Exploring internationally for unconventional oil and gas
... finding the "sweet spots"
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FEATURED SPEAKERS
Matthew Turner
» Senior Researcher, Energy Technical Operations
» IHS
Henry Lang
» Client Sector Leader for Oil & Gas
» Golder Associates
Full Agenda
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
London
The Geological Society
Kimmeridge Energy’s analyses(1) show that the economics of a US shale play can vary considerably depending whether you are in the ‘core’ or ‘non-core’ of that play. Post-drill of course definition of what is ‘core’ or ‘non-core’ is relatively straightforward, especially when there is a huge data base with which to work – of well logs, cuttings, core, flow rates etc; the whole lends itself to statistical analysis. In a data-rich basin, this analysis may even be possible pre-drill; as Kimmeridge Energy put it “defining the core relies on mapping optimal convergence of various technical attributes”, for example mineralogy, depth, thickness, porosity, permeability, fracturing, TOC/R0, S1 for the ‘target’ shale.
How many North American players will be able to successfully translate their US and Canada experiences to the international scene? Costs are likely to be higher almost anywhere on the planet outside North America and so defining the ‘core’ – the ‘sweet spot’ - of a shale play pre-drill will be absolutely critical; to do this, companies promising to succeed internationally will need access to key skills, perhaps especially in petroleum geochemistry, that have been neglected in the pursuit of offshore, especially deepwater, provinces.
Also, and importantly, the amount of data, and perhaps especially its quality, will be significantly less than that typically found in the USA.
Can geophysics help, specifically seismic technology? The immediate answer seems to be Yes; there have been several studies of the geophysical properties of shales with several recent examples prompted by the ‘shale gale’. It’s somewhat different from say mapping channel geometries in deep water clastic systems, and then predicting fluid fill and porosities from acoustic impedance or AVO, but it can be done.
Historical data also show that well productivity is a function of the induced fracture extent and how well the formation can maintain those fractures. ‘Frackability’, the propensity of the formation to fracture and maintain the fracture, is directly correlated with brittleness and thus an important additional requirement of predicting shale ‘sweet spots’ is to forecast brittleness, identifying the reservoirs tendency to fail under stress and then to maintain a fracture.
So whilst there has been a logical focus on exploitation issues in thinking about exporting the US ‘shale gale’ to the Rest of the World – whether the necessary drilling & completions equipment exist in the required numbers elsewhere, whether public and political opinion will support exploitation, whether the necessary supporting workforce and infrastructure exists – this Forum's focus will be on whether we actually know how to explore for these so-called ‘resource plays’ in an international setting?
(1) http://www.findingpetroleum.com/event/Developments_with_unconventionals/260f5.aspx
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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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Talk Description
Unconventional hydrocarbon exploration and production has been a topic of growing interest in recent years. Shale gas extraction in the United States (US) has pushed gas prices down from $8 per MCF to below $3 per MCF. This has been followed by a tight oil revolution, reducing the US dependency on oil and gas imports. With such apparent rewards it isn’t surprising that many other countries are looking into their own geology to see whether they have the ability to replicate this modern gold rush. In 2010, an IHS CERA multi-client study – Breaking with Convention – estimated that Europe could have up to 6,115 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of unconventional gas-in-place.
The United Kingdom is underlain by a large variety of hydrocarbon bearing rocks. To date only the conventional type reservoirs such as porous sandstones and limestones have been exploited. It has been known since 1875 that shale gas was present within the UK but it is only since 2006 that companies have actively been pursuing shale as a potential commercial hydrocarbon bearing rock. These unconventional horizons include tight sands, shales and coal. A number of other countries are also exploring their unconventional hydrocarbon potential and it is anticipated thatthis resource may see a new boom in the oil and gas industry and potentially change the global geopolitical landscape.
At IHS there is a bespoke team of geoscientists developing a global unconventional resources play database. The intention is to build a comprehensive and dynamic database which will allow a rapid and systematic analogue study across the globe.
This talk introduces some of the background to IHS efforts and then introduces a series of casestudies highlighting some of the basins already mapped. |
Matthew is a geoscientist who has experience in a wide range of geological and geo-environmental disciplines. He has worked in both industry and academia and is specialized in unconventional hydrocarbon exploration and extraction.
With over 10 years experience in the geosciences Matthew has spent time working as a geophysicist before undertaking a research project looking at the feasibility of underground coal gasification (UCG) in Wales. He was then appointed senior geologist for a company looking to develop UCG projects globally before returning to academia to investigate enhanced coalbed methane recovery.
During this project he built a detailed coal seam scale geological model of the South Wales Coalfield and managed the construction of a bespoke piece of laboratory equipment designed to investigate coal and shale behavior in high stress situations.
Currently Matthew is working on global unconventional resources at IHS where he is building geological models of a variety of sedimentary basins and gathering geochemical data to evaluate the resource potential of the deposits.
To date he has mapped the Bowland shale and the UK coalfields aswell as much of the shale and coal deposits within Indonesia.
IHS
IHS is the leading source of information, insight and analytics in critical areas that shape today's
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Talk Description
Shale gas and oil sweet-spot identification using both sparse and rich data sets with both petroleum systems and play fairway analysis: examples including the Utica shale gas and Bakken oil plays.
Dr. Leonard a founder of Platte River Associates, Inc., has over 40 years experience in computer and quantitative technology for petroleum exploration on the basin, petroleum system, play and prospect scale. Commencing his career as an ASW marine scientist at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN) in Cambridge, MA. (BBN developed the ARPANET which evolved to become the internet), he received his doctorial degree from Boston University. After, he has served as a faculty member at Bryn Mawr College, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and as an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina, the Petroleum University of Beijing, PRC and Keele University, UK. In the petroleum industry, he was an explorationist for Amoco Production Company and a research geologist for Getty Oil Company. He has been a columnist in the AAPG Explorer and a former editor and regular back-page columnist for Geobyte magazine. He has taught several AAPG courses ranging from Basin Modeling to Surface Modeling to Play Analysis. He has been a keynote speaker for several major petroleum industry functions, and has over 150 publications in both refereed and non refereed journals.
Dr. Leonard is keenly interested in the assessment of unconventional and conventional resource plays and has either worked, supervised, or managed the geologic assessment of over 50 basins worldwide. Through Platte River Associates, Inc. he has developed a proprietary resource play workflow combining the techniques of Basin and Petroleum System Modeling with Play Fairway Analysis and Reservoir Modeling to establish economic "sweet spots" in both shale gas and shale oil exploration. This workflow was successfully applied to the Bakken Shale play in the Parshall field area in North Dakota. This supported the purchase of mineral rights for over 70,000 acres. It was also applied to a multi-client study of the Marcellus Shale. |
Provider of petroleum systems modelling solutions that support the evaluation of hydrocarbon potenti
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Environmental and geological consultant with over 30 years experience across various sectors and disciplines. Broad experience of provision of environmental and engineering support to Oil and Gas sector globally.
Golder Associates
Established in the UK since 1973, we provide innovative, reliable and cost-efficient consulting, des
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Established in the UK since 1973, we provide innovative, reliable and cost-efficient consulting, des
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Talk Description
- Surface Issues
- Sub-surface Issues
- What we can learn from the US experince?
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Environmental and geological consultant with over 30 years experience across various sectors and disciplines. Broad experience of provision of environmental and engineering support to Oil and Gas sector globally.
Golder Associates
Established in the UK since 1973, we provide innovative, reliable and cost-efficient consulting, des
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Talk Description
- Overview and practical application in Shale
- Working model and case study using Golder’s FracMan®
- Interactive discussion with Q&A?
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Established in the UK since 1973, we provide innovative, reliable and cost-efficient consulting, des
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Talk Description
- Water supply
- Dealing with Contaminated water and water Disposal
- Protection of groundwater
- Strategic decision making tool
- Case study
- Q & A
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Established in the UK since 1973, we provide innovative, reliable and cost-efficient consulting, des
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Environmental and geological consultant with over 30 years experience across various sectors and disciplines. Broad experience of provision of environmental and engineering support to Oil and Gas sector globally.
Golder Associates
Established in the UK since 1973, we provide innovative, reliable and cost-efficient consulting, des
More... | |
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