Advances in Exploration Technology
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
London
The Geological Society
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Getting the most out of exploration data is not just about doing surveys - it's about how you fitting together different survey data to get the most out of it.
This is the theme explored at the Finding Petroleum forum in London, "advances in exploration technology".
Joe Mongan, group manager geophysical technology with Tullow Oil, explained how Tullow Oil puts together exploration information from various sources in Uganda, to become one of the world's biggest exploration success stories.
We had presentations on using remote sensing (satellite image data), geochemical imaging (finding oil from analysis of oil samples), using gravity gradiometry, and 3D seismic surveys on land.
Introduction from conference producer David Bamford:
There is no doubt we know many of the technologies we need to explore both onshore and offshore successfully, to answer some key questions regarding petroleum systems, reservoir presence, prospect risk and so on. It's clear that not every company deploys this available technology.
On the other hand, it's also clear that the development of many such technologies for onshore exploration has been neglected in comparison with those used offshore - for example the continued 'insistence' of oil field service companies on offering cable-based land & transition zone seismic ensures that the exploration 'weapon of choice' - regional 3D - is prohibitively expensive onshore.
The presentations in this Forum illustrate the focussing approach inherent in onshore exploration, beginning with what can be detected on a large scale from space, then how working petroleum systems might be evidenced by geochemical sampling, then sub-regional geology can be revealed by gravity, how land 3D seismic might finally become a viable onshore exploration tool, and finally illustrating the integration of many techniques in Tullow Oil's Uganda exploration program.
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David Bamford is well known around the oil & gas industry both as an explorer and a geophysicist. He holds a Physics degree from the University of Bristol and a Ph.D in Geological Sciences from the University of Birmingham.
Since 2004, he has been a non-executive director at Tullow Oil plc, being recruited for this position especially for his exploration knowledge. He serves on the Nominations and Remuneration Committees, and was chairman of the latter, and Senior Independent Director, for 3 years prior to his retire from the board at the end of April 2014.
He was on the board of Premier Oil from May 2014 to May 2016.
He retired from BP plc in 2003, his last four positions being Chief Geophysicist (1990-1995), Business Unit Leader (General Manager) for first West Africa and then Norway (1995-1999), and finally Head of Exploration until 2003.
He has served on the boards of Paras Ltd, a small exploration and IS/IT consulting company in which he held 22% equity, until its sale to RPS Energy in 2008 and Welltec a/s, a Danish well engineering company, as the nominee of the private equity investor Riverside.
From 2012 to 201 he was on the board of ASX-quoted Australia Oriental Energy as a non-executive director.
He was a founder of Richmond Energy Partners, a small oil & gas research house, and several media companies that focus on the oil & gas sector, and has served as an advisor to Alliance Bernstein, Opus Executive, the Parkmead Group plc, and Kimmeridge Energy LLP. Since retiring from BP, he has undertaken asset and company valuation projects for investment banks, hedge funds and small oil companies.
Finding Petroleum
Finding Petroleum was established to help the oil and gas industry network, and stay up to date on t
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Peter graduated from Aberdeen University, Scotland in 1973 with a First Class Honours in Geology. He joined British Petroleum and worked worldwide in a range of senior exploration and management positions. In 1988 Peter graduated from the Sloan Program at Stanford University, with a Masters in Management Science. In 1993 Peter set up his own company and has worked since then as an international consultant to the oil and gas industry. In 1997 he set up the initial joint venture with BPC-93 in Belarus before Scotforth was incorporated in 2000.
Scotforth Ltd
Scotforth's unique "RSDD-H" exploration surveys provide a rapid, low cost prospectivity assessment o
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Founded in 1958, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. is a privately-held company headquartered in Newark,
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Talk Description
Once considered a niche technology, gravity gradiometry imaging (GGI) is today becoming a significant line item in exploration budgets, providing valuable additional data to incorporate into the exploration workflow. Although 2D and 3D seismic continue to be the technology of choice in frontier exploration - both onshore and offshore - the deeper and more complex geological settings, and the continued need to explore large areas while controlling costs, have focused attention toward additional technologies such as GGI.
This presentation will illustrate the value of GGI data and how it has been incorporated into the exploration workflow using a series of examples from the Middle East, Africa and the Gulf of Mexico.
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David has more than 30 years of experience working in the oil industry, most of it spent in exploration with BP and development/production with Chevron. David graduated in geology at the University of Leicester in 1976, and obtained a PhD at Birmingham University (1979). From 1979-1984 David was a Research Fellow in Hydrogeology followed by a Research Fellowship in Civil Engineering at Birmingham University.
During his time with BP he worked on many petroleum systems including the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, SE Asia and W Africa. In Chevron, before joining the global reservoir asset management team, his major projects included the geosteering of extended reach horizontal wells in the Alba Field up to its plateau production in the late 90s, and from 2000-2006 he worked on the Greater Burgan Field in Kuwait where he led a subsurface team responsible for the reservoir management involving the drilling of over 140 wells in an attempt to increase production after the ravages of the Iraq invasion in the early 90s. In 2008 David joined ARKeX as VP of their Interpretation Services, and this year he joined Dolphin Geophysical as Global Manager Multi-Client New Ventures.
Dolphin Geophysical
Dolphin Geophysical is a global, full-range supplier of marine geophysical services. Dolphin operate
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During Ian Jack's time in BP he ran the seismic field operations team, the subsurface R&D program, served as an SEG vice president, and inaugurated the SEG's "Distinguished Instructor" program with a 1-day 4D course taught worldwide. BP awarded him their “distinguished advisor” title in 2000, and in this role he initiated the first at-scale “Life of Field” seismic monitoring system which was subsequently installed in the Valhall field. He also initiated developments in land seismic technology which are coming to fruition at the present time. Although now "mostly retired" and quite undistinguished, he consults, does some teaching, and hikes around any convenient mountain range.
Ian is a physicist who strayed into geophysics by attending a job interview with GSI for interview practice, and was unable subsequently to say no to the unexpected job offer. That was in 1968 and he worked as a field engineer, then in data processing and software development before joining BP 10 years later.
Ian Jack
Ian is a physicist who strayed into geophysics by attending a job interview with GSI for interview p
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Tullow Oil plc is one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration companies in Europe. The Gr
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