom
Micky Allen consultant consultant United Kingdom	Stephen O'Connor Technical Manager Ikon Science	Robert Snashall Consultant RGSConsult United Kingdom
Diwin Amarasinghe Geophysical Specialist Consultant United Kingdom	Rhydian Williams BD Manager EAME Ikon Science United Kingdom	Hamish Wilson Associate Consultant Richmond Energy Partners United Kingdom
Peter Farrington Geophysicist Consultant Geophysicist United Kingdom	Alastair Fraser Professor Imperial College United Kingdom	JOHN GEORGIOU EXPLORATION CONSULTANT GEOPHYSICIST RPS ENERGY United Kingdom
Catherine Plowdon Oil and Gas Analyst Deloitte United Kingdom	Musa Jato Independent Nigeria	Norrie Stanley Consultant RPS Energy United Kingdom
Sophie Fresson Intern Education United Kingdom	Ludmilla Holmes LSBU United Kingdom	Dawn Murton Events Manager RPS Energy United Kingdom
Michael Simpson Oil and Gas Researcher Elk Investments United Kingdom	Mohammed Dahiru Aminu M.Sc. Student LSBU	Aaron Lockwood Software Sales Manager - EAME Shearwater Geoservices United Kingdom
Ali Zolalemin Director Emeres Ltd United Kingdom	Michael Blakemore Director Michael J. Blakemore Ltd United Kingdom	Neil Ritson Chairman Solo Oil United Kingdom
Martin Riddle Technical Manager Envoi United Kingdom	Dominic Rorke Geoscientist TA Neftex United Kingdom	Ian Vann Non-exec Director Spectraseis AG United Kingdom
Hugh Mackay CEO Europa Oil & Gas United Kingdom	Zack Ollerton Geoscientist Neftex Petroleum Consultants Ltd United Kingdom	Anne Hegarty Exploration Intelligence - Analyst Statoil UK Ltd United Kingdom
Gent Kadare Evercore Partners United Kingdom	Marcus Wiltshire Geoscientist Neftex Petroleum Consultants Ltd United Kingdom	Daniel Barnes Consultant StrategicFit United Kingdom
Olumide Ajayi Analyst Exclusive Analysis United Kingdom	Geoff Reed consultant Nexgas United Kingdom	Liz Orchard Business Development Manager TGS United Kingdom
Karl Jeffery Editor Finding Petroleum United Kingdom	Ramesh Shukla Shareholder of exploration companies None United Kingdom	George Reed Director Thorold Dewling Oil and Gas Recruitment United Kingdom
Adam Marmaras Event Organiser Finding Petroleum United Kingdom	Nikki van der Meer Associate Norton Rose LLP United Kingdom	Paul Harrington Senior Geologist WL GORE United States
John Finder Sales Manager Finding Petroleum / Digital Energy Journal United Kingdom	Stuart Fordyce Geologist Novas Consulting United Kingdom	Delete x x x United Kingdom