First Break February 2018 by EAGE

VO L U M E 3 6 I I S S U E 2 I F E B R U A R Y 2 018

SPECIAL TOPIC

Reservoir Monitoring EAGE NEWS Registration for Copenhagen 2018 is open TECHNICAL ARTICLE Mapping the Triassic Kobbe and Snadd formations

AT EVERY STAGE

Accurately Forecast Production With Geostatistical Reservoir Characterization

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FIRST BREAK® An EAGE Publication

CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD Trude Støren (elna@emgs.com) EDITOR Damian Arnold (editorfb@eage.org) MEMBERS, EDITORIAL BOARD • Paul Binns, consultant (pebinns@btinternet.com) • Patrick Corbett, Heriot-Watt University (patrick_corbett@pet.hw.ac.uk) • Tom Davis, Colorado School of Mines (tdavis@mines.edu) • Anthony Day, PGS (anthony.day@pgs.com) • Peter Dromgoole, Statoil UK (pdrum@statoil.com) • Rutger Gras, Oranje-Nassau Energy (gras@onebv.com) • Hamidreza Hamdi, University of Calgary (hhamdi@ucalgary.ca) • Ed Kragh, Schlumberger Cambridge Research (edkragh@slb.com) • John Reynolds, Reynolds International (jmr@reynolds-international.co.uk) • James Rickett, Schlumberger (jrickett@slb.com) • Dave Stewart, Dave Stewart Geoconsulting Ltd (djstewart.dave@gmail.com) • Femke Vossepoel, Delft University of Technology (f.c.vossepoel@tudelft.nl) MANAGER MEDIA PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Arjan Kors (aks@eage.org) MEDIA PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Thomas Beentje (tbe@eage.org) ACCOUNT MANAGER ADVERTISING Charles Callaghan (ccn@eage.org) ACCOUNT MANAGER SUBSCRIPTIONS Ben Love (ble@eage.org) PRODUCTION First Break BV EAGE EUROPE OFFICE PO Box 59 3990 DB Houten The Netherlands • +31 88 995 5055 • eage@eage.org • www.eage.org EAGE RUSSIA & CIS OFFICE EAGE Russia & CIS Office EAGE Geomodel LLC Novocheremushkinskaya Str. 65 Build. 1 117418, Moscow, Russia • +7 495 640 2008 • moscow@eage.org • www.eage.ru EAGE MIDDLE EAST OFFICE EAGE Middle East FZ-LLC Dubai Knowledge Village Block 13 Office F-25 PO Box 501711 Dubai, United Arab Emirates • +971 4 369 3897 • middle_east@eage.org • www.eage.org EAGE ASIA PACIFIC OFFICE UOA Centre Office Suite 19-15-3A No. 19, Jalan Pinang 50450 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia • +60 3 272 201 40 • asiapacific@eage.org • www.eage.org

Confidence rising in Norwegian and North Sea markets

Editorial Contents 3

EAGE News

16 Crosstalk 19

Industry News

Technical Article

37 Reservoir characterization of the Triassic Kobbe and Snadd formations — Bjarmeland Platform, Norwegian Barents Sea Jørgen André Hansen and Nazmul Haque Mondol

Special Topic: Reservoir Monitoring

47 Optimizing hydraulic fracturing operations through time-lapse, multicomponent and microseismic monitoring Thomas L. Davis and Oscar Quezada 55

Microseismic data interpretation — what do we need to measure first? Leo Eisner and František Stane ˇk

59 Suggested best practice for seismic monitoring and characterization of non-conventional reservoirs Marco Bohnhoff, Peter Malin, Jan ter Heege, Jean-Pierre Deflandre and Charles Sicking 65 How to establish an integrated production management system across the reservoir lifecycle Stian Engebretsen 71 A new approach to compensate for illumination differences in 4D surveys with different individual acquisition geometries Didier Lecerf and Martin Besselievre 77

Toward the global tectonic model: A new hope (part 2) Neil Hodgson and Karyna Rodriguez

82 Calendar

EAGE LATIN AMERICA OFFICE Carrera 14 No 97-63 Piso 5 Bogotá, Colombia • +57 1 4232948 • americas@eage.org • www.eage.org EAGE MEMBERS CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTIFICATION Send to: EAGE Membership Dept at EAGE Office (address above) FIRST BREAK ON THE WEB www.firstbreak.org

cover: Spectral Composition (RGB slide) of Spectrum`s Florida 3D seismic survey showing Miocene-Pliocene channels. Spectrum investigates the prospectivity of a revolutionary convection model of the mantle, by exploring the implications for shelf stability, distribution of source rocks and the geology of the rifting process on the passive margins (p 77).

ISSN 0263-5046 (print) / ISSN 1365-2397 (online) FIRST

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European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers

Board 2017-2018 Jean-Jacques Biteau President

Near Surface Geoscience Division Oliver Kuras Chair George Apostolopoulos Vice-Chair Micki Allen Contact Officer EEGS-NA Riyadh Al-Saad O&G Liaison George Apostolopoulos Awards Committee Representative Peter Bergmann Technical Programme Representative Albert Casas Membership Officer Ranajit Ghose Editor in Chief Near Surface Geophysics Heinrich Horstmeyer Education Officer/Conference Liaison Officer Andreas Kathage Liaison Officer First Break Koya Suto Liaison Asia Pacific Endre Törös Awards Committee Representative Jiangha Xia Liaison China

Oil & Gas Geoscience Division

Juan Soldo Vice-President

Michael Poppelreiter Vice-President-Elect

Jorg Herwanger Education Officer

Caroline Lowrey Chair Michael Peter Suess Vice-Chair Øistein Bøe Resource Evaluation Committee liaison Phil Christie Chief Editor Petroleum Geoscience Rick Donselaar Technical Programme Representative (Geology) Xavier Garcia NSGD liaison Sebastian Geiger Resource Evaluation Committee liaison Olivier Gosselin Technical Programme Representative (Reservoir), Resource Evaluation Committee liaison Juliane Heiland Committee member David Halliday Technical Programme Representative (Geophysics), YP liaison Tijmen Jan Moser Editor-in-Chief Geophysical Prospecting Ann Muggeridge IOR Committee liaison Walter Rietveld Technical Programme Officer Michael Welch Technical Programme Representative (Geology), NSGD liaison Martin Widmaier Technical Programme Representative (Geophysics) Paul Worthington Resource Evaluation Committee liaison Michael Zhdanov NSGD liaison

SUBSCRIPTIONS First Break is published monthly. It is free to EAGE members. The membership fee of EAGE is € 50.00 a year (including First Break, EarthDoc (EAGE’s geoscience database), Learning Geoscience (EAGE’s Education website) and online access to a scientific journal. Roald van Borselen Membership and Cooperation Officer

Ingrid Magnus Publications Officer

Everhard Muijzert Secretary-Treasurer

Companies can subscribe to First Break via an institutional subscription. Every subscription includes a monthly hard copy and online access to the full First Break archive for the requested number of online users. Orders for current subscriptions and back issues should be sent to EAGE Publications BV, Journal Subscriptions, PO Box 59, 3990 DB, Houten, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 (0)88 9955055, E-mail: subscriptions@eage.org, www.firstbreak.org. First Break is published by EAGE Publications BV, The Netherlands. However, responsibility for the opinions given and the statements made rests with the authors. COPYRIGHT & PHOTOCOPYING © 2018 EAGE All rights reserved. First Break or any part thereof may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transcribed in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying and recording, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

Walter Rietveld Technical Programme Officer

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Oliver Kuras Chair Near Surface Geoscience Division

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Caroline Jane Lowrey Chair Oil & Gas Geoscience Division

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PAPER The Publisher’s policy is to use acid-free permanent paper (TCF), to the draft standard ISO/DIS/9706, made from sustainable forests using chlorine-free pulp (Nordic-Swan standard).

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HIGHLIGHTS

EAGE MEMBERS

Saint Petersburg 2018

Valuable lessons from latest borehole workshop

Dr Vasily Demyanov on geostatistics and machine learning

Registration is open for EAGE Copenhagen 2018! It is always good to be reminded of what is in store at upcoming EAGE Annual Meetings, especially now that registration is open for the 80 th EAGE Annual Conference and Exhibition in Copenhagen on 11-14 June 2018. The event being held at Copenhagen’s modern Bella Center exhibition facility is the world’s largest multi-disciplinary geoscience and engineering event, where the sharpest minds and most innovative

takes account of a changing energy landscape, the low oil price environment and the development of alternative sources. During the week of the event over 1000 state-of-the-art technical presentations

Summer in Copenhagen.

firms in E&P geoscience and engineering convene to share knowledge on a broad range of issues involving industry and academia. This year’s meeting is relevant as ever taking as its main theme ‘Opportunities Presented by the Energy Transition’. This

will address many of the challenges and opportunities that this scenario presents as well as the latest geoscience technology in conventional oil and gas operations. The associated Exhibition will once again be the focus of much attention giving visitors an unrivalled opportunity to FIRST

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review the latest equipment and services being showcased by top companies from around the world. This year, the comprehensive Exhibition floor will included some new features, such as the Start-up Area, the High-Performance (Supercomputing) Area, and the Digital Transformation Area, where you can experience new thinking about the future of energy. EAGE’s Annual has over the years grown into something much more substantial that the traditional Technical Programme and Exhibition, as it now offers a diverse range of workshops, short courses, and field trips which make the event a highly efficient way to catch up with latest developments and network with peers from around the world. Following the success of last year’s EAGE Annual Workshops, no less than 19 workshops are planned this time, with topics relevant to many professional geoscientists coming to Copenhagen. Check out these learning opportunities which are scheduled to wrap around the main events of the week taking place on Sunday 10, Monday 11, and Friday 15 June 2018. These workshops are guaranteed to peak your interest, as the topics have been carefully chosen by industry experts and I

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EAGE NEWS

professionals, and have been developed to offer a wide spread of information. As well as our workshops, there are a number of short courses on the same days. These offer a more intensive learning experience offering insights into working methodologies and innovative uses of current and new technology. This year’s field trips are notable in that they take participants on an educational tour to some of the most fascinating and beautiful geoscience-related sites in Scandinavia, with a trip to the Bryozoan Mounds at Stevns Klint, the

Lower Palaeozoic gas shales of Scania, southernmost Sweden, and a spectacular wave-dominated delta in central Jutland, Denmark. By Wednesday you will be looking forward to our wonderful conference evening, where fine food will be complemented by great entertainment and music. Mingle with your colleagues from across the world, and engage with your peers outside of the auditorium. To learn more, and register early for EAGE Copenhagen, you can find all the info at www.eageannual2018.org.

The Copenhagen Bella Center.

Saint Petersburg 2018 is where Russia meets the geoscience world Now in its eighth year, the annual Saint Petersburg international geologicalgeophysical conference and exhibition is gaining ever more traction as the main geoscience event in the region. Its sessions, seminars, and round table discussions touch upon most vital issues of exploration and geology. Geoscientists from Russia and other countries, together

ful companies and are becoming the basis of their operation, a way of changing large industries. As a global trend, innovations cover all kinds of human activity and transform the economic and technological landscape, including geosciences. The Programme Committee has completed the review of more than 350 abstracts received from 33 countries.

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral.

with representatives of petroleum and servicing companies, share experience and work on new breakthrough solutions in various fields of exploration and development. The motto of Saint Petersburg 2018 – Innovations in Geosciences: Time for Breakthrough – is obviously of great significance. We are now living in the time of digital Darwinism where innovations are no longer a simple element of organization but rather enter into the ‘DNA’ of success4

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The resulting Technical Programme is now online on the event page at www.eage.org and www.eage.ru. Register before 25 March to catch the best price. The Exhibition, which will be held simultaneously with the conference, is a great opportunity to obtain the latest information on developments in the industry, expand your network and exchange ideas. Traditionally, the Student Programme comprises many remarkable events, focusing on obtaining new knowledge and exchanging

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ideas, including special student lectures, exhibition tour, as well as the EAGE GeoQuiz with the prize for the winning team of travel grants for each team member to attend the Annual EAGE Conference and Exhibition in Copenhagen. On Monday, 9 April delegates will have an opportunity to attend one of three lectures: ‘Applied Oilfield Geomechanics’ by Dr Jorg Herwanger (MPGeomechanics), ‘Tight and Unconventional Oil Reserves: Definitions, Calculation and Development Specifics’ by Igor Shpurov (State Commission on Mineral Resources), and ‘Modern Geosteering Technologies’ by Igor Kuvaev (ROGII). Participation is included in the registration fee, but we kindly ask you to register for one of the lectures ahead of time as the number of participants is limited. EAGE, in cooperation with official event tour operator Reisebuero WELT Company, are organizing a wide spectrum of services for Saint Petersburg 2018 participants, such as special prices for booking and accommodation in hotels of various tier, visa invitations for foreign participants, transfer to/from the hotel, etc. Please refer to the event website for details. The Saint Petersburg Conference and Exhibition 2018 will be held at the congress centre of the Park Inn by Radisson Pulkovskaya hotel, on the beautiful Moskovsky Avenue with easy access to downtown.

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C o (DGH) ngo Spectrum, in collaboration with the Direction Générale des Hydrocarbures Ruche EEA are undertaking a number of shallow water 3D seismic surveys in open blocks, to Luna HARVEST D Nyama A13 F13 Muetse B13 OG provide the industry withC13state IMPACT of the artREPSOL 3D broadband G13data. A variety of plays are (Tchicuate) EXP targeted to allow a new generation of oil explorationMARA in these prolific basins. !

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Seismic is beingB14acquired in both northE14and south of the country. The 11,500 km2 C14 southern survey, now complete, is the definitive dataset to image the pre-salt and, for the first time, intra syn-rift plays can be targeted. In the North, acquisition of Angola Doukou Dak a 5,500 km2 AB15 3D survey C15 has nowD15begunE15and will pre and post-salt targets. NOBLEimage GA Further acquisition is planned in Central Gabon, at the western edge of the Ogooue Delta where the under-explored shallow water plays are post-salt, proven F16 and close to existingBC16 infrastructure. E16 D16 Osulu IMPACT OG

Likuale PETRONAS

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EAGE NEWS

Premier Middle East GEO event is back again GEO 2018, the biennial Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition, is once again being held at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre, on 5-8 March. Sponsored by AAPG, EAGE and SEG, the event boasts the Middle East’s largest geosciences technical programme, a host of expert speakers, daily special technical sessions and more than 120 exhibitors. Ahmad Al Eidan, deputy CEO of the Kuwait Oil Company’s Drilling and Technology Directorate and the chair of GEO 2018, said: ‘We are confident that GEO 2018 will provide wide opportunities to address current challenges and focus on upcoming projects. It will be an extraordinary platform that will provide participants with unlimited benefits.’ Among the conference’s highlights will be three 90-minute plenary sessions featuring top industry experts. Ahmed Al Khowaiter, Saudi Aramco, will discuss ‘Beyond Current Technical Limits – Overcoming Barriers for Future Energy’;

View of the Bahrain World Trade Center.

Dick Stoneburner, Pine Brook Partners, will speak on ‘Unconventional Resources – Challenges and Opportunities’; and Hisham Zubari, National Oil and Gas Authority, Bahrain will talk about ‘The Internet of Things (IoT) in E&P’. Daily technical sessions will offer talks and posters on various topics including: Innovations and technology applications in reservoir characterization; Case studies on carbonate reservoirs, integrated reservoir characterization, clastic

reservoirs, geomechanics and production, and acquisitions; Exploration technology; Advances in both seismic data acquisition and borehole seismic, as well as non-seismic technologies; and Advances in near surface solutions. Other highlights include a large exhibition, short courses, field trips and special events for students and young professionals. Online registration is available at www.geo2018.com.

EAGE Education Calendar EAGE EDUCATION TOUR 12

LAGOS, NIGERIA

14 FEB

SHORT COURSE ON GEOPHYSICAL MONITORING OF CO2 STORAGE

HOUTEN, NETHERLANDS

21 FEB

SHORT COURSE ON VELOCITY MODEL BUILDING

LONDON, UK

4 MAR

SHORT COURSE ON SEISMIC STRATIGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES

MANAMA, BAHRAIN

19-23 MAR

EDUCATION DAYS LONDON: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

LONDON, UK

22-23 MAR

EAGE EDUCATION TOUR 2

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

25-29 MAR

EAGE EDUCATION TOUR 9

NASHVILLE, USA

SAINT PETERSBURG CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

6 FEB

9 APR

EAGE-HAGI CONFERENCE: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA

16 APR

SHORT COURSE ON HYDROCARBON SEALS

ABU DHABI, UAE

23 APR

ENGINEERING & MINING GEOPHYSICS CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN

9-13 APR

SHORT COURSE ON SEISMIC ACQUISITION PROJECT ESSENTIALS

BEIJING, CHINA

14-18 MAY

EDUCATION DAYS BUENOS AIRES: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

10-15 JUN

1-11 MAY

EAGE ANNUAL 2018: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

9-13 JUL

EDUCATION DAYS BEIJING: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

BEIJING, CHINA

9-16 JUL

EDUCATION DAYS PERTH: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

PERTH, AUSTRALIA

EDUCATION DAYS KUALA LUMPUR: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

12-18 JUL

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.LEARNINGGEOSCIENCE.ORG.

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We can’t see the future. But we can point the way.

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EAGE NEWS

Valuable lessons from latest borehole workshop

WORKSHOP

REPORT

Howard Simpson, co-chair of the technical committee, reports on the Fourth EAGE Workshop on Borehole Geophysics held in Abu Dhabi on 19-21 November. The workshop, entitled ‘Borehole Geophysics – A Tool for Everyone’, provided a forum for lively discussion between operators, service companies, academics, and individuals. With a venue in the UAE for the first time, the workshop brought together interested parties from across the region and around the world. Under co-chairs, Sami Al Saadan of Saudi Aramco and Howard Simpson of BHGE, the technical committee devised a programme of 23 oral papers and seven posters presented over three days, as well as a social programme that provided networking opportunities with fellow delegates. The workshop attracted around 60 delegates from 23 companies and four academic institutions, and was considered very successful given the specialist nature of the subject matter. Feedback from the delegates was highly complementary about the Dusit Thani hotel venue in Abu Dhabi, and the technical programme.

Considerable time was also spent discussing its effectiveness in recording not only 3DVSPs, but its applications to all types of borehole seismic, such as microseismic and other geometries and applications including time-lapse measurements over the short term and over the life of a field. Keynote addresses The first keynote address from Abu Baker Al Jailani of ADCO highlighted that the integration of different data types was the main key to successful exploration. A second keynote presentation from Dr Scott Leaney of Schlumberger educated and inspired us in equal measure, describing the various projects he has been involved with during his varied career. Technical programme Presentations and posters were grouped around seven main themes reflecting the diversity of the technical submissions: Innovation in Processing and Imaging,

Borehole Geophysics Technical Committee.

In previous workshops, the focus was on 3DVSP. This time, however, the content reflected the broader scope of geophysics, in particular the wide acceptance of the usage of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) as a seismic receiver. 8

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Multi-Component Processing, Advances in Data Acquisition Techniques, Monitoring, Data Integration and Case Studies, and Single Well Imaging. Each session comprised of three to four oral papers, after which all the speakers were

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invited to take to the stage for a panel discussion to explore some of the wider issues not necessarily related to their specific presentations. The author of each poster submission was given the opportunity to describe their work in a short introduction on the stage, before the delegates were invited to view the posters in the break-out area. As with the oral submissions, the posters were of a very high standard. Day 1 focused on innovation and advances in the techniques of seismic imaging in particular, including Full Waveform Inversion (FWI), and Joint Migration Inversion (JMI) using data from multiple wells. Also discussed were interferometric imaging of first-order multiples, several interesting case studies, and the first of many presentations of the applications of DAS. Day 2 continued the DAS theme starting with an opening address from Dr Martin Karrenbach from Optasense in which he gave an overview of the remaining issues with deploying DAS fibre, its noise levels, and a comparison of single-mode and multi-mode DAS configurations used for cross-well communication and hydraulic fracture mapping using microseismic. Several other DAS presentations were given, along with case studies on interesting, unusual projects. It was also demonstrated that imaging success by whatever method is inextricably linked to data quality, and that is driven by careful survey planning and quality control of field data. Day 3 opened with Vlad Lesnikov from Total presenting an opening address on the merits of examining all the additional information contained in a zero offset VSP dataset, which is usually not exploited because of processing cost considerations. The day continued with further discussion on data integration and exploitation, ending with two presentations on single-well imaging.

EAGE NEWS

Social programme We were delighted to attend a dinner cruise with a musical cabaret on a boat sailing around the harbour, giving wonderful views of the Abu Dhabi skyline at night and an opportunity for informal networking. Closing remarks Technical excellence was recognized by awarding prizes for the best submissions: Best Paper was awarded to Tom Bradley of BHGE, for his work on guided drilling using the image derived from deep shear waves emitted from a wireline-deployed tool (DTSM). Special mentions were made to Prof Roman Pevsner from Curtin University, Perth and his comparison of DAS characteristics with conventional geophones, and to Bouchaib El Marhfoul of Delft University for his work on JMI. Best Poster was awarded to Will Wills of Avalon Science for his poster on the use of a high-slide indicator to derive the tool’s orientation and apply it on the data accordingly. A special mention was given to co-author Charles Naville of IFPEN. He was unable to join the workshop but has been instrumental in promoting 3C processing of zero offset VSPs and tapping into the wealth of information contained in these datasets. Despite his absence Naville was an active participant in several of the technical submissions.

Best Contribution from the floor was awarded to Dr Nizare El Yadari from Saudi Aramco in recognition of all the valuable and entertaining insights he offered from the floor throughout the workshop.

assessment of the economic impact of geophysical data, because much of the information contained in VSP is not being exploited; and finally that young professionals and students need active

Group picture of Abu Dhabi delegates.

Proceedings were brought to a close by co-chair Sami Al Saadan who gave a summary of the learnings from this workshop. These were that WFI and JMI can be used to simultaneously invert for both velocity and structure, and can use wave modes hitherto regarded as noise; that in future the processing of large VSP datasets will need to adopt and adapt surface seismic processing techniques or allow for joint imaging of VSP and surface seismic data; that we need better

encouragement to join the debate, in anticipation of the Big Crew Change. Sami thanked all involved in the success of this workshop: the EAGE and the sponsors without whom this workshop could not go ahead - Saudi Aramco, Baker Hughes a GE Company, Schlumberger and Total; the technical committee including those that could not attend; and the delegates themselves. We look forward to the next workshop in 2019!

EAGE Student Calendar 13TH MIDDLE EAST GEOSCIENCES CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION/GEOQUIZ

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN

EAGE ONLINE GEO-QUIZ (STUDENT CHAPTER ONLY)

ONLINE

STUDENT LECTURE TOUR ASIA PACIFIC

MUMBAI, INDIA

SAINT PETERSBURG 2018: GEOQUIZ/STUDENT PROGRAMME

SAINT PETERBURG, RUSSIA

11-12 APR

EAGE/HAGI 1ST ASIA PACIFIC MEETING ON NEAR SURFACE GEOSCIENCE & ENGINEERING (REGIONAL GEO-QUIZ)

YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA

16-26 APR

STUDENT LECTURE TOUR AFRICA

AFRICAN CITIES

10 JUN

LAURIE DAKE CHALLENGE FINAL

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

11 JUN

LAURIE DAKE ANNOUNCEMENT

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

EAGE ANNUAL 2018: STUDENT PROGRAMME

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

13 JUN

GEO-QUIZ

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

3-8 JUL

ACEG, SEMANA TECNICA DE GEOCIENCIAS DE LA ASOCIACIÓN COLOMBIANA DE ESTUDIANTES DE GEOLOGÍA

MANIZALES, COLOMBIA

7 MAR 12 MAR 26-30 MAR 9-12 APR

11-14 JUN

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION PLEASE CHECK THE STUDENT SECTION AT WWW.EAGE.ORG

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EAGE NEWS

Oslo Local Chapter is quick on the uptake The Local Chapter of Oslo has been quick to step into action. Following its official establishment at the 79th EAGE Annual Conference in Paris, the group organized an opening event on 29 June, which consolidated the cooperation with EAGE and with the Associated Society OSEG (Oslo Society of Exploration Geophysicist). The event featured a lecture by Dr Per Avseth, the EAGE Distinguished Lecturer. He presented ‘The Memory of Rocks: From Burial History to Seismic Signature’ to a lively audience of about 30 professionals with mixed background

in geophysics, geology and geochemistry. The lecture was extremely well received and was followed by a session of Q&A and discussion. The attendance was very promising and the Chapter plans to organize more similar events with the support of the EAGE PACE Fund, broadening the reach of EAGE in Oslo to its members and the geoscience community at large. To read more about Local Chapters, or if you are interested in joining the Chapter in Oslo, visit www.eage.org > About EAGE > Local Chapters.

Oslo Local Chapter members with EAGE officials in Paris.

Salt diapirs was talk of London Chapter Professor Christopher Jackson, Statoil professor of basin analysis, Imperial College London, was the star turn at a recent evening talk organized by the EAGE Local Chapter London. Prof Jackson discussed how deformation confined within a salt body may be linked to other factors, such as flow kinematics. His motivation for studying such

Prof Christopher Jackson speaking in London.

structures matches that of the exploration industry; salt diapirs can be important traps, yet they have very chaotic seismic character and are generally very poorly imaged. An audience of 55 attended as he described the lateral and vertical varia-

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bility within salt which can cause drilling problems. Salt diapirs themselves can contain internal ‘stringer’ folds, such as the Zechstein salt in the North Sea, and can be highly layered. In the Egersund Basin, there are well documented logs through the Zechstein salt stratigraphy as the well in question was sidetracked numerous times. These logs showed the composition of core to be different to the outer parts of the structure. Professor Jackson went on to propose his ideas on the formation of this phenomenon; that the stratigraphy had to be rotated as the diaper grew, that the caprock itself rotated incrementally or the caprock was a result of lateral diagenesis. The Santos Basin in Brazil is another case study raising several questions about the internal structure of diapirs. Here, thick Aptian salt diapirs are complex exhibiting structural styles such as disharmonic folding, outward facing synclines, diapirs capped by transparent sheets and evidence of multiple feeders forming an allochthonous canopy. Salt is a soluble material and so it is difficult to find outcrops onshore to

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use as analogues to study the internal complexities of their associated structures. Therefore, laboratory experiments were carried out to explain the genesis of how evaporites breach and overlie younger evaporites to form an intra-salt allochthon. One model used simple differential loading where the different densities of the salt layers were not considered. The lab experiment drove deformation by loading sand into the model. This allowed Prof Jackson to look inside the lab modelled diaper using a cheese slicer. It was concluded that a density neutral model was not enough to produce such complex structures. Another model inverted the intra-salt density, whereby the underlying salt units were able to breach through younger evaporites as the original lower unit ruptured. This resulted in an asymmetric allochthonous intrusion. This highly engaging lecture finished by emphasizing the significance of understanding the internal properties of salt so that the oil and gas industry has a greater appreciation of drilling hazards.

EAGE NEWS

Evening lectures in Aberdeen go down well The EAGE Local Chapter in Aberdeen teamed up with the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (PESGB), for its October evening lecture in Aberdeen. More than 50 people came along to the Jury’s Inn hotel to hear Mads Huuse and Rachel Lamb, both from the University of Manchester, present their talk on ‘The Quaternary North Sea Basin: Basin evolution and implications

for hydrocarbon extraction and carbon sequestration’. The near continuous coverage of modern 3D seismic data was used to develop a regional depositional framework for the entire basin. They demonstrated how the history of deposition and the evidence for glacial advances and retreat is of relevance to basin modelling and the basin’s prospectivity. The presentation was well received and the social event afterwards

prompted further discussion and networking over a drink or two. The Local Chapter in Aberdeen continues to gather momentum, with a busy schedule of events planned for 2018. Its next event hosted by the University of Aberdeen on 11 January is scheduled to be a half-day workshop showcasing the ‘EAGE Highlight Tour’ with top presentations from the EAGE Annual Conference last June in Paris.

Plenty of geoscience bustle in Hungary What does a geophysicist do? What is a geoid? What lies under the surface of the Earth? How can we know it without digging? These were some of the questions that led the way to some stimulating discussions during a two-day event in the Hungarian capital. On 11-12 November 2017 the Hungarian Natural History Museum of Budapest held the ninth edition of ‘Geoscientists Bustle, an interactive exhibition to present geosciences to a mixed audience of about 2000 visitors. Several local institutes, associations, national park authorities, universities and museums attended the event, including the Association of Hungarian Geophysicists, an Associated Society of EAGE, which was present with a booth supported by the PACE Fund. Participants were invited to experiment with modelling systems, such as the inversion of a VES curve using the VES1 program, and to attend a demonstration of volcanic eruption. The event was a success and engaged visitors from different background. This was just one event in which the Association of Hungarian Geophysicists has been involved. The Association once again organized a series of reading events which has a decade-old history, starting from the events of the triennium of the Global Earth. Over the years the series had a number of different titles, for some time the name was ‘New Vistas in Geosciences’. In 2016 and in 2017 the ‘Emerging

Geosciences’ title was intended to express the bordering themes in the Earth sciences. As for an umbrella organization, years ago FöCIK was established. This is a commonwealth of the Earth-science societies/associations to promote not only their expertise but to feature the impact of Earth sciences on society – both on society generally and on governmental-related organizations. Backed by EAGE, each lecture day (a Wednesday afternoon at the lecture hall of the Mining and Geological Survey of Hungary) consisted of several lectures, and was supported (in-kind) by the Survey. The Survey was established by the merger of the Hungarian Office for Mining and Geology and the Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary). A Wednesday in April presented the environmental and decontaminating problems of the closed uranium mine in the Mecsek Mountains. The monitoring network, the water resource protection and the cleaning of contaminated waters were the theme of the lectures. The May event was a special one: it was at the Miskolc University, put together by the EAGE Miskolc Student Chapter. Four earth-science students parFIRST

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ticipating in the Stipendium Hungaricum programme spoke about their experience and their homelands (Algeria, Argentina, Mexico, and Ghana). In June, the theme of the day was the earthquake risk of Budapest. After a review of the history, the local geology effects and their geophysical mapping were discussed along with earthquake-bearing structures. October provided the occasion for presentations by both the Budapest and Miskolc Student Chapter lecturers. After a state-of-art summary on satellite magnetic data processing, surface NMR measurements and seismic clustering procedures were discussed. ‘Best of 2017 Spring Meeting of Young Geoscientists’ was the title of the last lecture of the year in November. Analysis of recent stress fields in the Pannonian Basin, hypocentre relocation of a recent earthquake, and numerical investigation of a borehole heat exchanger were the themes. To learn more about the other activities of the Association of Hungarian Geophysicists and other Associated Societies, visit www.eage.org > About EAGE > Associated Societies. I

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EAGE NEWS

Making the case for geostatistics and machine learning in reservoir modelling Dr Vasily Demyanov, associate professor at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, talks about his upcoming EAGE Education Tour (EET 12) on ‘Reservoir Modelling Workflows under Uncertainty. Geostatistics and Machine Learning’ and his move 18 years ago from his native Russia to the UK. tistics. However, the traditional ‘good old’ variogram remains a robust and useful exploratory data analysis tool, which helps to reveal quantitative insights from the data and support geological interpretation.

What learning would you like participants to take away from your course? One of the key points to take away would be the thinking process developed during the course regarding reservoir uncertainty prediction. I would like the participants to build an understanding of the value of multiple reservoir model scenario options with respect to uncertainty, not necessarily the best one. Developing familiarity with existing modelling tech would help to select those most fit for the case and avoid overlooking plausible alternatives. How influential is reservoir modelling based on geostatistic methods, e.g., is this routine or is there scope for further education and adoption? Geostatistics has rightfully gained a recognized place within traditional reservoir modelling workflows. It still remains a dynamically developing field with more advances of geostatistics being implemented in the toolkits by software vendors. One of the trends in the past decade was moving away from two-point geostatistics towards pattern-based multi-point geosta12

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Do you have any special examples of how state of the art reservoir modelling has benefited an oilfield development? There have been many examples when a conceptual approach to reservoir modelling helped to avoid costly mistakes or rectify consequences of decisions made from a single reservoir model when alternatives have been overlooked. Geostatistics remains a powerful tool kit to implement alternative modelling concepts digitally to provide quantitative answers to support decision-making. What advances in machine learning can we expect for E&P in the future? Machine learning will continue to gain attention in oil and gas E&P for several reasons. We have inevitably entered the digital era, when more and more data are becoming available and vast resources are allocated for collection and processing of the information prior to decision-making. Machine learning remains the essential tech for data-rich environments, where it aids handling vast domains of information and makes efficient use of it. Many traditional analytical tech combined with manual expert operation can no longer cope efficiently with the fusion of large amounts of data. Also machine learning is capable of capturing and aggregating past experience to ‘learn’ from good and bad practices to make sure the past knowledge remains actively accessible. This becomes particularly important with the generational staff change in the oil and gas industry.

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Machine learning nowadays is becoming more common and accessible in everyday life and is no longer an odd feature. Therefore, digital era geoscientists should develop computational skills and awareness of the capabilities and practical use of machine learning tech. I believe this should become a really common and convertible skill set for a wider field far beyond oil and gas. research in particular. In your experience as a teacher, how do students react to geostatistics, on the face of it a very complex area? Geoscience students often struggle with the equations side of geostatistics, therefore there is a challenge to communicate geostats as a link between pattern-based interpretational conceptual models and their digital reflections coined by rigorous maths. Therefore, it is essential to grasp a few basic concepts, such as spatial correlation, linear regression, probability, stationarity etc. Once familiar with those basics, students start expressing their modelling vision in a way that can be implemented in digital modelling. It is essential that a geomodeller is able to represent rigorously the desired conceptual design in its digital realization without compromising important geological features. Given the current economic environment, how do you encourage students to work in the oil industry? The oil sector continues to be quite volatile and face challenges in developing the remaining reserves in often difficult economic and environmental conditions. This imposes a burden on modellers to operate within narrow economic margins with their reservoir predictions. Nonetheless geostatistics remains a general purpose discipline applied far beyond the oil and

EAGE NEWS

gas field for very different geoscience purposes. A lot of expertise and knowledge accumulated in the oil and gas community can be adapted, for instance, to geothermal resource development where geostatistics would also find their place. What are the main differences between academia in Russia and the UK, where you have worked for a long time now? My early career experience was exposed to the Soviet academic practice which was renowned for its high scientific rigour and numerical skill level. I consider myself very fortunate to have got through my PhD studies under the guidance of a very professional academic, Prof Mikhail Kanevski, with his open mind-set and horizon-scanning vision along with impeccable mentorship qualities. This definitely helped me to build academic qualities and supported my further development as a UK academic. In more recent interaction with the Russian academic environment, I have noticed a significant contrast with the UK. Though academic studies in Russia are usually quite deep and specific in teaching particular discipline detail, there seems to be a lack of space for teaching critical reasoning and creative thinking, which are essential skills for any researcher. Students in Russia often expect to be taught a set of ready answers from a solutions ‘cook book’ applicable to all cases, which obviously does not exist. A significant chunk of academic studies in the UK

are aimed at creating an environment where students are capable of working out solutions themselves and developing independent thinking skills with peer support and coaching style guidance. I am very grateful for, and understand the value of, coaching style learning from my senior colleagues at Heriot-Watt University, especially Profs Mike Christie, Patrick Corbett, Andy Gardiner and many others, who still remain academic role models for me. I also would like to mention my colleague and co-author Dan Arnold who provided a lot of inspiration for a more interactive and communicative course style.

Radioactive waste research remains the field where geostatistics and inverse modelling help to assess the risk of leakage events and design appropriate mitigating measures. Outside work, do you have any special interests/enthusiasms? In the little time remaining from academic activities I enjoy reading about UK and Russian history, which has been my lifelong interest. I decided to not pick it as a profession owing to the ideological connotations in Soviet times. Scottish scenery is a great inspiration for walking and cycling, despite the weather.

You began your studies/career in the nuclear-related industry. What were the main interests for you in this field? Modelling Earth systems was my primary interest in opting for a geophysics major at the Department of Physics at Moscow State University. There I ended up modelling radioactive pollution transport in the atmosphere – Chernobyl accident consequences remained a very prominent issue at the time in the early 90s. This led to investigating how the radioactivity dispersed in the atmosphere actually got distributed on the surface. This particular spatial mapping problem introduced me to geostatistics and then to machine learning in my PhD studies. My scientific interests have remained with spatial statistics and machine learning for geoscience applications since then.

Dr Vasily Demyanov has over 20 years of experience in geostatistics with 100 publications to his name including co-authoring two books. He has presented short courses at EAGE Education Days and organized a number of workshops on spatial statistics and reservoir modelling. His first degree in physics was obtained from Moscow State University (1994) followed by a PhD in physics and mathematics from Russian Academy of Sciences (1998) with a thesis on radioactive pollution modelling with geostatistics and artificial neural networks. Prior to joining Heriot-Watt in 2003 he worked with the University of St Andrews (20002002) and Nuclear Safety Institute, Moscow (1994-2000).

May date for Buenos Aires Education Days The EAGE Education Days event is returning to Buenos Aires on a mission to repeat last year’s success. Watch out for further details of the short course being offered during the week of 14-18 May. The 2018 Buenos Aires edition will again feature distinguished experts in their field sharing professional knowledge. On 14-15 May Dr Per Avseth, independent consultant and specialist in rock physics, and Prof Dr Tor Arne Johansen, professor of

reservoir geophysics, University of Bergen, will present their course on ‘Explorational Rock Physics and Seismic Reservoir Prediction’. On 16-17 May Dr Jon R. Rotzien, president and founder, Basin Dynamics, Houston will be lecturing on ‘Integrated Methods for Deep-Water Reservoir Characterization’, and on 18 May Dr Dario Grana, assistant professor, geology and geophysics, University of Wyoming, will cover ‘Uncertainty Quantification and Management’.

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For these courses, participants can obtain professional accreditation established by the European Federation of Geologists. Also, as in most events, EAGE offers assistance by way of discounted course fees for long-term members currently unemployed to help facilitate their attendance at the Education Days Buenos Aires. For all information on this event please visit www.eage.org and www.learninggeoscience.org.

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EAGE NEWS

Small change heralds wider scope for Petroleum Geoscience Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed a change to the front cover of the February 2018 issue of Petroleum Geoscience. Phil Christie, chief editor, explains the reason behind it. Petroleum Geoscience occupies a unique position in the spectrum of earth science journals. The journal was launched in 1995 at the time of the merger of the European Association of Petroleum Geoscientists and Engineers (EAPG) with the European Association of Exploration Geophysicists (EAEG), to form the new (and current) European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE). Petroleum Geoscience became the flagship journal of the then Petroleum Division of EAGE, in tandem with Geophysical Prospecting representing the then Geophysics Division. While EAGE was largely populated by exploration geophysicists, many of the EAPG geologists and engineers were members of the Petroleum Group of the Geological Society of London (GSL) and so, from the outset, the journal was a joint enterprise between the two professional societies and continues as such today, being published by the Geological Society Publishing House on behalf of both GSL and EAGE. Both societies promote multi-disciplinarity within the earth sciences, recognizing that progress in our understanding of the sub-surface depends on the successful integration of several branches of theoretical, experimental, analytical, observational, interpretational and numerical science, whether found in academia, industry or both domains working in concert. Our issue’s thematic set on ‘Tectonics and Petroleum Systems of East Africa’ is a good example. Such broad-ranging and collaborative expertise is reflected in the pages of Petroleum Geoscience, which brings together the rock-related, sub-surface disciplines, often in the context of an applied setting such as a play, field or reservoir. The journal seeks to report new understandings and transferable knowledge in the detection, characterization, exploitation and monitoring of sub-surface resources and reserves. Over the past decade, the reserves studied in our articles have 14

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come to include alternative earth-energy systems and repositories for the geological sequestration of carbon. Despite certain contrarian views, we are at a tipping point in expectations for future fossil fuel usage. The UK has now had several days of coal-free power generation. Volvo announced that by 2019 all their cars will have an electric motor in the drive train as primary or auxiliary power source, and other motor manufacturers are following suit. The UK government has (timidly according to some) announced by 2040 the end to petrol- and diesel-engined cars; other countries are moving faster. In 2013 I applied the epithet ‘watching carbon come and go’ to a time-lapse seismic session I convened that included talks on monitoring CO2 injection as well as hydrocarbon production. In 2016, growing submissions of geological carbon sequestration papers prompted an expansion of the journal’s ‘mission statement’ to include research on evaluating carbon repositories and lowering environmental risk. Expanding the journal scope to deal with these new application areas has been quite painless and almost subliminal: after all, the disciplines used to detect, characterize and monitor non-hydrocarbon reserves are, by and large, exactly those applied to petroleum systems. However, rather than let editorial policy drift, Petroleum Geoscience editors and owners consciously decided to mark the expansion in scope by adding a strap-line to the front cover. Just in case you haven’t noticed, we now have the words, ‘The international journal of geoenergy and applied earth science’ in small print below the journal title. ‘Geoenergy’ is appropriate because it captures the diversity of both petroleum and non-hydrocarbon systems that we seek to cover. ‘Applied earth science’ could describe almost everything that we publish, but underlines the fact that many of our readers are working around the globe in an applied environment and seek to benefit

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from useful practical knowledge transferred by the journal. The journal title remains the same, emphasizing continued commitment to our traditional topic area for submissions which, by the way, are running at a level twice that of just three years ago. However, we are also ready to publish papers of equal quality that deal with non-petroleum, sub-surface geoenergy systems. As trailed at the ‘Best of Petroleum Geoscience’ session at the EAGE annual conference in Paris, the August 2017 issue featured our first geoenergy thematic set, covering underground storage of hydrogen and compressed air, as well as more conventional seasonal methane reservoirs, carbon storage systems and seismic risk. Some extra issues were printed as hand-outs for the Sustainable Earth Sciences Conference in Malmö in September 2017. Co-editor Philip Ringrose also co-chaired a joint EAGE-SEG research workshop in Trondheim on Geophysical Monitoring of CO2 Injection, from which we hope to attract some interesting submissions. In short, while the journal retains the commitment, expressed by Andrew Hurst and Tony Spencer in their 1995 launch editorial, to publishing top quality papers in petroleum geoscience, we hope that you will enjoy reading about the application of the rock- and fluid-related disciplines to all geoenergy systems. Petroleum Geoscience can be found at EarthDoc and in the Lyell online collection (http://pg.lyellcollection.org/).

EAGE NEWS

Unconventionals the hot topic at joint event in Mexico Dr Efrain Mendez, chairman of the technical committee, reports on an historic seminar organized by EAGE and Mexican geoscience-related professional societies. Well over 100 participants attended the First EAGE/AMGP/AMGE Latin-American Seminar on Unconventional Resources in Mexico City on 23-24 November last year. It was an event that has laid the foundation for a new chapter of cooperation between professional geoscience associations in the region. The seminar was jointly organized by EAGE, the Mexican Association of Petroleum Geologists (AMGP), and the Mexican Association of Geophysical Engineers (AMGE), to discuss various issues related to the exploration and exploitation of unconventional resources, particularly oil and gas shales. Mexico´s place in the top ten countries with shale oil and gas resources made the seminar an excellent opportunity to learn about current and potential gas projects in Mexico, especially now that regulations are in place so that oil and gas shale reservoirs can be properly exploited. This interest extends to the rest of Latin-America where there is a renewed interest in unconventionals to play an important role in safeguarding our energy future. The format of this seminar was grouped around three general topics: Understanding geological risk and uncertainties on unconventional plays; Seismic/integrated model to identify and characterize the sweet spot; and Geomechanics/best practices to design well drilling and completion

Jose Antonio Escalera Alcocer, director of exploration, Pemex E&P.

A total of 38 oral presentations and two keynote addresses made up the technical programme. Additionally, two lunch conferences provided the opportunity for regulators to discuss the challenges and expectations to explore and produce unconventional reservoirs in a sustainable way. Finally, in a round table format, various authorities expressed opinions about the future of non-conventional resources. Participants at the event included a wide range of oil company specialists, service providers and academics who could exchange experiences and learn about technologies applied to unconventional plays in the world’s basins and Mexico. On the podium at the opening ceremony were M.E. Jose Antonio Escalera

Alcocer, director of exploration, Pemex E&P and general chairman of the seminar; Claudia Patricia Rovira, EAGE’s regional director for Latin-America; Jose Luis Garcia Mar, president AMGP; Marco Antonio Arreguin Lopez, president, AMGE, and Dr Efrain Mendez, chairman of the seminar technical committee. After welcoming words from Dr Mendez and Rovira, the event was officially inaugurated by Pemex’s Alcocer, who addressed the purpose and benefits of the event, providing a brief historical overview of E&P for oil and gas shale resources in Mexico, giving the current conditions of the industry, as well as advising how technical knowledge will produce these resources in a sustainable way in harmony with the environment. In his closing remarks at this successful event, Dr Mendez thanked the participants, the technical committee and EAGE. The event is also grateful to sponsors – PEMEX (Platinum), Shell and Schlumberger (Gold), Geoprocesados (Bronze), Lumina (Registration), Rogii (Display area) and CNH.

The EAGE Student Fund supports activities that help bridge the gap between the university and professional environments for students of geosciences and engineering. Thanks to our Student Fund contributors we can continue supporting students around the globe and through this securing the future of our industry. For more information to become a Student Fund contributor, please visit eagestudentfund.org or contact us at students@eage.org. SUPPORTED BY

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CROSSTALK BY AN D R E W M c BAR N E T

•

Clearing up after the party When a management consultancy partner and an ocean engineering professor break into Shakespearean verse, you’ve got to wonder what’s up? Bernadette Culliane, a partner, national oil and gas leader, Deloitte and Prof Susan Gourvenec, of the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, University of Western Australia, cite the familiar call to action by Brutus in Julius Caesar as the epigraph to introduce their recent study on Decommissioning: the next wave of opportunity in Australian oil and gas. The full quote goes:

The business opportunity is real. IHS Markit expects spending on decommissioning projects to increase from approximately $2.4 billion in 2015, to $13 billion-per-year by 2040, or an increase of 540%, according its IHS Markit Offshore Decommissioning Study Report on regulatory and financial requirements for decommissioning in the UK, Norway, the US Gulf of Mexico, Indonesia and Australia. Other analysis comes up with similar numbers. An additional 2000 offshore projects will be decommissioned between 2021 and 2040 and total expenditures from 2010 to ‘There is a tide in the affairs of men. 2040 will amount to $210 billion, says IHS. During the next five Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; years, Europe will absorb approximately 50% of global decomOmitted, all the voyage of their life missioning spending as the industry removes major offshore Is bound in shallows and in miseries. structures from the North Sea. Each year, the industry currently On such a full sea are we now afloat, decommissions an average of 120 projects on a global basis, IHS And we must take the current when it serves, Markit said. Or lose our ventures.’ Oil & Gas Authority survey forecasts to 2025, sees decommissioning activity across the North Sea of 214 on Culliane and Goruvenec say a presentation in the report by Oil the UKCS, 106 in the Dutch sector, 23 on the Norwegian and Gas Competitiveness Assessment, recently published by the Continental Shelf and six offshore Denmark. The largest cateNational Energy Resources Australia (NERA), ranked Australia gory of decommission is plugging and abandoning which will at the bottom of the group of 30 oil and gas producing nations involve a total of 2447 wells in the North Sea up to 2025. in abandonment and decommissioning of offshore facilities that These figures are staggering and perplexing, not least because have reached the end of their useful lifetime and need to be the technology required is yet to be properly established and there removed. Their thinking is that the focus on massive investment is no standard. There are several options for offshore platforms, in liquefied natural gas may have diverted total removal, taking them away to another attention from what is becoming a necessity site and dumping them, allowing then to stay ‘Postponing the evil and an opportunity to apply innovative thinkon site suitably cleaned up, topple them on ing, new technologies as well as a chance for their side and leave, or cut the height of the day because of the Australia to demonstrate global leadership in complexity and cost’ jacket and leave in place so they are not a navthis stage of the asset lifecycle. igation hazard. Those are the basic methods The truth is that companies and governavailable today, but if there is big money to be ment worldwide have been postponing the evil day because of made, then innovative solutions could arise. the complexity and cost. Anyone who has set eyes on the massive The track record in the US Gulf of Mexico is not particularly concrete-based platforms in the UK and Norwegian offshore helpful for North Sea decommissioning operations. In the US, sectors must marvel that they can be decommissioned at all. the ‘rigs to reefs’ programme allows installations to be towed

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CROSSTALK

platform as part of its Brent field decommissioning programme. to certain dumping locations where they are left to generate The contractor Allseas using its $2.2 billion Pioneering Spirit biodiversity, apparently with success. Another option is for construction vessel chalked up a world record lift at sea in the platforms to be removed piece by piece and brought to shore process, which had to be timed perfectly to meet the movement for recycling. Conditions may not be so conducive in the North of waves. The structure will be dismantled at a facility near Sea. The Boston Consulting Group found the industry took more Hartlepool, UK. The feasibility studies, planning operations, etc than 1000 structures out of service from 2010 through 2014 — at have taken the project into billions of dollars. Which really bring a total cost of $9 billion. The US Government Accountability us to the crunch. Office estimates continuing decommissioning liabilities in the British, Norwegian and other nations which provide similar Gulf at an additional $38 billion. financial conditions to oil companies are having to get to grips In the North Sea, there are also past politics. Some will with a massive outflow in tax rebates as oil companies fulfil their remember that Shell outraged the environmental community by decommissioning obligations. Anything from proposing in 1995 that its Brent Spar oil stor40% to 70% is deductible. An estimate from age and tanker loading had outlived its useful ‘Problematic for analyst Carbon Brief suggests that in 2016 life and would be disposed of in deep Atlantic Scotland’s First Minister the sector received £396 million in 2016, net waters at North Feni Ridge off the west coast of tax payments. This is the first year that the of Scotland. It was said to be the cheapest Nicola Sturgeon’ North Sea industry has cost the Exchequer option. This proved a major provocation to more than it has contributed. This has to be Greenpeace supporters who mounted a protest put into the context of the £330 billion in estimated revenues over campaign across Europe. Shell backed down. They did establish the years received in the government coffers. It is believed that that in its initial campaign Greenpeace had grossly overestimated with partial recovery in oil prices the returns to the government the amount of oil remaining in the structure, but the claim stuck will recover somewhat. with the public and Shell had to come up with another plan. The It is doubtful whether the UK government will be drawing structure is now part of harbour facilities at Stavanger harbour. attention to this tax rebate phenomena when for so long it has Brent Spar events put everyone on high alert with regard taken oil revenues for granted. The OGA is hoping that its to platform disposal options, which are becoming increasingly original cost estimate for decommissioning offshore UK of £59 necessary. Regulations governing the protection of the wider million can be cut to £39 million, but it is still a big number European marine environment come under the Oil Spill, Prevenwhich taxpayers may not fully understand. There has been no tion, Administration and Response (OSPAR). After the Brent Spar public discussion of what the economic impact may be on Brexit row, OSPAR decreed that dumping or leaving in place (wholly or negotiations, when the UK is presumably trying to drum as much partly) of disused offshore platform installations would be prohibcash as possible to tide it over a financially shaky outlook. ited in the OSPAR maritime area. Common sense exclusions were If the North Sea decommissioning tax rebates become a permitted, namely steel installations weighing more than 10,000 hot topic, this will surely be problematic for Scotland’s First tonne in air; gravity-based concrete installations; floating concrete Minister Nicola Sturgeon. A major premise of the push for installations; any concrete anchor-base which results, or is likely Scottish independence was based on Scotland receiving a more to result, in interference with other legitimate uses of the sea. This equitable share of the North Sea oil and gas revenues. What will is why in the 1990s Total and its partners were able to win UK and be portrayed as rewarding the multi-national oil industry will not Norwegian government consent to leaving the MCP-01 (manifold play well. Last year Sturgeon took the initiative in announcing £5 and compression programme) platform in the ocean at the Frigg million funding for a North Sea Oil and Gas Decommissioning field suitably marked with navigation aids and monitored. Fund. Roger Esson, chief executive, of the industry organization At that time a number of reasons were offered for the Decom North Sea, rather unkindly described the fund as ‘a small decision. One was that the structure could not be safely refloated. but significant step’. It may be beside the point, but for those of us who asked way It would be unfortunate if UK government initiatives to supback then what would happen to these monsters once their oil port this emerging business were as half-hearted or poorly manpurpose was over, the implication was that they could be moved aged as the Offshore Supplies Office (OSO) in the early 1970s, elsewhere. No one is suggesting that today. As then, safety of which failed to retain a lot of oil-based business in the UK. OSO personnel was a big issue along with environmental impact. As was not entirely to blame as the whole North Sea business took for cost, removal and disposal on land was estimated at £446 off very quickly with minimal civil servant experience of oil and million compared with £180 million including the removal and gas companies and how they deal with their contractors. There deconstruction of topsides. are already mutterings that the UK is failing to get on the crest of Last year Shell demonstrated the extraordinary technology the wave as proposed by our Australian authors mentioned above. feat of removing the 24,000 tonne topside from the Brent D

Views expressed in Crosstalk are solely those of the author, who can be contacted at andrew@andrewmcbarnet.com.

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HIGHLIGHTS

INDUSTRY NEWS

Study links fracking in Texas to earthquakes

Court approves Norway’s Arctic exploration plans

Spectrum reports improved fourth quarter sales

World Bank stops funding oil and exploration as global discoveries hit record low

World bank headquarters, Washington, US.

The World Bank will end its financial support for oil and gas exploration within two years in response to the threat posed by climate change. At the same time global oil and gas discoveries have plunged to a record low of seven billion barrels in 2017, according to new research from Rystad Energy. In a move that could impact seismic contracting in the developing world, the World Bank announced at the One Planet conference in Paris that it ‘will no longer finance upstream oil and gas’ after 2019, apart from certain gas projects in the poorest countries and only then in ‘exceptional circumstances’. The bank, which lends some $1bn a year for oil and gas projects in developing countries, said that it was on course to have 28% of its lending going to climate action by 2020. At present, 1-2% of the bank’s

$280 billion portfolio is accounted for by oil and gas projects. Mark Carney, the governor of the bank of England, said at the Paris summit that 237 companies with a combined market capitalisation of $6.3 trillion were backing the scheme. Britain’s six leading banks – Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Standard Chartered – have all supported the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, set up by Carney. Under the plan, banks pledge to use their financial reports to disclose their direct and indirect exposure to global warming under a range of different scenarios. Banks are obliged to say how much they have lent to companies with climate-related risks. Carney said 20 of the 30 globally systemically important banks and eight out of 10 of the largest asset managers and leading insurance companies were committed to informing investors. Leading energy companies have also signed up. In a parallel development, in 2017 global conventional discoveries have been estimated at 7 billion boe, compared with 8 billion boe in 2016, 15 billion in 2014 and 2015 and 16 billion in 2013 and 30 billion in 2012. ‘We haven’t seen anything like this since the 1940s,’ said Sonia Mladá Passos, senior analyst at Rystad Energy. ‘The FIRST

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discovered volumes averaged at [around] 550 million barrels of oil equivalent per month. The most worrisome is the fact that the reserve replacement ratio in the current year reached only 11% (for oil and gas combined), compared to over 50% in 2012,’ she added. According to Rystad’s analysis, 2006 was the last year when the reserve replacement ratio reached 100%. Rystad’s research also found that resources per discovered field also went down. An average offshore discovery in 2017 held around 100 million boe, compared to 150 million boe in 2012. ‘Low resources per discovered field can influence its commerciality. Under our current base case price scenario, we estimate that over 1 billion boe discovered during 2017 might never be developed,’ Passos said. The top three countries in terms of discovered volumes in 2017 were Senegal, Mexico and Guyana. In Senegal, Kosmos Energy discovered the Yakaar gas field. Mexico discovered the Zama and Ixachi discoveries, which helped to add around 1 billion boe, and ExxonMobil added another 1 billion boe through its 2017 discoveries such as Payara, Turbot and Snoek in Guyana. ‘We have to face the fact that the low discovered volumes on a global level represent a serious threat to the supply levels some ten years down the road,’ Passos added. I

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INDUSTRY NEWS

IAGC welcomes official probe into delayed seismic surveys The International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC) has welcomed the US government’s decision to open up the Atlantic Continental Shelf (OCS) for exploration but has called on it to take action ensure that delayed seismic surveys can take place. It has hailed a US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report criticising delays in permitting offshore seismic surveys in the Atlantic Continental Shelf (OCS). The report pointed to the fact that IAGC members’ applications to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) should be processed within 120 days but in some cases have been pending for 982 days. Nikki Martin, IAGC president said: ‘The GAO report details numerous administrative failures, specifically within

the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which have contributed to the current quagmire surrounding the issuance of Incidental Harassment Authorizations (IHAs) for seismic surveys in the OCS. ‘Further, the report validates the need for Congress to pass the SECURE Act to provide clear direction and common sense timelines for the processing of seismic permit application and authorization requests. This unwarranted and continued stalling represents a complete bureacratic breakdown in an otherwise straightforward process by federal agencies. We urge NMFS to implement guidance to aid analysts and applicants to track when applications are adequate and complete, acknowledge their failure to meet existing statutory timelines and issue decisions on the five pending Atlantic seismic IHA applications without further delay.’

The GAO report came as the US Interior Department confirmed that its 20192024 Oil and Gas Leasing Programme would include the US Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific as well as the US Gulf of Mexico. ‘There is still much work to be done as applications for geophysical surveys in the Atlantic continue to languish,’ added Martin. ‘Seismic permit applications have been pending with the Department of Interior for more than three years. ‘It would be a missed opportunity for a final five-year plan to include areas that have been not surveyed and privy to the most advanced, scientific analysis of the resource base. A lack of new geophysical data could undermine the Administration’s stated goal to open more areas in the US outer continental shelf. We urge the Administration to move forward with seismic survey authorisations without delay.’

Confidence rising in Norwegian and North Sea markets

Up to 50 wells could be drilled.

Efforts to find new oil offshore Norway are expected to double next year, according to analysts including Wood Mackenzie. Preliminary company plans show that activity will rise in more mature areas after this year’s disappointing Arctic campaign. Around 45-50 exploration wells, including wells to delineate previously made discoveries, could be drilled next year on the Norwegian Continental 20

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Shelf (NCS), up from around 26 wells this year. Higher oil prices and lower drilling costs are driving appetite for exploration and supporting a recovery of the offshore drilling market. Drilling activity off Norway could return close to the levels seen in 2013 when Brent crude traded at above $100 a barrel.

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Statoil, Lundin Petroleum and Aker BP are expected to drill most of the wells. Statoil alone plans 25-30 wells, including six wells in the Barents Sea, up from around 16 wells in 2017. Faroe Petroleum has submitted a $1.2 billion development plan for the Fenja field to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. Meanwhile, the majority of North Sea oil and gas workers believe the North Sea oil market will improve in 2018, according to a survey by website Rigzone. Almost two thirds respondents thought the market would be in better shape this year, with 35.59% forecasting an improvement between the third and fourth quarter and 27.12% expecting an upturn during the first and second quarter. Just over 20% think it will take longer for the sector to improve, and 16.95% believe the market will never improve. Just under 50% said that the North Sea oil and gas market had improved in 2017 while 50.85% said it had not.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Eni and Shell charged with corruption in Nigeria Eni and Royal Dutch Shell will face trial in Italy on corruption charges related to a $1.3bn deal to acquire one of Nigeria’s biggest prospective oilfields. Claudio Descalzi, chief executive of Eni, is among several current and former executives charged, as well as the two companies, who will face trial in Milan in March. The case relates to payments made by Eni and Shell in 2011 to secure 50/50 share in a Nigerian offshore block OPL245, which is estimated to hold 9 billion barrels of oil. Eni and Shell said that the oil block was acquired in accordance with Nigerian law, but the companies are accused of effectively paying $1.3 billion to Nigerian politicians as a bribe. The 2011 deal with the Nigerian government was intended to end years of wrangling over ownership between Shell and a Nigerian company linked to Dan Etete, the country’s former oil minister. The deal is the focus of investigations in Nigeria and the Netherlands as well as Italy. Simon Taylor, co-founder of Global Witness, the anti-corruption group, said: ‘The Nigerian people lost out on over $1bn, equivalent to the country’s entire health budget. They deserve to know the truth about what happened.’

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Leaked Shell emails revealed that the company cultivated Mr Etete with ‘lunch and lots of iced champagne’. Shell acknowledged in April that it knew Malabu, the company linked with Mr Etete, would be compensated for forfeiting its claim on OPL-245 but said that the transaction with the Nigerian government was ‘fully legal’. Malcolm Brinded, former head of Shell’s international upstream business, and Peter Robinson, former head of operations in sub-Saharan Africa, are among four former Shell employees to be tried. Shell said: ‘We believe the trial judges will conclude that there is no case against Shell or its former employees. Shell attaches the greatest importance to business integrity ... There is no place for bribery or corruption in our company.’ Eni said its board of directors had ‘confidence that the company was not involved in alleged corrupt activities in relation to the transaction, ‘based on the results of an independent investigation carried out for the company by a law firm’. The Eni board ‘confirmed its full confidence that chief executive Claudio Descalzi was not involved in the alleged illegal conduct’.

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TGS starts 3D survey in US Gulf of Mexico TGS has launched the Alonso 3D multi-client survey in the US Gulf of Mexico. The 6172 km2 acquisition is located in the Atwater Valley and Lloyd Ridge protraction areas of the US Gulf of Mexico. Multi-level targets exist, from Miocene to Jurassic. This project allows TGS to extend coverage from a core area in Mississippi Canyon into a more frontier area that is experiencing renewed interest from E&P companies. TGS will acquire new 3D data to provide the higher spatial resolution required to delineate multiple plays at multiple levels. Acquisition is

expected to start in February 2018. Data processing will be performed by TGS using its Clari-Fi broadband technology. ‘After a period of lower activity levels in the US GoM, this survey helps to strengthen our position in an underexplored area that is of interest to our clients, ahead of upcoming lease turnover. The Alonso 3D survey further adds to our GoM library which also includes successful WAZ data programmes to the north,’ said Kristian Johansen, CEO of TGS. FIRST

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08/01/18 16:33

INDUSTRY NEWS

Study links fracking in Texas to earthquakes

A study has found a direct connection between fracking and earthquake activity in Texas. Maria Beatrice Magnani, who studies earthquakes at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and a team of researchers at the US Geological Survey, used seismic reflection data to look for old faults and find out why there were two earthquakes stronger than magnitude 3 in 2008 and 12 in 2016.

Using high resolution seismic reflection imaging, the team hunted for deformed faults below Texas. An underground ultrasound revealed that the most recent signs of active faults were in a geologic layer 300 million years old. All the younger layers above it were stable. It concludes that there is no known geologic process that could explain the sharp increase in earthquakes. ‘There is no other explanation except that these earthquakes

are caused by human activity,’ Magnani said. The seismic reflection data provide a powerful argument ‘that these earthquakes are something new and different,’ Magnani said — activity stemming from the injection of wastewater deep into basement rock. ‘Most of the time it’s the large volume injection. Not the little frac jobs,’ Magnani added. ‘This is a landmark contribution in the question of whether the Fort Worth basin earthquakes are man-made,’ said Cliff Frohlich, a geophysicist at the University of Texas, Austin. Frohlich added that the research eliminates the possibility, sometimes raised by the oil and gas industry, that the Texas quakes are part of a natural cycle of faults that awaken every few thousand or million years. The study also compared the Texas subsurface with Mississippi, another seismically active region that, like Texas, is not close to a turbulent edge of a tectonic plate. Unlike Texas, though, north Mississippi has a much longer history of recorded earthquakes, going back to the early 1800s.

Wood Mackenzie predicts good year for oil majors Oil companies will achieve double-digit returns in 2018, with lower costs and redesigned portfolios already paying off, according to a report on exploration in 2018 by the analyst Wood Mackenzie. In 2018 the industry will continue to invest cautiously, drilling fewer, simpler wells focused on plays that are commercially attractive. However, after a difficult few years, the economic outlook is looking brighter for explorers. ‘Well counts will remain stubbornly low and competition for the best opportunities will be fierce. However, the industry’s focus on reducing costs in the last few years is paying off and we should see better returns in 2018,’ said Wood Mackenzie.

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The analyst said it believed that the most favoured plays will be deepwater sweet spots promising high resource density, rapid commercialisation and breakeven prices below $50/bbl. Global 2018 investment in conventional exploration and appraisal is expected to be around $37 billion – 7% less than 2017 spend and more than 60% below its 2014 peak. ‘Many exploration costs have halved since a 2014 peak and exploration’s share of upstream investment has slipped to below 10% since 2016. This could be the new normal, with the days of one dollar in six or seven going to exploration forever in the past,’ says Wood Mackenzie.

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More than half of all oil and gas volumes will again be found in deepwater, while explorers will steer clear of highcost areas, difficult logistics and slow-todrill wells. Although risk tolerance will strengthen, prospects with less than a one-in-ten chance of success are unlikely to be drilled. ’There will be approximately 40 licensing rounds during the year, and we expect strong competition for quality acreage as key players compete for a smaller pool of opportunities. Licensing rounds in Brazil and Mexico will be the ones to watch.’ However, the demand for quality acreage could push up prices, it warns.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

TGS and Schlumberger launch 2D survey offshore Egypt TGS and Schlumberger have launched a 10,000 km 2D long-offset broadband multi-client survey offshore Egypt. Advanced new acquisition and imaging techniques will provide better illumination of complex subsalt structures. The project will integrate all legacy seismic and non-seismic data. Acquisition will start in mid-December and is expected to complete in late Q1 2018. This project is part of an agreement with South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (GANOPE) in which Schlumberger and TGS have a 15-year period of exclusive multi-client rights in a ~70,000 km2 area in the Egyptian Red Sea.

‘The unexplored Egyptian Red Sea area is made up of large, untested structures and well-established hydrocarbon systems, which offer exceptional growth opportunities for oil companies. New imaging technologies are required to improve subsurface understanding and increase exploration success rates. The upcoming new multi-client 2D seismic acquisition programme is the initial step in mitigating the complex salt imaging challenges,’ said Kristian Johansen, CEO, TGS. Maurice Nessim, president, WesternGeco, Schlumberger, added: ‘Our comprehensive geological understanding, innovative seismic imaging techniques

and full integration of non-seismic methods will define new exploration trends in these prospective basins. The Schlumberger unique play-to-prospect integrated subsurface evaluation capabilities will enable customers to develop new prospectivity insight and accelerate their exploration decisions in this structurally complex area. Our programme will have significant impact on the exploration potential for the entire Red Sea (600,000 km2 across five countries). Our collaborative approach will help customers to identify high potential play segments, assess exploration risks and accelerate hydrocarbon maturation cycles.’

Total, Eni and Novatek win two blocks in Lebanon’s first licensing round A consortium of Total, Eni and Novatek have won oil and gas licences in Blocks 4 and 9 offshore Lebanon in the country’s first licensing round. Lebanon relaunched the licensing round for five offshore blocks (1, 4, 8, 9 and 10) in January 2017 after a three-year delay.

The country sits on the Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean along with Cyprus, Egypt, Israel and Syria. A number of gas fields have been discovered there since 2009, such as the Leviathan and Tamar fields. A total of 52 companies qualified earlier in the year to bid in this round.

Two of the five blocks were sold.

Statoil farms into huge deepwater field offshore Brazil Statoil will acquire a 25% interest in Petrobras’ Roncador oil field in the Campos Basin in Brazil for $2.8 billion. Roncador was the largest discovery offshore Brazil in the 1990s and is currently the third largest producing field in Petrobras’ portfolio with around 10 boe in place and an expected remaining recoverable volume of more than 1 billion boe. The ambition is to increase the recovery factor by at least 5 percentage points, bringing the total remaining recoverable volumes to more than 1500 million boe. The field has been in production since 1999 with output, during November

2017, of around 240,000 barrels of oil per day plus around 40,000 boe per day of associated gas. The transaction increases Statoil’s equity production in Brazil by around 175% to around 110,000 boe per day from around 40,000 boe per day. Statoil will leverage its IOR technology and Petrobras its experience as the largest deep-water operator and pre-salt developer in the world. Several specific opportunities for increased recovery and value creation are already understood to have been identified. ‘Statoil’s knowledge and experience in increasing the level of oil recovery in FIRST

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mature fields will add value not only to our joint operations in Roncador, but to other mature fields in the Campos Basin, with huge potential to positively impact future production in the area,’ said Pedro Parente, chief executive officer of Petrobras. Petrobras and Statoil are partners in 13 areas in either the exploration or production phase, ten of which are located in Brazil and three abroad. The acquisition will strengthen Statoil as one of the biggest oil producers in Brazil, operating the Peregrino field and block BM-C-33, both in the Campos Basin, and the BM-S-8 block in the Santos Basin. I

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INDUSTRY NEWS

CGG completes interpretation of 38,000 km of data offshore Mexico CGG has completed the acquisition, processing and interpretation of a multi-client airborne gravity and magnetic survey of approx. 38,000 line-km over the Perdido Fold Belt, offshore Mexico. Data acquisition of area AOI 1 was completed in December 2017 utilizing a Basler geophysical survey aircraft. This survey is the first of six areas to be acquired in a wider programme totalling 200,000 line-km across the Mexican Gulf of Mexico. Additional acquisition in the other areas indicated in the map below is planned for 2018. The company said that the newly acquired Perdido Fold Belt data has shown an interesting correlation of

significant discoveries along the flanks of basement topography. The data and interpretation will help explorers map crystalline basement, which is not well imaged by seismic data, to construct an improved Earth Model, it added. The airborne survey also collected continuous data through the ‘transition zone’ from the marine environment to onshore. The comprehensive interpretation, combining this new data set with available geologic and geophysical data, was undertaken by CGG’s in-house interpretation team in Houston. A full geophysical interpretation report, which includes mapping of basement, sediment and any

intrusives or salt which may be present, will provide important insights to exploration and de-risking of prospective areas by oil companies, it added.

A Basler geophysical survey aircraft.

US oil rig count up by 40% The US oil rig count rose by about 42% by the end of 2017 compared to the corresponding period last year, as energy companies boosted spending amid a recovery in crude prices. According to figures from the oil services company Baker Hughes, the number of oil rigs was 747 in the week to 29 December 2017. That was 222 more than the 525 rigs at the end of 2016. The oil rig count remained unchanged

in December after rising by ten in November. It declined by three in the fourth quarter of 2017 after falling by six in the third quarter. Meanwhile, there were 929 oil and natural gas rigs active on 29 December, up 41% from 658 at the end of 2016. The average number of rigs in service in 2017 was 876. That compares with 509 in 2016 and 978 in 2015. Most rigs produce both oil and gas.

The US financial services company Cowen & Co said 21 of the energy companies it tracks have provided capital expenditure guidance for 2018 indicating a 13% increase in planned spending over 2017. US crude oil production in October was the highest in more than 46 years, rising by 167,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.64 million bpd, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Spectrum launches third survey in Campos basin offshore Brazil Spectrum and BGP have launched the third phase of their latest multi-client acquisition programme in the Campos Santos basin, offshore Brazil. This 47,000 km of 2D long offset data in the southern Santos basin incorporates areas included in the 16th licensing round, scheduled for 2019. The survey is being acquired with a 12,000 m cable to record data necessary

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to understand basin architecture as well as to image prospective zones in the presalt section. The data will be processed in Spectrum’s Houston imaging centre with PSTM, PSDM (Kirchhoff and RTM) and Broadband products expected to be available in Q3 2018. Richie Miller, EVP multi-client Americas, said, ‘The Santos Basin of Brazil is one of the most attractive basins in the

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world. Adding new seismic data with advanced imaging over an area in the Santos Basin with limited exploration history or data allows for industry to work this data and understand the complete Santos Basin for the first time. Phase III will cover additional rift basins identified by our existing regional Deep Focus survey, and complete the coverage of the sectors proposed for Round 16.’

INDUSTRY NEWS

Ikon Science enhances releases latest RokDoc update vertically varying wavelets and noise fields to deal with spatial variations in seismic amplitudes relating to attenuation and noise and a 5x increase in performance for generation of stochastic realisations and scenarios. Enhancements to the Pressure Prediction Module include the capturing of the timing of geomechanical, operational and drilling-based events, such as the date and time of each pressure measurement. New updates to RokDoc Ji-Fi enable enhanced use of rock physics and trend data – improving frontier and sparse data exploration well prediction, hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from the nearest well. The RokDoc multi-well analysis Python toolkit is now A.I. and machine learning-ready, creating possibilities for advanced data analytics in unconventional and subtle reservoirs.

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France to end oil and gas production by 2040 France’s parliament has passed legislation requiring all oil and gas exploration and production on French territories to end by 2040, the first time any country has taken such a step. The bill, presented to the French cabinet in September, bans the renewal of

French president Emmanuel Macron.

any existing concessions beyond that date. New exploration permits will no longer be granted. The decision is largely symbolic because France produces only about six million barrels of hydrocarbons a year, about one 1% of its consumption. It will continue to import and refine oil. President Emmanuel Macron has sought a leading role for France in the fight against climate change and stressed at the One Planet climate conference in December 2017 that not enough was being done. Macron’s bid to breathe new life into a landmark accord on climate change reached by nearly 200 nations in Paris two years ago came after US President Donald Trump said he was pulling the US out of the deal.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Court approves Norway’s Arctic exploration plans

Northern lights over the Arctic.

An Oslo court has approved Norway’s plans for more oil exploration in the Arctic, dismissing a lawsuit by environmen-

talists who had said it violated people’s right to a healthy environment. The case, brought by Greenpeace and the Nature and Youth Group, had argued that a 2015 oil licensing round in the Arctic that gave awards to Statoil, Chevron and others violated Norway’s constitution. But the Oslo district court said the government’s oil and gas plans were acceptable. In its ruling, the court dismissed the environmentalists’ arguments that Norway should be responsible for greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas exported to other nations, rather than just from exploration and drilling off Norway. The court also said the risks of Arctic drilling were limited.

During the hearing in late 2017, the government said it was inappropriate to invoke the constitution rather than focus on taxes and regulations to control greenhouse gases. The Norwegian oil industry lobby group welcomed the ruling. ‘We’ve previously said that this is a matter of politics, and politics should be made in parliament, not in the court,’ said Tommy Hansen, a spokesman for the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association. Among firms winning stakes in ten licences awarded in Norway’s 23rd round of awards were Lukoil, ConocoPhillips, Lundin, Aker BP, OMV, Centrica, Idemitsu and others.

US lease sale in Arctic Alaska draws disappointing response An oil-and-gas lease sale offering vast tracts in Arctic Alaska has drawn only seven bids in the 13th NPR-A lease sale, US government officials have said. The bids, covering about 80,000 acres, or less than 1% of the 10.3 million acres offered in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska by the Trump administration, were made by ConocoPhillips in partnership with Anadarko Petroleum. The partnership offered $1.16 million for tracts along the southern border of

ConocoPhillips’ Greater Mooses Tooth unit, where oil production is expected to start next year. The sale offered more than any of the previous 12 NPR-A sales as part of President Donald Trump’s pledge to make the United States ‘energy dominant’ by boosting output of oil, natural gas and coal. Last year’s NPR-A lease sale drew $18.8 million in bids, led by ConocoPhillips, for 67 tracts covering 613,529 acres.

Kara Moriarty, executive director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, said the low level of NPR-A bidding might be an indication that oil and gas companies were being strategic about new leases. Meanwhile, the Alaska Oil and Gas Division’s lease sale, in tracts that are near by to the 80,000 acres in the 13th NPR-A lease sale, drew $19.9 million and more than 100 bids, mostly from Spanish energy company Repsol and Colorado-based independent oil company Armstrong.

Spectrum reports increased fourth quarter sales Spectrum has reported fourth quarter 2017 sales of $46 million, up 31% from $35 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. The company said that the improved sales exemplified how increased exploration activity from oil majors was positively impacting seismic contracting companies. ‘The fourth quarter was significantly better than the fourth quarter of 2016,

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and I think that will be reflected for the rest of the industry also. And we believe the fourth quarter of 2018 will be even better,’ said Rune Eng, chief executive of Spectrum (pictured). ‘Overall, we will see increased activity in the period 2018 to 2020. We have passed the bottom, still there is not a big party yet, but things have turned. Oil firms

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generate free cash flow and are starting to focus on finding more,’ he added.

INDUSTRY NEWS

FairfieldNodal and Schlumberger start 3D survey in Texas The FairfieldNodal and Schlumberger WesternGeco multi-client joint venture has started a 3D seismic survey in the southern Delaware Basin of West Texas, known as Coyanosa Phase II. Phase II consists of 374 miles2 (968 km2) of 3D seismic data in Ward, Reeves and Pecos Counties, Texas, including the Bone Spring and Wolfcamp formations. Acquisition services are being provided by Dawson Geophysical.

The resulting 3D data will be jointly licensed and will tie into existing FairfieldNodal and WesternGeco 3D data to provide customers with contiguous data coverage in the southern Delaware Basin. The survey is expected to be completed in late March and Phase II processed data is expected to be available Q3 2018. Meanwhile, FairfieldNodal has made available the final PSTM of its Red Tank acquisition project in the Delaware Basin,

US. A PSDM volume is expected in early Q1 2018. The Red Tank multi-client survey, which began in early 2017, is in the heart of the New Mexico portion of the Delaware Basin. This high-resolution 3D survey adds more than 985 km2 to the company’s regional contiguous database of 7770 km2. The acquisition target for this survey is the Bone Spring through Wolfcamp formations.

Bespoke 3D geothermal modelling is launched on to market Arranz Geo has released Leapfrog Geothermal 3.3 for geothermal modelling, which includes includes time-based visualisation of geophysical data. The bespoke 3D geothermal modelling solution integrates with leading reservoir engineering and geophysical software to build surfaces directly from data while subsurface professionals use their skills and interpretation to guide the process. A key feature enables micro-seismic data to be visualized over time, assisting with the early identification of reservoir structures and delineation of these as more data becomes available. Geophysical data has also been reorganised into a single geophysical data folder, with related functionality and the ability to import numerous data types including magneto-telluric (MT) data. Users can now also import 2D points into the geophysical data folder. Product manager Brennan Williams said: ‘With geothermal you’re often dealing with limited data so it’s important to be able to readily incorporate geophysics like MT data to inform

The software includes time-based visualization.

the reservoir conceptual model and help make critical decisions such as where to drill early exploration wells.’ The release includes new statistical functionality and improved statistics on block models, and new options for a wealth of tools including numeric compositing.

Ineos plans 3D survey under UK’s North York Moors Ineos has announced plans to carry out a 3D seismic survey to assess for shale gas under Britain’s North York Moors national park. It will also lodge planning applications to drill up to ten exploratory boreholes around the southern edge of the North York Moors, which has the largest tracts of heather moor in England and Wales. ‘We can’t frack in national parks but we can frack under them by drilling

sideways from points around the edges,’ said Tom Pickering, operations director of Ineos Shale. ‘In 2018 we want to do a geological survey to build a 3D picture of the rock strata before drilling test wells.’ If gas is found, Ineos would build up to 15 fracking pads in each licence area. At each site, Ineos would drill between eight and 10 vertical wells up to 3000 m deep, and then turn the drill system through 90 degrees to make FIRST

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horizontal boreholes that could penetrate miles beneath the national park. The moors are overseen by a national park authority, which in a private meeting has told Ineos it is opposed to fracking in, around or under its land. The North Yorks National Park Authority fears Ineos would blight the landscape with drill pads and pollute rivers with millions of gallons of waste water. Pickering said fracking pads could be made ‘almost invisible’. I

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Spectrum starts latest 3D survey offshore Gabon Spectrum and China Oilfield Services (COSL) have started the next phase of their shallow water 3D multi-client seismic acquisition campaign offshore Gabon with a 3D survey in the north of the country. The campaign is focused on acquiring seismic data in under-explored shallow water open blocks, which the country’s oil ministry, the Direction Generale des Hydrocarbures (DGH), intends to make available through future shallow water licensing rounds.

Up to 5500 km2 of long offset broadband seismic data will be acquired alongside gravity and magnetic recordings. This follows the recent 11,400 km2 Gabon South 3D survey and complements more than 20,000 km of 2D multi-client seismic data offshore Gabon also held by Spectrum on behalf of the DGH, which gives a regional overview and highlights key areas of exploration. Spectrum EVP of the Africa Region, Graham Mayhew said: ‘Large areas of

shallow-water Gabonese acreage remain unexplored owing to the inability of 2D seismic to image structures in the presalt, and the lack of modern 3D data. Our new multi-client 3D seismic data will provide oil companies with new insight into the hydrocarbon prospectivity of these open blocks.’ The new 3D data will be processed with PSTM, PSDM and Broadband products with first deliveries in early Q3 2018 ahead of anticipated licensing rounds.

Operating costs on the UK Continental Shelf drop by 14% Operating costs in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) dropped by 14% in 2016 with operators securing approx. £1.1 billion reductions in operating expenditure (OPEX). The Analysis of UKCS Operating Costs in 2016 inaugural report, published by the UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), shows that UKCS total operating costs fell for the second consecutive year in 2016, with more than half of UK operators achieving substantial cost reductions in 2016.

The study found that the average Unit Operating Cost fell in 2016, for the second consecutive year, to £12 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe). The pace of cost reduction has slowed down, with Unit Operating Cost (UOC) falling by 18% in 2016 compared with a 22% annual reduction in 2015. UOC in 2016 was more than a third lower (35%) than the peak seen in 2014. OPEX reduction in the UKCS was dominated by four operators who realised

60% of the total reduction in 2016. Total OPEX for the UKCS was £7.2 billion in 2016 compared with £8.3 billion the previous year. The report includes new information on UOC by field and geographical area, showing how costs are distributed at a micro level. The benchmarking data provided will aid peer group comparison and overall help to validate the cost attractiveness of the UKCS.

Seabed Geosolutions pockets $60 million for OBN contracts Seabed Geosolutions has secured 3D and 4D ocean bottom node contracts offshore Trinidad and West Africa worth a combined $60 million. The CGG/Fugro joint venture has been awarded a 3D ocean bottom node (OBN) seismic acquisition contract over the greater Angostura field in shallow waters, offshore Trinidad by BHP and has also been awarded a 4D OBN project by Shell Nigeria. The 225 km2 Trinidad project will start in the first quarter of 2018 and will use Seabed Geosolutions’ latest node handling solutions deployed by ROV. 30

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The 4D OBN monitor project in the Bonga Field offshore Nigeria will use Seabed Geosolutions’ Hugin Explor-

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er vessel that is equipped with CASE Abyss nodes. The project will commence in the first quarter of 2018.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Cuadrilla moves ahead with UK fracking Cuadrilla is drilling the first horizontal shale well in the UK after completing a vertical pilot well to a depth of 2.7 km through the Upper and Lower Bowland shale rock intervals at Preston New Road, Lancashire, northwest UK. The company has recovered some 375 feet (115 m) of core samples taken

Cuadrilla’s site at Preston New Road.

across three separate intervals of the Upper and Lower Bowland shales. In addition, a comprehensive series of wireline logs have recorded data across the entire Bowland shale section. ‘This represents the most comprehensive data set recovered to date from any shale well drilled in the UK and the quality of the data is excellent,’ said Cuadrilla. Using the latest data, along with data recovered and analysed from Cuadrilla’s three previous Lancashire shale exploration wells, the company is now drilling its first two horizontal wells into the gas-rich zones. ‘Our early analysis of this latest data suggests excellent rock quality for hydraulic fracturing and a high natural gas content in several zones within the shale. This is in line with the British Geological Survey’s independent report in 2013, The Carboniferous Bowland Shale Gas Study, which estimated a mid-level

estimate of the gas-in-place in the Bowland shales across the North of England to be 1329 trillion cubic feet,’ said Cuadrilla. Francis Egan, CEO of Cuadrilla, said: ‘We can confirm that the rock composition is very suitable to hydraulically fracture. This gives us great confidence as we start drilling what will be the first horizontal well drilled into UK shale rock.’ Cuadrilla has planning permission to drill up to four exploratory horizontal wells in the shale rock underlying its site at Preston New Road. The initial vertical sections of the first two of these wells have both now been drilled and the company has started the first horizontal well in UK shale. Once both horizontal wells have been completed hydraulic fracturing of both is likely to be in the second quarter of 2018. Cuadrilla then plans to test the flow rate of natural gas from the horizontal wells for approximately six months.

Trump agrees not to drill offshore Florida President Donald Trump’s administration will not allow drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Florida after an appeal from the state’s governor. The Trump administration has proposed opening nearly all US offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, in a move aimed at boosting domestic energy production. The administration’s decision removes from consideration a portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico with Florida state waters extending 3 nautical miles (5 km) from the shore on the Atlantic, and 9 nautical miles (15 km) on the Gulf side. ‘I support the governor’s position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver,’ said Ryan Zinke, interior secretary, said. ‘As a result of discussion with Governor (Rick) Scott and his leadership, I am removing Florida from consideration for any new oil and gas platforms.’

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Meanwhile, the US Interior Department has proposed eliminating some safety regulations for offshore oil and gas drilling that the Obama Administration put in place after BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. The US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), which regulates offshore drilling, said its proposal to scale back some of the Obama-era requirements was in line with the Trump Administration’s goal of ‘encouraging increased domestic oil and gas production by removing regulatory hurdles.’ The 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the deaths of 11 workers and led to the largest oil spill in the history of US marine oil drilling operations. One of the safety provisions BSEE plans to remove is a requirement for

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The Florida coast.

operators to get a third party to certify that safety devices work under extreme conditions. During the BP spill, one of these devices, a blowout preventer, failed to work. The proposal would also revise some oil production safety system design requirements.

INDUSTRY NEWS

FairfieldNodal brings new complaints against Seabed Geosolutions FairfieldNodal has filed an amended complaint in the US courts against Seabed Geosolutions for patent infringement of its ocean bottom node technology. The company has abandoned previously pending allegations of patent infringement against Seabed Geosolutions and its Manta ocean bottom node tech-

nology, but has alleged three new patent infringements. The court will hear the latest allegations in the spring of 2018. Seabed Geosolutions said that it believed FairfieldNodal’s new allegations are ‘meritless’ and added that it will ‘vigorously defend’ the lawsuit.

‘We have invested in industry-leading technology and a significant patent portfolio over the last 20 years; we respect the IP rights of competitors in our industry,’ it said in a statement. The parties are now working on a case schedule which will be finalized in January of 2018.

Santos to carry out 3D survey offshore Western Australia Santos will partially fund and operate a 3D seismic survey over the undrilled Beehive prospect, after the company farmed-in to WA-488-P in the Bonaparte Basin offshore Western Australia. WA-488-P is adjacent to Blacktip production infrastructure and within reach

of Ichthys infrastructure, providing good potential for early commercialisation of any discovery, said Santos which bought the rights to earn up to an 80% interest in the block from Melbana Energy. Santos executive-vice president exploration & appraisal Bill Ovenden, said:

‘The Beehive prospect is a large undrilled structure with great hydrocarbon-bearing potential and, being immediately adjacent to the Blacktip facilities and within reach of Ichthys infrastructure, a commercial discovery could be quickly delivered to market,’ he said.

Troika creates data room for Ghana Ghana is creating a national data repository (NDR) to collate and preserve geoscience and petroleum engineering data. The dataroom will host data on more than 181 onshore and offshore wells and more than 94,669 km 2D and 21,000 km2 3D seismic data as well as cuttings, drilling mud samples and cores. Ghana started producing oil in commercial quantities through the commissioning of the Jubilee field in 2010. The Ghanaian Petroleum Commission (PC) was founded in 2011 and inherited a huge volume of seismic tapes and supporting documents in a wide variety of media and formats. Seismic data management company Troika International is helping the PC to catalogue and upload the data to disk on a ‘file per line’ basis. All of the seismic data was on IBM 3590 or 3592 cartridges, including older data that had previously been remastered from 9-track tapes and 3480 cartridges and converted from SEGA, SEGB and SEGC to SEGY format.

Troika worked with PC staff to sort field and post-stack seismic data into survey line groups then verify the contents of the cartridges and supporting documentation. Other data types such as well information were also identified and catalogued. Prior to loading to disk, all the seismic datasets were passed through quality control and verification processes

A truckload of seismic tapes awaiting quality control before uploading to the Ghanaian national data repository.

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to ensure subsequent problem-free workstation access and/or input to reprocessing sequences. Several issues were encountered, including corrupt data blocks, missing data, embedded end-of-file marks and blank tape between data blocks. Media were found to be mislabelled and there were often inconsistencies in survey and/ or line names. Some datasets were found to deviate from defined SEG standards and incorrect information was often identified in file and trace headers. ‘Bringing together and making available online all the seismic assets of a company or country may seem simple in principle but often encounters challenges such as inconsistencies in recording and processing formats and labelling, sometimes compounded by errors in transcription,’ said Jill Lewis, managing director of Troika International. ‘Correcting these errors and ensuring adherence to industry standards adds considerably to these valuable assets and will help encourage investment by international E&P companies.’ I

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multi-client seismic

ARGENTINA

Offshore Argentina New Multi-Client 2D Seismic For Future Licensing Rounds Legend

Argentina Deep Water: 37,800 km Deep Water Permit: 443,800 km2 Austral-Malvinas: 13,900 km Austral-Malvinas Permit: 284,500 km2 E1Blocks

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Spectrumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s library of Multi-Client seismic includes over 50,000 km of newly-acquired data offshore Argentina. Our latest 2D survey, expected to cover around 14,000 line km, has begun over the Austral-Malvinas basin while the northern portion of our 37,800 km deep water survey, expected to be included in the 2018 licensing round, was completed mid-2017. Both surveys are being acquired with a 12,000 m streamer with continuous recording to enable extended recording lengths and high fold data to enable full interpretation from Moho to water bottom. The new data will be utilized to assist the Ministry in placement and design of parcels for future license rounds.

spectrumgeo.com mc-uk@spectrumgeo.com +44 1483 730201

INDUSTRY NEWS

WesternGeco completes 2D survey in Eastern Morocco

Eastern Morocco where WesternGeco has acquired eight seismic lines.

WesternGeco has completed the first phase of its 2D seismic and magneto-telluric (MT) acquisition in Eastern Morocco for client Sound Energy. The first phase included eight 2D seismic lines (341 line-km in total) over

the ’A’ Structure located 25 km north-west of TE-5 Horst. ‘The seismic data density and integrity is of the high quality expected and already clearly highlights the “A” structure,’ said Sound Energy. ‘The “A” structure

is expected to be the first target for the company’s rapidly approaching three-well exploration programme.’ Sound added that the MT survey has proven to have exceptionally high signal-tonoise ratio and will provide basin geometry and subsurface rock properties to complement the 2D seismic and the newly acquired airborne FTG gravity gradiometry and magnetic datasets which were completed in November. The 2D seismic and MT data collected has been interpreted at the WesternGeco processing centres. Seismic parameter testing is continuing in the Anoual permit to further optimize imaging after which the WesternGeco crew will commence phase two of the programme across a region eastward of the TE-5 Horst.

Sinopec carries out 200 km2 survey onshore and offshore Nigeria Sinopec Changjiang Engineering Services has won a contract from a joint venture of Lekoil and Green Energy International Limited to acquire 197 km2 of 3D seismic data at the Otakikpo Marginal Field in OML 11, onshore and offshore in the south-eastern part of the Niger Delta. The project to update the existing 2D coverage over Otakikpo is expected to start in Q1 2018 to kick-off phase

two development. All relevant permits are currently being pursued prior to commencing mobilisation. Otakikpo currently has an estimated 56.6 mmbls of gross unrisked 2C contingent resources and an additional 163.0 mmbls gross of Stock Tank Oil Initially In Place (STOIIP). As the Otakikpo field nears Phase One target production of 10,000 bopd, the joint venture is focused on Phase Two of the

Otakikpo Field Development Plan which aims to increase steady state production up to approx. 20,000 bopd.

Indonesia reports foreign interest in latest licensing round Indonesia has received bids from four international companies for five oil and gas blocks the country tendered in 2017, after receiving no bids for blocks tendered in 2015 and 2016. Four international companies, including Mubadala Petroleum, Repsol and KrisEnergy, put in bids for five of ten the

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conventional blocks offered, deputy energy minister Arcandra Tahar said. Local companies had also expressed an interest in the blocks, he added. Some 22 oil and gas blocks were offered between 2015 and 2016 but no companies bid for them. These would be offered again in January 2018, Tahar said.

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The government also received no bids in 2017 for five non-conventional blocks that were offered. Winners of the five blocks are due to be announced in late February 2018. The blocks will be developed under newly established production sharing contracts.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Spectrum and WesternGeco shoot data offshore Mozambique

Spectrum and WesternGeco have started a 2D seismic survey offshore Mozambique on behalf of the Institute of National Petroleum (INP). This new 2D seismic programme of up to 19,000 km will be undertaken utilizing a 10,000 m-long offset with continuous recording to enable extended recording lengths and high fold data. It

BRIEFS Mexico’s oil regulator the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) has cancelled a tender for a joint venture with state oil firm Pemex in the deep-water Maximino-Nobilis area because there has been no interest in the auction. The auction had been scheduled to take place on 31 January.

is being acquired to complement existing 2013 seismic data located in the Mozambique Channel area which is also available through Spectrum. Gravity and magnetic data will be acquired in conjunction with seismic data to allow for independent verification of structure. Spectrum EVP of the Africa Region, Graham Mayhew, said: ‘This new multi-client survey will play a key role in refining our understanding of the hydrocarbon potential offshore Mozambique between the Southern Rovuma Basin and the NorthEast of the Zambezi Delta, and accelerate exploration in an area considered to be significantly more oil-prone. In addition, the data will also provide the basis for future licence rounds as planned by INP.’ The processed data will be ready in Q3 2018.

Energean has won five offshore exploration licences in the Israeli Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) after the First Israeli Offshore Bid Round. Blocks 12, 21, 22, 23 and 31 are located near Energean’s Karish and Tanin gas fields. Energean said the licences could be developed via tie-backs to the FPSO that it will construct for the development of the Karish and Tanin fields. EMGS has entered into data licensing agreements related to 3D CSEM multi-client data in the Barents Sea, offshore Norway. The agreements represent combined revenues of approx. $1.4 million. The company has also won two contracts under which EMGS will perform prefunded multi-client acquisitions offshore Indonesia. The contracts, worth a combined $2.8 million are being carried out by the vessel BOA Thalassa.

Polarcus and TGS extend vessel agreement for another year Polarcus has announced that it has extended its multi-client collaboration and vessel agreement with TGS for another year. The companies will continue to jointly develop selected 3D multi-client projects and TGS will extend its commitment to using Polarcus vessels to the end of 2018 for up to 10,000 km2. The recently announced XArray project in the Gulf

of Mexico with TGS forms part of this commitment. ‘This agreement will continue to leverage the core strengths and expertise of both parties,’ said Duncan Eley, Polarcus CEO. ‘Polarcus acquired more than 15,000 km2 of high quality broadband 3D seismic data for TGS during 2017 and the collaboration will further drive vessel utilization in 2018.’

Petrobras and ExxonMobil have formed a strategic alliance to identify areas for co-operation in exploration, production, gas and chemicals both inside and outside Brazil. In September, Petrobras and ExxonMobil jointly acquired six offshore blocks in the Campos Basin in the Brazil National Agency of Petroleum’s 14th tender round.

Velseis acquires first phase of CBM survey in Botswana Velseis has completed the first part of its 250-km two-dimensional seismic survey at its Lesedi and Mamba coal-bed methane projects in Botswana for client Tlou Energy. The new seismic data will provide a more accurate picture of the subsurface. ‘The [data has the] potential to guide us towards the delineation of further gas reserves and contingent resources

Polarcus has been an awarded a 3D seismic survey in the Caribbean. The two-month project using the company’s XArray technology will start in Q2, 2018. The company has also won a contract from TGS to acquire 6172 km2 of 3D seismic data in the Gulf of Mexico. The threemonth survey will start in Q1 2018. As a result of this award, all active Polarcus vessels will be on contract in Q1 2018.

and enable us to determine the optimum location for the first phase development wells planned for 2018,’ said Tlou MD Tony Gilby. Velseis is processing the remaining lines, with the final data set to be supplied to SRK, Tlou’s geological consultants, for interpretation. A report on the data will be published in the first quarter of 2018. FIRST

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Petro Matad completes 3D survey in Mongolia

Mongolian grazing lands.

Petro Matad has completed its 3D seismic acquisition programme in Mongolia to define and derisk drilling targets within the Tugrug Basin. WesternGeco is processing the full 3D dataset with Pre-Stack Time Migration

(PSTM) and Pre-Stack Depth Migration (PSDM), which will be available in the first quarter. The Tugrug Basin has a proven working petroleum system which was confirmed with a stratigraphic core hole drilled by the company in 2011 near the basin margin. The core hole contained live, unbiodegraded oil in good quality sandstone reservoir. The newly acquired 3D data will enable the company to optimize the drilling location in the Falcon prospect. The company has decided not to proceed with a small additional 2D seismic acquisition programme in the Tugrug Basin as it was designed to identify additional prospects and leads for potential drilling beyond 2018. ‘A factor in this decision is that the Mongolian winter has been harsh and

there are only a few grazing lands still accessible to livestock, one of which is in the area where the Tugrug Basin 2D survey was planned,’ said Petro Matad in a statement. ‘Herders and their livestock have therefore entered the area in large numbers. The company therefore felt it prudent to postpone the 2017/18 Block V 2D seismic programme.’ The seismic crew has mobilized to Block IV and has commenced the planned 204 km 2D seismic acquisition programme over the Khangai Basin in the northern part of Block IV, which is anticipated to be completed by early February 2018. This survey aims to better define attractive leads identified on regional 2D seismic, gravity and magnetic surveys acquired in 2015.

WesternGeco shoots 2D project offshore Norway WesternGeco has acquired 4500 km of 2D seismic on the Gardarbank High, east/northeast of Bjørnøya and south of Hopen, offshore Norway for the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). WG Columbus acquired the seismic data on Gardarbank High’s geological ridge located in the area between the Spitsbergen Bank and Hopen Deep.

The project is part of the NPD’s programme to geologically map areas that have not yet been opened for petroleum activity to assess their petroleum potential. From 2012 to 2016, the NPD acquired seismic data in the eastern part of the Barents Sea north. The results of this work were presented in the spring of

2017. The latest acquisition on the Gardarbank High is a western continuation of this mapping and the new data provides significantly improved seismic coverage. The processing of the newly acquired seismic data is expected to be completed in the third quarter, after which the data will be used in the NPD’s evaluation projects.

Ineos launches legal challenge to fracking ban in Scotland Ineos and its co-venture partner Reach have lodged a petition for judicial review of the decision by the Scottish Government in October to ‘effectively ban’ onshore unconventional oil and gas extraction in Scotland by introducing a new planning policy of ‘no support’. The company said it believed that there were ‘very serious errors within the deci36

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sion-making process’, including a failure to adhere to proper statutory process and a misuse of ministerial power. Ineos said that the announcement in October brought to an end a two-year wait during which the Scottish oil and gas industry was ‘left in limbo’. Tom Pickering, operations director at Ineos Shale, said: ‘We have invested signif-

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icantly in unconventional development over the years, against a supportive regulatory and planning backdrop. If Scotland wants to continue to be considered as a serious place to do business, then it cannot simply remove the policy support that attracted that investment in the first place without proper procedures being followed and without the offer of appropriate financial compensation.’

Special Topic

RESERVOIR MONITORING Reservoir monitoring on the seabed is crucial to the future of the industry as energy companies respond to the challenge of gaining the maximum out of their fields while their infrastructure is still operational. Techniques include full life-of-field seismic surveillance, time-lapse seismic 4D monitoring and gravimetric monitoring. Permanent monitoring of microseismic vibrations is also rapidly developing. Monitoring techniques are becoming more precise owing to the evolution of equipment that can be deployed in specific configurations for each reservoir. The smallest variations can now be observed. Thomas L. Davis et al present a study that determines which parts of the reservoir are being accessed by the hydraulic fracturing operation and which parts of the permeability continuum are being monitored by the various seismic methods. Leo Eisner et al propose microseismic monitoring of directivity as the most promising way to determine the orientation of fault planes and associated slip vectors. Marco Bohnhoff et al describe how repeated Seismic Emission Tomography observations can improve reservoir management in addition to regulatory monitoring. Stian Engebretsen introduces an integrated production management workflow. Martin Besselievre et al demonstrate how the concept of Point Spread Functions can be successfully applied to time-lapse seismic when the respective acquisition geometries are very different and cannot be closely repeated. Neil Hodgson et al continue to investigate the consequences for prospectivity of a revolutionary convection model of the mantle, by exploring the implications for shelf stability, distribution of source rocks and the geology of the rifting process on the passive margins.

Submit an article

Special Topic overview January

Land Seismic

First Break Special Topics are covered by a mix of original articles dealing with case studies and the latest technology. Contributions to a Special Topic in First Break can be sent directly to the editorial office (firstbreak@eage.org). Submissions will be considered for publication by the editor.

February

Reservoir Monitoring

March

Petroleum Geology

April

Passive Seismic

May

Modelling/Interpretation

June

Energy, Technology, Sustainability - Time to open a new chapter

It is also possible to submit a Technical Article to First Break. Technical Articles are subject to a peer review process and should be submitted ia EAGEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ScholarOne website: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fb

July

Unconventionals & Carbon Capture and Storage

August

Near Surface Geoscience

September

EM & Potential Methods

October

Reservoir Geoscience and Engineering

November

Marine Seismic

December

Data Processing

You can find the First Break author guidelines online at www.firstbreak.org/guidelines.

More Special Topics may be added during the course of the year.

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Technical Contents Technical Article eservoir characterization of the Triassic Kobbe and Snadd formations — R Bjarmeland Platform, Norwegian Barents Sea Jørgen André Hansen and Nazmul Haque Mondol

Special Topic: Reservoir Monitoring ptimizing hydraulic fracturing operations through time-lapse, multi-component and microseismic monitoring O Thomas L. Davis and Oscar Quezada Microseismic data interpretation — what do we need to measure first? Leo Eisner and František Stane ˇk uggested best practice for seismic monitoring and characterization of non-conventional reservoirs S Marco Bohnhoff, Peter Malin, Jan ter Heege, Jean-Pierre Deflandre and Charles Sicking ow to establish an integrated production management system across the reservoir lifecycle H Stian Engebretsen new approach to compensate for illumination differences in 4D surveys with different individual A acquisition geometries Didier Lecerf and Martin Besselievre Toward the global tectonic model: A new hope (part 2) Neil Hodgson and Karyna Rodriguez

INTERESTED IN OUR TECHNICAL CONTENT? Becoming an Institutional Subscriber presents you with the opportunity to download technical content from a database of C l i ck H e re over 64,000 papers and articles ! Contact us now to experience the benefits

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CALENDAR

CALENDAR OF EVENTS 3-6 SEPTEMBER 2018

EAGE ECMOR XVI 2018

www.eage.org • Barcelona, Spain

February 2018 5-7 Feb

Third EAGE Workshop on Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

6-8 Feb

West African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference

12-14 Feb

Egypt Petroleum Show 2018

12-15 feb

DGG Spring Meeting 2018

19-21 Feb

First Australian Exploration Geoscience Conference

20-21 Feb

SPE/EAGE Workshop: Reservoir Life Cycle Management - How to Maximize Value

22-23 Feb

First EAGE/PESGB Workshop on Velocities

www.eage.org

http://waipec.com

www.egyps.com

http://dgg2018.dgg-tagung.de

www.aegc2018.com.au

www.eage.org

Muscat

Oman

Lagos

Nigeria

Cairo

Egypt

Leoben

Austria

Sydney

Australia

Abu Dhabi

UAE

London

Offenburg

Germany

Manama

Bahrain

Nashville

USA

Oran

Algeria

Kraków

Poland

Vienna

Austria

Saint Petersburg

Russia

March 2018 1-2 Mar

GeoTHERM 2018

5-8 Mar

GEO 2018 - 13th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition

25-29 Mar

Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems (SAGEEP) 2018

www.geotherm-germany.com/en

geo2018.com/

www.eegs.org/sageep-2018

25-28 Mar

NAPEC – North Africa Petroleum Exhibition & Conference

26-29 Mar

Seventh EAGE Workshop on Passive Seismic 2018

www.napec-dz.com

www.eage.org

April 2018 8-13 Apr

EGU General Assembly 2018

9-12 Apr

EAGE Saint Petersburg 2018

www.egu2018.eu www.eage.org

EAGE Events

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Non-EAGE Events

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CALENDAR

11-12 Apr

EAGE-HAGI 1st Asia Pacific Meeting on Near Surface Geoscience & Engineering

16-19 Apr

Second EAGE/AAPG Hydrocarbon Seals of the Middle East Workshop

18-19 Apr

DGMK Spring 2018

23-27 Apr

Engineering and Mining Geophysics 2018

25-26 Apr

EAGE Second SPE/EAGE Workshop on Integrated Geomechanics in E&P

www.eage.org www.eage.org www.dgmk.de www.eage.org www.eage.org

Yogyakarta

Indonesia

Abu Dhabi

UAE

Celle

Germany

Almaty

Kazakhstan

Abu Dhabi

UAE

Cancun

Mexico

Kiev

Ukraine

Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

Salt Lake City

USA

Cheng Du

China

Copenhagen

Denmark

Kolding

Denmark

Irkutsk

Russia

Oslo

Norway

Barcelona

Spain

Barcelona

Spain

Gelendzhik

Russia

Porto

Portugal

Palermo

Italy

Barcelona

Spain

Rueil-Malmaison

France

Dallas

USA

May 2018 14-15 May

First EAGE Workshop in Deepwater Exploration

14-16 May

EAGE Geoinformatics 2018

14-16 May

EAGE/SEG Workshop on Marine Multi-Component Seismic

20-23 May

AAPG 2018 Annual Convention & Exhibition

23-25 May

Unconventionals in China – The Next 10 Years

www.eage.org www.eage.org www.eage.org www.aapg2018.org www.eage.org

June 2018 11-14 Jun

80th EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2018

17-20 Jun

7th International AEM Conference and Exhibition

www.eage.org www.conferencemanager.dk/AEM2018

August 2018 11-17 Aug

GeoBaikal 2018

22-24 Aug

Marine Acquisition Workshop 2018

www.eage.org www.eage.org

September 2018 3-6 Sept

EAGE ECMOR XVI 2018

7 Sept

EAGE/ TNO Workshop on Olympus Field Development Optimization

10-14 Sept

EAGE Geomodel 2018

12-15 Sept

EAGE 24nd European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, Near Surface Geoscience 2018

www.eage.org www.eage.org www.eage.org

www.eage.org

16-20 Sept

Fifth International Conference on Fault and Top Seals

17-20 Sept

DMG Gas Tech 2018

18-20 Sept

First EAGE/IFPEN Conference on Sulfur Risk Management in E&P

24-26 Sept

SPE SPE ATCE 2018

EAGE Events

www.eage.org www.gastechevent.com www.eage.org www.atce.org

Non-EAGE Events

FIRST

BREAK

VOLUME

FEBRUARY

2018

INCLUDING

THE WORLDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LARGEST MULTI-DISCIPLINARY GEOSCIENCE EVENT

11-14 JUNE 2018 WWW.EAGEANNUAL2018.ORG