First Break April 2020 - Passive Seismic / Unconventionals

VO L U M E 3 8 I I S S U E 4 I A P R I L 2 0 2 0

SPECIAL TOPIC

Passive Seismic / Unconventionals TECHNICAL ARTICLES A multi-trace seismic discontinuity attribute based on Dynamic Time Warping EAGE NEWS Association receives record submissions for annual

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FIRST BREAK® An EAGE Publication

CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD Peter Rowbotham (Peter.Rowbotham@apachecorp.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, Equinor UK (pdrum@equinor.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) MEDIA PRODUCTION MANAGER Thomas Beentje (tbe@eage.org) ACCOUNT MANAGER ADVERTISING Keziah Starrenburg (ksg@eage.org) PRODUCTION Saskia Nota (layout@eage.org) Ivana Geurts (layout@eage.org) 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 19 Leninsky Prospekt 119071, 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 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)

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Modelling the application of advanced completion technology for improving the performance of gas injection techniques in unconventional oil reservoirs

Editorial Contents 3

EAGE News

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Crosstalk

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Industry News

Technical Articles

31 Using seismic spectral blueing for enhancing seismic resolution: a case study from a mature field in a rift basin, southwestern Gulf of Suez, Egypt

Ibrahim Attia, Hatem Ewida and Said A. Aly 41 A new higher-resolution multi-trace seismic discontinuity attribute based on a Dynamic Time Warping algorithm

I.I. Priezzhev, D.A. Danko, U. Strecker and P.C.H. Veeken

Special Topic: Passive Seismic / Unconventionals

49 Modelling the application of advanced completion technology for improving the performance of gas injection techniques in unconventional oil reservoirs

Mojtaba Moradi and Michael Konopczynski 55 Bridging the gap between big data and physics for improved prediction of parent-child interaction and their well performances

Aissa Bachir, Mohit Paryani, Vikram Sen 59 Carrier-Bed plays in the Denver and Powder River basins

Stephen A. Sonnenberg 69 Unsupervised learning of transient signals recorded during CO2 injection in a reef reservoir Ismael Vera Rodriguez, Steffen Mæland, Volker Oye, Mark Kelley and Allen Modroo 75 A fast, automated seismic moment tensor inversion approach for mine-induced microseismic data Lindsay Smith-Boughner, Irina Nizkous, Ian Leslie, Sebastian Braganza, Ian Pinnock, Josh Matassa, Vlad Shumila, Gisela Viegas and Doug Angus 83 Comparison of beamforming and spectral autocorrelation method applied on ambient noise data acquired with a small aperture array Soumen Koley, Xander Campman, Mark Beker, Jo van den Brand, Maria Bader and Henk Jan Bulten 90

Calendar of Events

FIRST BREAK ON THE WEB www.firstbreak.org ISSN 0263-5046 (print) / ISSN 1365-2397 (online)

cover: A processing solution from MicroSeismic. This month we feature some of the latest passive seismic solutions being developed by the industry (photo courtesy of MicroSeismic).

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European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers

Board 2019-2020

Michael Pöppelreiter President

Dirk Orlowsky Vi c e-President Elect

Everhard Muijzert Secretary-Treasurer

Near Surface Geoscience Division George Apostolopoulos Chair Alireza Malehmir Vice-Chair Micki Allen Contact Officer EEGS/North America Riyadh Al-Saad Oil & Gas Liaison Esther Bloem Technical Programme Officer Hongzhu Cai Liaison China Albert Casas Membership Officer Eric Cauquil Liaison Shallow Marine Geophysics Ranajit Ghose Editor in Chief Near Surface Geophysics Hamdan Ali Hamdan Liaison Middle East Andreas Kathage Liaison Officer First Break Musa Manzi Liaison Africa Myrto Papadopoulou Young Professional Liaison Koya Suto Liaison Asia Pacific Catherine Truffert Industry Liaison

Oil & Gas Geoscience Division

Caroline Le Turdu Membership and Cooperation Officer

Ingrid Magnus Publications Officer

Colin MacBeth Education Officer

Michael Peter Suess Chair; TPC Lucy Slater Vice-Chair Caroline Jane Lowrey Immediate Past Chair; TPC Erica Angerer Member Wiebke Athmer Member Xavier Garcia NSGD Liaison Juliane Heiland TPC Tijmen-Jan Moser Editor-in-chief Geophysical Prospecting Ann Muggeridge IOR Committee Liasion Francesco Perrone YP Liaison Philip Ringrose Editor-in-chief Petroleum Geoscience Conor Ryan REvC Liaison Martin Widmaier TPC Aart-Jan van Wijngaarden Technical Programme Officer 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.

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Every subscription includes a monthly hard copy and online access to the full First Break archive for the requested number of online users.

Aart-Jan van Wijngaarden Technical Programme Officer

George Apostolopoulos Chair Near Surface Geoscience Division

Michael Peter Suess Chair Oil & Gas Geoscience Division

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.

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HIGHLIGHTS

EAGE MEMBERS

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EAGE Amsterdam 2020

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Nurture, nature and parrots

Workshop explores all aspects of naturally fractured reservoirs

EAGE students to gain open access to key components of revamped EarthDoc What does the new and improved EarthDoc do for you?

EAGE student members are to be granted access to key components of EarthDoc starting 1 May this year. The decision was taken to honour the Association’s mission to support the next generation of geoscientists and engineers. It will allow students to explore EarthDoc’s conference and workshop abstract database and the back catalogue of the journals to which they are subscribed. The EAGE Board believes that this step will not only help students in their studies and research, but will also encourage them to remain associated with EAGE’s member services as they graduate and enter employment.

For over 15 years EarthDoc has been one of the most valued EAGE membership services, allowing users to access content from our events, journals and associated societies. It has grown beyond all early expectations, now hosting over 70,000 documents, well beyond the capacity of our original database. To manage the expansion we have, as of January, transitioned to a new EarthDoc platform.

Several months after the launch, with a variety of important upgrades and thorough testing, we are pleased to see the new platform working well, allowing FIRST

EarthDoc will streamline the experience of its users, with more advanced search capabilities, and a much more responsive system.

Thanks to full-text HTML implementation, your EarthDoc reading will adapt to any mobile device, allowing for a smooth transition when researchers are on the move.

Users will have access to references, supplements, citations, figures, images and tables from the article from the landing page.

The integration of MathML means that equations will be displayed accurately across devices.

Users can also directly access the MathML code in which the equation is written for ease of use in future work.

for faster and more advanced searches.

This important transition will make sure that EarthDoc remains members’ onestop-shop for geoscience and engineering knowledge, putting cutting-edge, innovative research right at their fingertips.

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EAGE NEWS

COVID-19 advisory to members From the Board of EAGE EAGE recognizes that members are currently very concerned with the COVID19 pandemic and the potential risk to the health and well-being of themselves and their families.

With regard to all upcoming events, we are co-operating closely with the appropriate health authorities locally and nationwide to endeavour that members are protected from the virus. This will certainly mean some postponements of events on our programme schedule for the year. All we can do at this stage is keep members informed and issue immediate notice if advised that a particular conference, workshop, etc.

is no longer appropriate in the current environment.

Members are therefore encouraged to follow closely EAGE announcements on the website and by individual email.

It is also highly recommended that they keep themselves up to date with government announcements and advice from agencies such as the World Health Organization.

In the meantime, to stay sharp and engaged with the wider geoscience and engineering world, we encourage you all to make use of our digital material.

For the entire community our E-Lecture catalogue, available via our YouTube channel, is available for free, and con-

tains some really fascinating material as well as core building blocks for topics that span across the entire geoscience and engineering field. Our members can also enjoy our Webinar series without any additional cost, allowing them to interact and engage with some of the brightest minds in the field and industry.

Additionally members have access to our EarthDoc database, which has been recently revamped, making it easier than ever to dive into some of the most cutting-edge material in the field.

Please be assured that it is our sincere wish that everyone remains safe and healthy in these very difficult circumstances.

News from YP Oslo Meeting EAGE’s YP special interest community in Norway kicked off a busy year hosting a successful meeting themed ‘The role of young professionals for the future of geoscience in Norway’ The event on 13 February was organized in collaboration with the CTBT Young Professionals Network, a community of young scientists and technical professionals working on monitoring and verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. The meeting was held at the University of Oslo and attracted close to 30 participants from the local companies in Oslo as well as from academia and research institutions coming from different cities in Norway.

Four speakers shared their view on various aspects of geoscience in Norway driven by young professionals. Jon Magnus Christensen from Norsar started off the programme with a broad overview of activities carried out by CTBT, highlighting the importance of various geophysical methods when dealing with complex problems such as the NuclearTest-Ban Treaty. It was then the turn of Esther Bloem, research scientist at

NIBIO, who provided insights into how geophysics is used to monitor ground contamination by defrosting agents in local airports. Anna Lim, a PhD candidate from NTNU, shed light on the value of geophysical studies in deep-sea environments for both fundamental and mineral-exploration purposes. Finally, Atle Dalva from NPD gave an overview of the current status of the Norwegian Continental Shelf and ongoing activities in the petroleum industry, as well as the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead.

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Animated discussion in Oslo.

The talks were followed by round-table discussions and networking, fuelled with snacks and refreshments. All in all, when the EAGE YP group started planning this event, the vision was that of bringing together Young Professionals that work in Norway and share similar broad professional interests but differ in their specific work experience. Now that this first connection has been made, we hope to follow up with similar events in other Norwegian cities and strengthen connections with other communities with common interest in geoscience and engineering.

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EAGE NEWS

EAGE Amsterdam 2020: Abstract submissions reach a new high!

Annual is back in Amsterdam.

Abstract submissions hit record numbers for the 82nd EAGE Annual Conference & Exhibition, taking place on 8-11 June in Amsterdam. The Technical Programme selection meeting was once again a busy couple of days, as our experts tried to construct a workable programme out of over 1900 submitted papers.

The priority was to create a programme that best reflects the multi-disciplinary approach to geoscience and engineering, keeping the trademark of the

biggest EAGE annual conference. The best papers from the geosciences, focused mainly on oil and gas and near surface, will as usual complemented by papers from SPE. The three conference days will be packed with parallel sessions, featuring both oral and e-poster presentations.

In addition to the Technical Programme, the EAGE Annual also provides a world-class exhibition allowing visitors to explore the latest emerging technologies, state-of-the-art innovations, and services

offered by more than 350 companies in geoscience, engineering, and energy production, from start-ups to the big names in the business. It is an opportunity to meet the people behind the organizations, make new contacts and generally network among peers in the industry.

Another major feature of the EAGE Annual 2020 is the programme of workshops, short courses and field trips taking place at the beginning and the end of the week. These activities are designed to provide participants with new knowledge and learning opportunities from leaders in various disciplines. This year, 17 workshops, three short courses and four field trips are offered for everyone to join. To view all the details, visit www.eageannual2020.org.

This is also where you can register before 15 May with the regular registration fee, so don’t wait any longer and sign up today and join us this June in Amsterdam.

Nigerian YPs on a mission in 2020 The young professionals section of the Local Chapter Nigeria is gearing up for another year of activities to serve the younger members of the local EAGE community. Their mission is to improve knowledge and enhance membership for interested local young professionals.

They hosted their first 2020 technical meeting in February on ‘Applying the Statoil golden zone concept to hydrocarbon exploration and production in the Niger Delta - are we scratching the surface?’, a lecture by Aleksander Oshodi (petroleum system lead, Energy And Mineral Resources). The presentation revolved around a number of key issues: why have production wells in Nigeria not been drilled deeper than 12,000 ft?

Have we seen all Nigeria has to offer in terms of reserves? Do the onshore fields still contain producible hydrocarbon reserves? How are geothermal gradients measured? What effect does rifting have on the temperature profile within the

subsurface? What is the Statoil golden zone concept? What effect do varied bottom hole temperature (bht) ranges have on organic matter and consequently on hydrocarbons?

Oshodi covered this range of topics and provided advice for YPs on the far-reaching opportunities in the oil and gas industry in the specific context of the country, focusing on the potential for increase in Nigeria’s hydrocarbon reserves through deeper production wells in onshore and offshore

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YP team of Nigerian local chapter.

fields, beyond the golden zone (well depths or zones with bht at about 68ºc).

Aside this meeting, 2020 promises to be an eventful year for the YPs of Local Chapter Nigeria, filled with engaging technical workshops, Mentorsville 2 (the second edition of the local mentorship programme), school outreaches, online lecture series, quizzes and debates amidst fun-filled social hangouts, all designed to actively integrate the local community of geoscientists and engineers.

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EAGE NEWS

Challenge yourself at the YP Summit With the EAGE Annual Conference approaching, it’s time to start planning and browse the many opportunities that are offered in June. Young professionals and students, in particular, can look forward to a rewarding programme happening before and during the conference, where the YP Summit is certainly a highlight.

This event is a collaborative effort of three societies - EAGE, PESGB and SPE - and brings you the best of them through a combined organizing committee and programme. The ambitions of the event span across multiple topics to provide participants with a truly multi-disciplinary

and hands-on overview of different career opportunities and their perspectives. The programme features interactive talks focused on three main topics (The Energy Transition; Innovation: New technologies and multi-disciplinary opportunities; and Career development and transferable skills. There will be plenty of chances to exchange views and seek advice from the speakers) and chances to exchange views and advice with the speakers. To top it all, the day (8 June) will conclude with the Energy Transitions Challenge: a simulation game presented by Shell to explore future scenarios in a dynamic and

fun way! This exercise will put you in the shoes of a government, consumer, energy provider, NGO or industry executive. You will have to keep the economy going while making the energy transition. Time will be of the essence. You will be faced with dilemmas: should you prioritize your short-term individual objective or invest for the common good? Will your fellow players enable or default you? Can you rely on their commitments?

Join the YP Summit to challenge yourself and explore new perspectives for your future career. Registrations are open at yp-summit.org

Get this: you can still submit research abstracts for our transition conference There’s still time to get involved in our 1st Geoscience & Engineering in Energy Transition Conference (GET2020) being held on 16-18 November 2020 in Strasbourg, France with abstracts still being accepted.

Co-chairs of the event say that this will be an opportunity to discuss skills and technologies that are going to be required to support the growth of renewable energy in the energy mix. Furthermore, it offers a forum to exchange knowledge about geothermal, CCS, energy storage and cross disciplines like hazardous (nuclear) waste storage, hydrogen/methane production and stor-

Scenic view of old Strasbourg at night.

age, geochemistry applications, risk and environmental impact analysis, and offshore wind energy (turbine placement, engineering challenges, and re-use of O&G platforms).

Papers on a wide range of of topics regarding geothermal, energy storage, CO2 storage, and cross-use and synergies are invited. The Call for Abstracts closes 28 June 2020.

EAGE Education Calendar 6 APR

EAGE EDUCATION TOUR 13, BY IAN JONES

MOSCOW, RUSSIA

10 APR

EAGE EDUCATION TOUR 13, BY IAN JONES

SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

21 APR

EAGE EDUCATION TOUR 13, BY IAN JONES

CAIRO, EGYPT

7 JUN

SHORT COURSE, BY JEAN JACQUES BITEAU

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

8 JUN

SHORT COURSE, BY MARTIN LANDRØ

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

12 JUN

SHORT COURSE, BY EHSAN NAEINI

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

PLEASE ALSO CHECK THE CALENDAR OF WEBINARS ON THE LEARNING GEOSCIENCE WEBSITE AND THE LATEST E-LECTURES ON THE EAGE YOUTUBE CHANNEL. FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.EAGE.ORG AND WWW.LEARNINGGEOSCIENCE.ORG.

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EAGE NEWS

Nurture, nature and parrots: career development is at the heart of WGE events

WGE in session.

The recently launched network of Women in Geoscience & Engineering based in the Netherlands organized a second meeting on February 20, which received the support not only of EAGE but also GATA and the Delft University of Technology. Vréneli Stadelmaier, author of the book ‘Yes, she’s smart’, was the guest speaker of the evening and gave a memorable theater lecture on the Imposter Syndrome. Famous sufferers of this syndrome is Albert Einstein, Meryl Streep and Michelle Obama. The syndrome is significantly more prevalent in women compared to men, and she explained why through videos and anecdotes from her personal and professional life. ‘Nur-

ture’ is certainly an element that makes women more susceptible to the syndrome, although everyone can relate to some degree. Next, she looked at the ‘nature’ aspect of the story and how biology influences behaviour in both personal and professional environments. The lecture finished with a reflection on how we can recognize and conquer the Imposter Syndrome. The first step is to become aware of the parrot on your shoulder that tells you that you cannot do it, that others are better or that you only achieved things in life because of luck. Next: silence that parrot! And of course: connect with the WGE communities to share and support a balanced career development.

Houston LC scores a hit with first meeting on AI and Big Data A good attendance of over 60 participants showed up for a day of discussion on ‘Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Technical Meeting’ at the Sciences & Technology Building, University of Houston (Downtown). The one day event was an initiative of the EAGE Local Chapter Houston.

The main theme of this event was how AI has been used in different ways to facilitate the handling and usage of Big Data in the oil and gas industry. It featured 16 presentations scheduled by invited speakers/experts from operators and services companies. Attendees included professional geoscientists and engineers from operators, service companies and vendors, as well as students and faculty staff from universities in Texas.

Allan Willis (secretary of the Local Chapter) kicked off the meeting followed by the keynote presentation from Francisco Ortigosa (Repsol), a well-known industry advocate of digital

transformation. He talked about how digital transformation is reshaping the whole O&G industry as well as increasing the profitability of the E&P business.

The topics of the technical talks throughout the day ranged from seismic processing and interpretation with machine learning techniques, to data analytics on well logs and AI applications for petrophysics and oilfield production, to seismic data management in the Cloud.

The meeting was possible thanks to the extraordinary teamwork of the Local Chapter and local stakeholders. All in all, the event ended with many positive notes and compliments from the attendees, and represented the first major event by LC Houston, other than the monthly lunch-time technical talks. You can connect with the Chapter via LinkedIn to read more and join their next activities.

Houston event a success.

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EAGE NEWS

New cooperation announcement

City of Calgary with Saddledome in the foreground.

We are delighted to announce a new collaboration in the global network of the Association. EAGE and CSPG (the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists) signed a memorandum to operate as Associated Societies in the service of our mutual members - energy geoscientists, particularly geologists - in Canada. As this new connection evolves,

we are happy to invite you to Core Conference organized by CSPG on 7-8 May 2020 in Calgary. Last year’s Core Conference attracted 736 delegates and 27 presentations that covered themes such as Carbonates, Conventionals, and Unconventionals. This year the planning committee is excited to participate in celebrating geology across Canada and

looks forward to igniting the disciplines within the geoscience community. They are looking to include examples from all facets of geoscience, whether it is sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic, with the intent to bring together all disciplines of geology, expanding the breadth of content for the 2020 Core Conference.

Plenty of Activity at Local Chapter TKN February was full of events at Local Chapter Tomsk-Krasnoyarsk-Novosibirsk. The main event was a workshop in Tomsk about the current issues in geological exploration. Three companies – Heriot-Watt Centre, Perfect Art (Tomsk) and Gazprom Neft STC (Saint Petersburg) used this opportunity for discussing common problems and challenges through six presentations followed by a brainstorming session aimed at finding new solutions to those problems. Some of the workshop results will be presented at upcoming EAGE conferences, such as the 9th International Geological and Geophysical Conference ‘Saint Petersburg 2020’ and the EAGE Annual 2020 in Amsterdam.

The workshop was concluded with an evening lecture by Nikita Bukhanov, lead specialist at Gazprom Neft STC. Nikita’s talk on ‘How to find a place for machine learning in the business processes of an oil company’ described

the collaborative experience of Gazprom Neft STC and ITMO University. The lecture was well attended, with more than 70 people present, and built on the

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Representatives of Local Chapter TKN.

previous lecture in January by Alexandr Butorin (Gazprom Neft STC expert) on digital solutions contributing to accelerate seismic data interpretation. These two events really paved the way for more work by Tomsk professionals in using machine learning techniques in their everyday working life.

Meantime, the Local Chapter (which represents a collaboration of three cities) has also been active in Novosibirsk, where it had had a chance to present EAGE activities to the Novosibirsk State University students. The coordinators of the Local Chapter and the Tomsk Polytechnic University Student Chapter shared their experience of being EAGE members and there was great interest in getting involved with the Association.

Finally, several members of the Local Chapter - and especially professionals from Krasnoyarsk - have been participating in EAGE webinars from the DLP (Distinguished Lecturer Programme) which include useful Q&A. More activities are in the planning: if you are interested in keeping an eye on them and joining, follow EAGE Local Chapter Tomsk-Krasnoyarsk-Novosibirsk via LinkedIn!

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EAGE NEWS

Workshop explores all aspects of naturally fractured reservoirs Report on the 4th EAGE Naturally Fractured Reservoir Workshop in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, held on 11-13 February.

Networking underway at workshop.

The workshop was set in motion by Dr E. Ukar, University of Texas at Austin, who described the importance of diagenesis on fractured reservoirs.

She illustrated aspects of synkinematic (crack-seal) and post kinematic cement growth in fractures through a first selection of examples. She evidenced how fault rock properties are influenced by a combination of cataclastic and diagenetic processes during the fault zone evolution.

The first session on ‘Exploration and appraisal aspects of fractured reservoirs’ included a diverse selection of both oral and poster presentations. D. E. Angerer used diffraction imaging technology as an alternative to classic seismic reflection to enhance the visualization and interpretation of faults in the complexly structured Wisting field (Barents Sea).

Dr G. Bertotti, professor at Delft University of Technology, presented a study on hypogenic karst in carbonate sequences. The purpose was to provide tools to predict the location of cavities as well as input about their dimensions and geometry. An underlying idea was also to transfer these geological bodies into simulators.

Dr R. Jones, Geospatial Research, introduced his talk on fractures in basement reservoirs with a quick overview of 12

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World – Basement fractured reservoirs and their key components. He described these reservoirs as typically dominated by fractures in terms of porosity and permeability.

Juliette Lamarche described a detailed study of fractures across a km-scale anticline overlying a thrust fault in southern France. Due to erosion by a river valley, it was possible to log bedding, joints, veins, stylolites and small faults along a traverse across the anticline hinge. The anticline was asymmetric, with a near vertical north limb but shallower dipping south limb.

Pascal Richard described a study on the Sabiriyah field in Kuwait. The tectonic settings of the field followed an evolution similar to the outcrops studied on the field trip. The field benefits from a rich dataset (plenty of well and seismic data). It was traditionally interpreted as an unfractured reservoir, but it does contain many transtensional faults of varying lengths. The question was, if it has undergone extension and strike-slip deformation, why does it not contain fractures?

Vincenzo La Bruna has been working on karst systems in onshore outcrops in Brazil. In particular he is studying the role of faults and fractures, and fluid circulation, in controlling the evolution of the karst systems.

Fracture geology The session on ‘Recent and future developments in fracture geology’ began with Yasmin Bouzida’s presentation on a multi-scale fracture characterization workflow integrating data from core, borehole image log, dipole deep shear wave Imaging and seismic to better to optimize the impact of natural fractures on production with regard to well placement and completion/hydraulic fracturing. The workflow has also been coupled with a geomechanical study of critically stressed fractures.

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Dr R. Jones presented a multi-scale outcrop fracture study at Ras Al Khaimah integrating laboratory-based micro-tomography, traditional fieldwork, and digital 3D data (Lidar) and its impact on P32 and fracture porosity estimates.

Dr T. Schröckenfuchs described a workflow to integrate drill cuttings into the characterization of micro fractures in basement rocks. Drill cutting are selected in specific zones of interest (through PTA, BHI etc.) and in order to answer key questions. The selected samples are analyzed through thin sections with a polarized-light microscope, X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence to obtain the bulk mineralogical composition and geochemistry.

Dr M. Welch in his contribution presented a further development of the code he has developed to predict the distribution of fracture networks in reservoir rocks through a (mono layer) geomechanically driven DFN modelling of typical fracture outcrops.

R. Inama presented an impressive and very accurate 3D model of the Lastoni de Formin platform, one of the Early Triassic flat-topped platforms of the Dolomites (N Italy) obtained by drone photogrammetry. One of the most interesting results is the quantification of the increase of layer thickness towards the margin of the platform as a consequence of differential compaction of underlying basin sediments..

From static to dynamic The final day’s session on ‘From static fracture models to dynamic simulation: what matters?’ began with a keynote address by Dr A. Lavenu, ADNOC Offshore, providing an overview focused on diffuse fractures from outcrop characterization to subsurface data integration. One of the key questions asked of Dr Lavenu is, ‘what are diffuse fractures, how do they develop and what is their impact on flow and how do we integrate diffuse fractures

EAGE NEWS

in static? dynamic models?’ He responded that there was no single way to model them but to also not disregard them.

Field performance The session continued with presentations discussing the novel ways to decipher field performance in an NFR carbonate field, role of basement inherited structural network on heat distribution and flow pathways in rift basis, investigation of modelling options for numerical simulation of fractured and karstified reservoirs and interplay of heat transport and fracture aperture in fractured reservoirs.

Workshop photo op.

P. Olivier from Petroleum Development Oman, showed a novel way to decipher field performance in NFR carbonate field; Discussing the characterization of the reservoir using an integrated approach with pressure, Borehole image data and production data. Evidence of baffles created by reservoir property variations in line with depositional model and the presenter finally covered matrix and fracture properties calibrated using history match.

The role of basement inherited structural network on heat distribution and flow pathways in rift basins was presented

by C. Bossenec, Université de Lorraine, discussing how heat flow and fluid pathways in Rhine Graben reconstructed using reservoir faults, fracture characterization at various scales in integrating mapping, core and geochemical fluid characterization.

The last session of the workshop kicked off with a presentation by PDO’s Chadia Volery who discussed a challenging gas-oil-gravity-drainage (GOGD) field development in a heterogeneous and fractured reservoir of the Lower Cretaceous Shuaiba formation that is characterized by a very thin oil column of only 50–60 m in height. A deeper understanding and optimized management of production is achieved through an integrated approach that involves reprocessed seismic data (for highly improved structural information), advanced well log data acquisition (such as borehole image and spectral noise logs), and dynamic events in the reservoir (e.g., losses during drilling, water and gas production).

Alejandro Cardona from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) focused on developing a so-called Implicit Joint-Continuum Model that couples fracture mechanics with hydraulics. This model transforms global stresses into local stresses that act on the fracture plane.

Finally, ADNOC’s Olivier Pippi presented an interesting field case from offshore Abu Dhabi where the Late Cretaceous Thamama reservoirs is developed.

An abundance of static and dynamic data provide a novel way to better understand

the role of diffuse fracture sets when it comes to fluid flow in this carbonate reservoir. The data sets include core, welllog and pressure transient analyses. This enables the identification of typical well responses and, on this basis, of field sectors dominated by matrix, diffuse fractures and conductive faults.

The workshop was interspersed with a number of insightful poster sessions, details of which had to be omitted in this edited report, but the full report can be found on the event website.

Field trip To see the (seismically) invisible in outcrops: faults, fracture corridors and distributed fractures was the purpose of a one-day excursion led by Dr Giovanni Bertotti of Delft University of Technology and Raffik Lazar from GeomodL International.

The excursion focused on fracture corridors, faults and distributed fractures, on their origin, spatial distribution and how these are implemented in geomodelling workflows.

EAGE would like to thank the technical committee for a successful workshop in Ras Al Khaimah and would further like express its gratitude to ENI for their generous contribution as the Platinum Sponsor.

EAGE Student Calendar 06-09 APR

9TH INTERNATIONALGEOLOGICAL AND GEOSCIENCE CONFERENCE (STUDENT ACTIVITIES)

SAINT PETERSBURG,RUSSIA

20-22 APR

NEAR SURFACE GEOSCIENCE & ENGINEERING CONFERENCE (REGIONAL GEO QUIZ)

CHANG MAI,THAILAND

7-JUN

LAURIE DAKE CHALLENGE FINAL

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

8-JUN

LAURIE DAKE CHALLENGE ANNOUNCEMENT

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

8-11 JUN

EAGE ANNUAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2020 / STUDENT ACTIVITIES

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

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THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL GEOSCIENCES STUDENT CONFERENCE

AACHEN, GERMANY

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

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Rock Physics achievements in Milan: Embracing the fourth industrial revolution

This year the 5th EAGE Rock Physics Workshop was held in Milan from 10th to 12th February, and hosted a diverse audience of about 60 attendees from industry, service companies and academia. The workshop successfully gathered people from these different worlds assessing a common background and language, as well as also offering an excellent networking opportunity. The dedicated group of rock physics enthusiasts from across the world discussed different subsurface problems that can be resolved using rock physics science. During this two and a half day event a total of 25 oral presentations and seven posters were given by geoscientists and practitioners from both academia and industry. The Workshop format was organized in six oral sessions, two poster sessions and three keynote speakers which made an excellent interaction and common ground sharing among the attendance, given the group discussions following each presentation.

The first day started with the welcome message from the co-chairs and continued with the first keynote speaker Ran Bachrach from Schlumberger. His talk, entitled as ‘Rock Physics directions in the age of the Big Data and digital technology’ explained how rock physics uses physical understanding, formulated in mathematical manner, for the prediction of various material properties. He elaborated on different types of rock physics models and their inherent uncertainty. The first session focused on artificial intelligence applications to rock physics. The four oral presentations described how to use machine

learning algorithms to predict petrophysical properties from seismic, to express P-wave velocity variations as a function of pressure, to perform digital rock physics to screen EOR solutions and to estimate porosity and permeability from geophysical data. The second session of the day went into more details on the link between quantitative seismic interpretation and rock physics studies with four oral presentations. They demonstrated the role played by rock physics in filling the gaps between petrophysics, AVO, seismic inversion and reservoir modelling.

The last session of the first day focused on the integration of multi physics data where two oral presentations showed how different disciplines can complement each other for a more accurate estimation of subsurface properties The second day started with a keynote presentation by Per Avseth from Dig Science entitled as ‘4D Rock Physics Templates constrained by burial history’.

He assessed how the volume of cement is related to the burial history and how it can drastically affects the fluid and pressure sensitivity analysis. He especially stressed the importance of assessing the transition zone between the mechanical and chemical compaction in order to quantify the amount of cementation. The talk was followed by the first session named as ‘EOR and TimeLapse Rock Physics’ in which three presentations were given about the role of rock physics on time-lapse studies by showing different examples from simulation to seismic workflow, managing models from well to reservoir scale and formulation of the permeability for the subsurface flooding

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operations. The second session of the day focused mainly on rock physics modelling with talks on effective medium modelling, the role of the free parameters in different rock physics models, simulating matrix mineralogy effects on AVO models and finally presenting a workflow on elastic moduli estimation in sandstones with dispersed clay using digital rock physics.

The second day had an extended coffee break with four posters presenting different topics related to theory and practical cases of rock physics applications. They were showing cases where rock physics is used to estimate shear wave velocity and how permeability can be linked to the pore size distribution in coals.

The last keynote speaker was Jack Dvorkin from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, with a talk entitled ‘Rock Physics of Unconventional shale: wireline, data, theory and applications’. In this presentation Dvorkin proposed a rock physics model to derive elastic properties through the images of drill cuttings in wells where other types of measurements are hardly attainable.

Then, four talks were given within the only session of the third day. They were focusing on different challenges within different types of unconventional reservoirs. In shale gas/oil reservoirs a maturation dependent elastic modelling workflow to model elastics properties, brittleness and anisotropy from drilling cuts was presented and discussed. For the igneous reservoirs, a rock physics diagnostic and an integrated rock physics and modelling workflows were presented. The last session of the posters was also presented during the extended coffee break where three posters showing different rock physics centred workflows like identifying pore direction in a porous medium and seismic modelling of virtual outcrops were presented.

The presentations and discussions highlighted the key role played by rock physics in the integration of several subsurface disciplines like petrophysics, geophysics and geomechanics. Successful applications at different scales and with sometimes different uncertainties were demonstrated.

EAGE NEWS

It was widely acknowledged that the way forward is closer integration between quantitative interpretation and seismic imaging.

On the other hand, concerns were also expressed about the risk of a loss of expertise. Machine learning will become vital in several aspects of rock physics modelling, from data mining to automated parameter tuning, while for other challenges increased automation doesn’t seem to be the answer.

Finally, rock physics as a discipline will need to embrace the upcoming environmental challenges and find application in fields such as CO2 sequestration, geothermal energy and geohazard monitoring. It seems that we are just in the beginning of this long road and the future for rock physics looks very bright.

One of the highlights for 2020 was the record number of 14 inspirational Women

in Geoscience who not only attended and contributed to the discussions, but also presented their work and chaired sessions during the workshop.

The technical committee has now started to work on the next workshop programme to deal with the existing and upcoming challenges in both academia and industry. Look out for the announcement next year for #Rock Physics2022.

Second EAGE Machine Learning Workshop to focus on innovation and value in geoscience domains The Second EAGE workshop on Machine Learning will be held 16-18 November 2020 in Amsterdam. Committee members James Lowell (Geoteric), Duncan Irving (tietoEVRY) and Artem Kotenev (LUKOIL) extend the invitation to this upcoming workshop.

The Second EAGE Machine Learning Workshop will focus on applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence within the domains of geoscience and engineering. During the three day workshop, specialists from academia and leading companies will come together to exchange insights on the latest developments and new technologies in machine learning.

Reflecting on the success of the first workshop, co-chair Duncan Irving (TietoEVRY) says, ‘I was blown away by the quality, depth and sophistication of the papers that were received by the organising committee – one day was not enough to do them justice! The first event had been a long time in planning and there was much built-up anticipation. Now the dust has settled and the industry has engaged with AI and ML more fully, it will be great

to see how it is becoming normalised into the subsurface domain.’

Machine learning algorithms and techniques have now been applied in almost every area of geoscience with varied results. It is now incumbent for us to examine the two key issues of quality and value in these applications. What are the issues in validating these results? What ROI has machine learning demonstrated? What are the game changing applications and developments? How can expert knowledge be integrated into these solutions?

The committee encourages contributions on a wide range of topics related to exploration and production challenges in hydrocarbons, minerals and geothermal industries and will seek to emphasize how the relationship between data science and the underlying domain sciences can bring

value to practitioners in these industries.

Participants are encouraged to share their challenges, successes/failures and visions for the future by submitting papers with a focus on technical innovation and/or business impact.

‘As digital transformation continues to redefine E&P, growth is highly dependent on the introduction and adoption of new technologies such as AI.’ says James Lowell, R&D Director of Geoteric, ‘EAGEs inaugural Machine Learning workshop provided a great insight into research around innovative and disruptive technologies to increase efficiencies and share knowledge across the sector. As 2020 promises to be a year of growth, investment and delivery, I’m looking forward to attending the next event and contributing to the technical programme.’

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.

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Realpolitik strikes the oil business of some 9 million b/d to its 12 million b/d sustainable capacity Waging a turf war over oil during a pandemic threatening the or even more. UAE, the third largest OPEC producer, says it health and livelihood of countless millions worldwide must rate will follow suit by upping its output from to 3 to 4 million b/d. as one of the more ruthless, not to mention reckless, episodes Not to be outdone Russia announced it would immediately in modern history outside provoking armed conflict. Just how add 200,000 b/d and possibly go up to 500,000 more than its reckless remains to be seen. previous max of around 12 million b/d. This could be bravado Universal alarm at the spread of the COVID-19 virus and as its output is not considered as flexible as its Middle East the increasingly drastic measures to contain it being adopted rivals. Meanwhile US production in January crossed the by governments have overshadowed the dramatic geopolitical 13 million b/d threshold, according to the Energy Information power play in progress between Russia, Saudi Arabia and by Administration. extension the US over oil supply and demand. The adverse Predictably the price of crude has dropped to the low-mid effects could be felt long after the virus crisis has blown over. $30s per barrel for both Brent and WTI indexes. A stunned oil Not that many people will notice, but the geoscience world is left wondering where this will end. The most popular community looks set to be hit by another undeserved business interpretation is that we are witnessing a setback totally beyond its control just when it was settling on a new, if much reduced, ‘The adverse effects battle for market share between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Both governments also taking ‘normal’. The generally jaundiced view of could be felt long aim at the unfettered production from the the oil industry means little sympathy is US. Thanks to shale, this has grown by likely forthcoming from ordinary folks. How after the virus crisis 4 million b/d in recent years and turned ironic then that about the only upside of the has blown over’ the US into a net exporter while OPEC+ pandemic is markedly cheaper prices at the countries have held back. gas station.

It looks like the damn of resentment at the US finally burst.

The likely impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the price Even so the Saudi reaction is a little surprising given that the of crude was already clear earlier in the year when demand for opening of the oil spigot risks souring relations with the US, oil from China dropped by 20% as a result of manufacturing its strongest ally and supplier of much of its military arsenal. shutdowns. As the virus showed up in other countries, the However, Saudi Arabia was clearly anxious to protect its share emerging major oversupply and hence downward pressure of oil supply to key markets like China, the world largest on price weighed heavily on OPEC+ nations at the fateful importer. In 2016 Russia for the first time overtook Saudi extraordinary meeting in Vienna on 6 March.

Arabia as the main oil supplier to China. One weird twist in The expectation had been that the call from Saudi Arabia for the plot is that China’s economic recovery in the wake of the more production cuts (1.5 million b/d) to maintain some price virus will be helped significantly by cheaper oil from two of its equilibrium would be reluctantly agreed by member states and main suppliers. most importantly by Russia. The country had been going along There’s got to be more to the Saudi side of the story, with the limits on supply since 2016, but something apparently and the explanation seems to lie in the seemingly mercurial snapped: Russia decided not to play and mayhem broke out.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). Portrayed as a At the time of writing Saudi Aramco is talking about modernizer anxious to diversify his country’s dependence on flooding the market. It is increasing its previous production rate

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for the candidacy of Bernie Sanders to sow as much confusion oil with the Saudi Vision 2030 programme, he has turned out to as possible). A plausible theory is that Russia’s goal right have a thirst for absolute power recently expressed in another now is to shake US confidence in its energy security. Rusconfinement of potential rivals for the throne. He may also be sians and others believe US self-sufficiency has emboldened emboldened by President Trump’s vulnerability in an election US foreign policy compared, for example, with the Obama year to any damage to the US shale industry. The same leverage era. would also explain the Saudi’s obdurate lack of response to US Regardless of the motives of the key players in this drama, diplomacy on ending the hostilities in Yemen. the outcome is extremely unsettling for those involved in What is less clear is how long Saudi Arabia can continue to the oil supply chain. How COVID-19 will affect the overall sustain production policy. It is said that the country needs the world economy is anyone’s guess. The same applies to the oil price to be around $80 per barrel to meet the requirements outlook for the oil industry. Key factors going forward will be of its social and economic policy. The collateral damage to the duration of the virus before some semblance of normality many OPEC member nations with more fragile economies is restored, the wait time until some form of resolution to reliant on oil revenues may also eventually weigh on MBS and the oil price stand-off is reached and crucially the reaction his advisers. of oil companies around the world to this unpredicted disIn the wake of the split with Saudi Arabia, the Russian news ruption to their E&P strategies. Looking to the International source Pravda claimed that the country needed only $42.4 per Energy Agency and other forecasters for barrel to balance its budget. True or not, Russia appears to be indicating that it does ‘A plausible theory is guidance is meaningless in such a fluid situation. not intend to back down. That said, authoriWe can be sure that the seismic industry ties have pointed out that the issue will be on that Russia’s goal right will take a hit as oil companies reassess their the agenda at the next OPEC meeting in June now is to shake US investment plans in the light of the lower leaving the door ajar to some compromise. confidence in its price of oil and uncertain demand. The only There is no doubt that the Russian bear is positive may be that drastic consolidation of sore at the US for a number of reasons, and energy security.’ the marine seismic market since 2013-14 has President Putin has spotted an opportunity to left a more resilient core of contractors and more ‘asset light’ hit back where it hurts. multi-client customers with no vessels of their own.

Vanity may have been wounded some time ago when the At the beginning of January the leading seismic players Americans became the largest oil producer in the world. Igor were sounding cautiously optimistic. Shearwater GeoServices, Sechin, boss of oil giant Rosneft and an ally of Putin since the largest fleet operator by far, was enjoying a sevenfold their intelligence days, has consistently opposed the production increase in 2020 backlog to 65 vessel-months compared with control deal with OPEC+ and how it allowed the US to steal 9 vessel-months at the same time a year ago. Polarcus posted market share with more expensively produced oil. From a a loss of $19 million for the last quarter of 2019 but noted a Russian perspective, US and European sanctions following its backlog of $240 million, its highest since 2014. PGS, which in Crimea incursion may have been the cost of doing business, so January announced a refinancing move via a private placement to speak. Those imposed by the US on dealings with Venezuela of $95 million, was in December eyeing a backlog of $322 miland Iran are more easily interpreted as measures to reduce lion (including multi-client) compared with $163 million competition for its oil output at the expense of Russia among in December 2018. CGG, now exited from the marine and others. The US intervention to disrupt building of the Nord land acquisition business, had a backlog in February of $537 Stream-2 project was aimed directly at Putin’s Russia. million, up 34% from the previous year.

It’s not too Machiavellian to believe that the Putin govA Rystad Energy impact analysis last month suggested that ernment had clocked that already slowing global demand the service sector that would feel the pain the most in absolute for oil was putting pressure on the profitability of US shale terms in 2020 was likely be the well stimulation market. This is operations. Regarded as an underperforming asset, shale has estimated to come down by $25 billion. Fracking and proppant long lost favour with Wall Street and many companies have run companies are also expected to have a hard time securing any up borrowings with no clear horizon as to when these will be new work. paid off. Provoking an oil price collapse offered the chance to If prices stay low at $30 in both 2020 and 2021 due to a inflict some serious damage. volume war, which fortunately Rystad Energy finds less likely, The threat to the Trump administration in an election year then stimulation services and seismic companies could be in the is obvious. That is an eventuality that the Russians apparently frame for two years of annual market declines of 40% and 30% can accept even though they covertly supported Trump for respectively. That does not bear thinking about. president in 2016 (the strategy this time seems bent on cheering

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

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Processing & Imaging

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HIGHLIGHTS

INDUSTRY NEWS

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Service companies report bigger profits

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FPSO construction delayed by coronavirus

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Shearwater wins contract for Black Sea survey

BP unveils plans to go net zero by 2050

BP generates around 55 million tonnes of CO2 every year.

BP has set a target to become a net zero company by 2050.

The company has pledged to achieve net zero emissions across BP’s operations; net zero on carbon in BP’s oil and gas production and a 50% cut in the carbon intensity of products BP sells.

It will install methane measurement at all BP’s major oil and gas processing sites by 2023 and reduce methane intensity of operations by 50%.

It will increase the proportion of investment into non-oil and gas businesses over time.

As a company, BP has pledged ‘more active advocacy to support net zero, including carbon pricing’ and to ‘further

incentivize BP’s workforce to deliver aims and mobilize them to advocate for net zero’. This will include ‘increasing the percentage of remuneration linked to emissions reductions’.

It will put pressure on trade associations to bring cutting carbon to the top of the agenda and will ‘leave those where alignment cannot be reached’. The company has already followed through on this threat by resigning from American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, the Western Energy Alliance and the Western States Petroleum Association. However, some environmentalists have criticised BP for not resigning from the larger American Petroleum Institute.

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BP said that it aims to be recognized as a leader for ‘transparency of reporting, including supporting the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and working constructively with the TCFD and other groups to develop higher standards for transparency of reporting.

Finally, BP will launch a new team to create integrated clean energy and mobility solutions to help countries, cities and large companies to decarbonize.

To deliver the ambition, BP will reorganise into four business groups: Production & Operations; Customers & Products; Gas & Low Carbon Energy; and Innovation & Engineering.

BP’s new CEO Bernard Looney said: ‘We all want energy that is reliable and affordable, but that is no longer enough.

It must also be cleaner. To deliver that, trillions of dollars will need to be invested in replumbing and rewiring the world’s energy system.

‘This will certainly be a challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity. It is clear to me, and to our stakeholders, that for BP to play our part and serve our purpose, we have to change. And we want to change – this is the right thing for the world and for BP.’ BP’s currently generates around 55 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MteCO2e) a year, and the carbon in the oil and gas that it produces, equivalent currently to around 360 MteCO2e emissions a year – both on an absolute basis. Taken together, delivery BREAK

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of these aims would equate to a reduction in emissions to net zero from what is currently around 415 MteCO2e a year.

‘We expect to invest more in low carbon businesses – and less in oil and gas – over time,’ added Looney. ‘The goal is to invest wisely, into businesses where we can add value, develop at scale, and deliver competitive returns.’

To deliver its new ambition and aims, BP’s existing, largely autonomous business segments – upstream and downstream – will be dismantled and the group reorganised globally into a more focused and more integrated entity, comprising 11 teams. The heads of these teams will make up BP’s new leadership team.

Production and Operations, led by Gordon Birrell, will be BP’s new operational centre. Customers and Products, headed by Emma Delaney, will focus on customers as the driving force for the energy products and services of the future. Gas and Low Carbon Energy, led by Dev Sanyal, will unite energy teams around BP to create low carbon solutions. It will also pursue opportunities in decarbonization and new value chains such as hydrogen and CCUS. Innovation and Engineering, led by David Eyton, will bring added momentum to BP’s venturing and Launchpad investments and act as a catalyst for creating value from disruptive opportunities.

Three integrators will be established to find and maximize opportunities for BP: Strategy and Sustainability, led by Giulia Chierchia, who is joining BP from McKinsey, will ensure that sustainability is embedded at the top of BP and provide a single group-wide approach to strategy and capital allocation. Regions, Cities and Solutions, led by William Lin, will build relationships with regions, cities and large corporations, aiming to develop integrated energy and carbon solutions that can bring emissions down at scale. Trading and Shipping will be led by Carol Howle.

Four teams will serve as enablers of business delivery: Finance, led by Murray Auchincloss; Legal, led by Eric Nitcher; People and Culture, led by Kerry Dryburgh; and Communications and Advocacy, led by Geoff Morrell.

BP intends to host a capital markets day in September at which it will set out more information on BP’s strategy and near-term plans.

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PGS delivers Viking Graben MAZ data in 16 weeks PGS has released PSDM multi-azimuth (MAZ) data 16 weeks after completing the Geostreamer X Viking Graben survey in the northern North Sea GeoStreamer X has delivered on its promise of a significantly faster method of achieving offset- and azimuth-rich data than node-based exploration, said PGS, which added that the timescale was comparable to conventional single azimuth processing.

Using a single Ramform vessel, PGS piloted an innovative towed-streamer survey design to solve the imaging challenges in the Viking Graben. The acquisition was completed in November and fast-track PSDM data was released in February 2020.

The project combined three acquisition directions with a wide-tow source configuration for advanced offset- and azimuth-rich data. The Ramform Vanguard towed 12 streamers, including two 10 km-long tails to provide offsets for FWI, and a wide-tow multi-source with 225 m total separation. Close to zero offset was achieved and this has been used for optimal near-offset sampling and shallow imaging. The set-up also provided dense spatial sampling for high-resolution imaging, offering improved illumination with a significant efficiency gain and reduced environmental footprint.

The main imaging challenges in the area are illumination below shallow channels and resolving a complex sandy interval in the Hordaland Group. This includes cemented sand injectites that introduce anomalously high velocities (called v-brights), and below this, a thin chalk layer that absorbs energy and generates multiples.

The GeoStreamer X Viking Graben survey exploits rich offset and azimuth information in the imaging sequence.

The velocity model used for the fast track imaging was based on the underlying legacy survey using 6 km of data, acquired in 2011.

The full-integrity MAZ products will maximize resolution and the usability for interpreters of any signals 2020

present in any acquisition direction. The 10km-long offsets will be incorporated for multi-azimuth full-waveform inversion, multi-azimuth high-resolution reflection tomography, and the final anisotropic PSDM. ‘GeoStreamer X has great potential on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, delivering a robust and efficient solution to provide the data quality step-change needed to discover new resources. We plan to expand the concept during the 2020 season and are currently reviewing opportunities in the Viking Graben,’ said Gunhild Myhr, VP new ventures Europe at PGS. Meanwhile, PGS has entered into an agreement with Cognite to use its software to help it reduce vessel operating costs and improve efficiency.

PGS has launched two digitalization workstreams aimed at improving fleet performance, refining approaches to optimize fuel consumption and reducing maintenance cost by actively monitoring equipment via contextualized data.

Both projects will leverage Cognite Data Fusion’s technology to extract data from different source systems, making different types of data related to one piece of equipment easily accessible within a single interface.

Cognite Data Fusion software integrates seamlessly with existing IT/ OT infrastructures and aims to liberate industrial data from siloed source systems.

The survey covers an area in the northern North Sea.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Service companies report bigger profits as tender prices for seismic surveys rise

Service companies have reported higher levels of vessel activity.

Seismic service companies have reported healthier fourth quarter 2019 results as a result of sustained improvements in funding for seismic surveys.

TGS has reported net segment revenues of $232 million for Q4 2019, a growth of 23% compared to $188 million in Q4 2018. The company said the improvement was driven by improved sales in Latin America and North America.

Net cash balance increased to $323 million compared to $274 million at the end of 2018. TGS said that the acquisition of Spectrum is moving ahead as planned and $20 million in synergies are in the process of being realized in 2020.

Kristian Johansen, CEO of TGS, said: ‘TGS delivered another solid quarter in Q4 2019 despite E&P companies’ continued focus on cost control and capital discipline.

I’m particularly pleased to see that we are continuing our strong performance in the Latin America region, where the company is well positioned to continue benefiting from our customers’ need to replenish reserves, targeting prolific and high potential basins. Furthermore, our sales pipeline for Q1 2020 looks promising.’

Meanwhile, PGS has reported 2019 fourth quarter net profit of $28.5 million on segment revenues of $288 million, compared with a net loss of -$4.8 million

on segment revenues of $245 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Operating profit of $54 million in Q4 was up from $26 million in Q4 2018.

For the full year of 2019 PGS reported a net loss of -$72 million on segment revenues of $880 million. This compared to a net loss of -$88 million on segment revenues of $834.5 million in 2018. Full year operating profit was $54 million compared to $26 million in 2018.

‘The seismic market continued to strengthen during 2019, resulting in better vessel utilization and higher contract prices,’ said Rune Olav Pedersen, president and chief executive officer. ‘Our strong position in the 4D market and integrated product offering accelerated our contract revenues and we achieved close to 40% higher pricing in 2019, compared to 2018.

‘Higher project activity enabled us to continue operating eight vessels. We experienced low multi-client sales during the first half of the year, but performance substantially improved in the second half.

The pre-funding level ended at 105% of capitalized multi-client cash investments for the full year, and we managed to secure healthy sales in the fourth quarter from our multi-client data library. Our order book nearly doubled during 2019, compared to year-end 2018.’

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CGG reported $26 million net income on fourth quarter revenues of $426 million, compared to a loss of -$790 million on revenues of $370 in the fourth quarter of 2018. Net income from continuing operations in Q4 2019 was $63 million.

Q4 Geology, Geophysics and Reservoir revenue of $275 million was down on $333 million in Q4 2018. Multi-client revenue of $169 million was down on $224 million in Q4 2018.

Fourth quarter 2019 equipment revenue of $123.5 million was up from $109 million in Q4 2018.

The company reported a full-year net loss of -$61.5 million on revenues of $1.4 billion compared with a 2018 net loss of -$96 million on revenues of $1.227 billion.

CGG’s backlog at the end of February 2020 was $537 million, up 34% year on year. Liquidity was $611 million.

Sophie Zurquiyah, CEO of CGG, said: ‘After our exit from the Acquisition business, CGG’s new asset-light profile is significantly more resilient through the cycles.’

Polarcus has reported a Q4 net loss of -$15.3 million on segment revenues of $55.3 million, compared to net loss of -$13.3 million on revenues of $58.4 million in Q4 2018. EBITDA of $7.6 million, is up from $2.5 million in Q4 2018.

Vessel utilization of 71%, compared to 96% in Q4 2018, but seven new contracts have been secured since the end of Q3 2019. Current backlog of $240 million is the highest level since 2014 Full year 2018 segment revenues of $290.6 million were up from $202.2 million in 2018 as a result of significantly improved day rates. Segment EBIT of $28 million, is up from a negative -$19.8 million in 2018. Full year net loss was -$10 million compared to -$32 million in 2018.

Robust levels of tender activity and increased contract pricing throughout 2019 were driven by solid demand from both E&P companies and the growing number of multi-client companies without vessels.

The company’s fleet is 100% booked into late Q2 2020 and 65% booked for full year 2020.

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PGS launches GeoStreamer survey offshore Brazil

PGS is towing the largest acquisition spread ever deployed in Brazil, comprising more than 140,000 metres of active multisensor streamers.

The company has launched its Campos Deepwater GeoStreamer X multi-client 3D survey to target Campos Basin pre-salt open acreage, informing drilling decisions on blocks acquired in the 14th Bidding Round and open acreage offered in the upcoming 17th Bidding Round that is scheduled for late-2020. It will also produce subsurface images of the pre-salt

section of the giant oilfields on the outer areas of the giant Campos Basin oil fields, including Roncador, Albacore, and Marlim.

The survey is being acquired by the vessel Ramform Titan. It will cover an area of approximately 14,500 km2 and overshoot PGS’ existing orthogonal MC3D data, which is currently being reprocessed.

It will deliver long offset, multi-azimuth seismic data over the deepwater portion of northern Campos Basin by Q4 2020.

The acquisition configuration for the GeoStreamer X project is providing 10 km

long offsets to improve depth velocity modelling accuracy of the post-salt, salt, and pre-salt sections, facilitated by the use of PGS’ full waveform inverson (FWI) technologies. These additional offset data also promise added angle range for pre-salt seismic amplitude analysis and reservoir characterization, said PGS. Multi-azimuth processing, incorporating the reprocessed orthogonal dataset will improve illumination of the subsurface structures found within the pre-salt plays in this portion of the Campos Basin.

Final multi-azimuth products on Campos Deepwater GeoStreamer X, available in Q4 2021, will include TTI Kirchhoff and RTM (45 Hz) PSDM. These will benefit from both the new GeoStreamer fidelity and broadband reprocessing of the legacy data. PGS also will be offering a high-resolution PSTM to aid in shallow drilling hazard analysis, gravity and magnetic data for regional basin analysis, as well as standard field deliverables. Fast track products will be available prior to the 17th Bidding Round, scheduled for late-2020, PGS added.

Barrett Cameron, vice-president new ventures NSA for PGS, said, ‘PGS is delighted to return to Brazil in 2020 with the first GeoStreamer X project in this region, in the under-explored pre-salt play of the Campos Basin.’

Guyana exploration investment will top $50 billion says Rystad Global oil firms are preparing to spend more than $53 billion on Guyana’s coveted Stabroek Block during the coming decade, according to Rystad Energy research.

With more than 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil discovered in Stabroek thus far, companies are set to boost their capital expenditure for the area, with ExxonMobil leading the way. The Liza field – the first and largest discovery in

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the block – has increased the oil major’s appetite, as its capital expenditure in Guyana is forecast to reach around $22.6 billion between 2019 and 2030, says Rystad.

US independent Hess is expected to follow with a capex of some $15.1 billion and CNOOC of China with $12.6 billion. The Liza field will attract most of the expenditure, with the Turbot field and the Payara field expected to round out the

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top three. Capital investments in the Liza find (including exploration) surpassed $3 billion in 2019.

‘Currently, most of the costs are being spent on developing Liza and finding new resources. Soon, however, capital-intensive new development projects are likely to kick off, with greenfield costs forming a major part of the spending,’ said Palzor Shenga, senior upstream research analyst at Rystad Energy.

INDUSTRY NEWS

TGS launches collaborations with SLB and Fairfield Geotechnologies for US surveys TGS and Schlumberger have launched the second phase of the Mississippi Canyon ultra-long offset node project in the US Gulf of Mexico.

The next phase will extend the footprint of ultra-long offset data to the Northern Green Canyon protraction area and will be the longest ultralong offset node project in the world.

This area is characterized by complex geology and multiple salt bodies.

The combination of ocean bottom node data, used to record ultra-long offsets and full waveform inversion, is expected to deliver a significant uplift to the velocity model which in turn will be used to amend the

existing WAZ and Coil data in the area.

Kristian Johansen, TGS CEO, said: ‘Green Canyon continues to experience high levels of E&P leasing activity and is a priority area for deep water exploration activity. This survey will be a critical tool to support our customers’ plans in this region.’

Acquisition of the project is expected to commence in April 2020 with final data available in 2021. TGS and Schlumberger completed phase one of the project in Mississippi Canyon in 2019.

Meanwhile, TGS and Fairfield Geotechnologies are preparing to launch the

Channel 3D multi-client survey in Lea County, New Mexico, US. Permitting is underway for an initial outline of 440 km2 with acquisition set to begin in Q2 2020.

The San Simon Channel, separating the Central Basin Platform from the Northwestern Shelf, is an area with new resource potential in the Permian Basin, said TGS. The survey is designed to image deeper targets in the Strawn and Atoka algal mounds as well as the Bone Spring Sands and Wolfcamp intervals.

Other productive zones with remaining potential include Devonian, Abo, and Paddock horizons.

Coronavirus could limit 2020 exploration Consultant Rystad Energy and Wood Mackenzie have warned of a sustained drop in oil demand and exploration spending if the coronavirus outbreak is not contained quickly.

Rystad Energy now expects more than half of global oil demand growth to be lost in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus.

February’s global crude demand dropped by 4.6 million barrels per day (bpd), led by a 2.9 million bpd month-on-month drop in Chinese crude, it said.

Rystad Energy’s pre-coronavirus global oil growth estimate was 1.1 million bpd for 2020. Its data now point to growth likely to fall to 500,000 bpd, and this is assuming that the Covid-19 epidemic will largely be contained by the end of June, which in turn implies a further downside risk.

At least 2 million bpd of supply needs to be removed from second quarter balances in order to see a stabilization in oil prices, if Libya’s shut-in 1.1 million bpd production comes back online. The supply overhang from the first quarter will also have to be worked down before there can be a recovery in price, said Rystad.

Rystad said that it expects production cuts to be increased by 0.6 million bpd in

the second quarter. However, it expects the stock of liquids building up to be 1.3 million bpd and crude at 1.5 million bpd. Brent would see continued downwards pressure to below $50 a barrel.

If Opec agrees to extending production cuts above 1 million bpd in the next quarter, large stock builds are still inevitable, Rystad added. It sees supply continuing to surge in countries that are not bound by any production quotas – namely in the US, Brazil, Norway, and Guyana.

Crude oil prices below $40 per barrel for an extended period could set off the dramatic cost-cutting and cancellation of many exploration projects, warned consultant Wood Mackenzie.

‘The price collapse could be the trigger for a new phase of deep industry restructuring – one that rivals the changes seen in the late-1990s,’ said Tom Ellacott, vice president at WoodMackenzie.

Wood Mackenzie also estimates that, at current activity levels, many companies require an average Brent crude oil price of $53 per barrel to break even this year.

Fraser McKay, Wood Mackenzie’s upstream analysis head, said that up to $380 billion of cash flow would vanish FIRST

from forecasts with an average Brent price of $35 per barrel for the remainder of 2020. ‘Sustained prices below $40 per barrel would trigger a new wave of brutal cost-cutting,’ he said. ‘Discretionary spend would be slashed, including buybacks and exploration. But given the lack of excess in the system, the cuts to development activity will be necessarily fast and brutal.

US tight oil development activity, though not as flexible as many believe, will react immediately.’

Under the $35 average price scenario, companies will also delay unsanctioned conventional projects and scale back in-fill, maintenance and other spend categories, McKay added.

Ellacot said: ‘More highly leveraged players will be forced to make the deepest cuts to stave off bankruptcy. There is much less obvious excess spend to cut this time around after five years of disciplined investment and austerity. Raising capital is also much harder now, especially for US independents, and upstream merger and acquisition market activity is at record lows. In addition, many companies have already made the most of the obvious asset sales.’

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BP-led consortium signs deal to capture carbon in the UK A consortium of BP, Eni, Equinor, Shell and Total will accelerate the development of the Net Zero Teesside Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) project in the North East of England aimed at fully decarbonizing a cluster of carbon-intensive businesses by as early as 2030.

The partners, all members of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, will work closely with the UK government and local authorities to develop the project to deliver the UK’s first zero carbon cluster by the mid-2020s.

The project will decarbonize local industry by building a transportation and storage system to gather industrial CO2, compress it and store it safely in a reservoir

under the North Sea. The transportation and storage infrastructure will encourage new investment in the region from industries that wish to store or use CO2. In addition, a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) facility with carbon capture technology will provide low carbon power.

Andy Lane, managing director of Net Zero Teesside, said: ‘Its advantageous location, advanced planning stage, the expertise of our world class project partners and government support for decarbonization in the UK mean Net Zero Teesside is uniquely positioned to become the UK’s first decarbonized cluster.’

Net Zero Teesside will be the first major development to be based on the South Tees Development Corporation site

where a former steelworks site has been bought back into public ownership. The project has also signed memorandums of understanding with three companies in the hub to evaluate the technical and commercial case for capturing CO2 from their industrial plants for safe storage.

From the mid-2020s, the project plans to capture up to 6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, equivalent to the annual energy use of up to 2 million homes in the UK. It is expected to play a significant role in helping the UK reach its net zero 2050 greenhouse gas emissions target while delivering an annual gross benefit of up to £450 million for the Teesside region supporting up to 5500 direct jobs.

FPSO construction delayed by coronavirus

Construction of FPSO vessels could be delayed by up to six months.

Construction of most of the world’s production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels will be hit by delays of up to six months because of coronavirus, according to research from Rystad Energy.

Out of a global total of 28 FPSO vessels that are under construction, 15 are being built at shipyards in China while seven are being built in South Korea and Singapore.

Rystad Energy expects the outbreak of the coronavirus to cause extensive staffing and supply shortages in these countries that will in turn delay project deliveries by at least three to six months.

If the epidemic escalates, the delays could increase to nine or even 12 months,

especially taking into account the restricted time windows for heavy transport, installation and hook-up. The average development time for an FPSO is 36 months, meaning that companies could face a 30% delay.

‘Although operators and contractors are looking into ways to make up for some of the time that will be lost by fast-tracking other stages of development, we anticipate first oil or gas for these projects will face clear delays,’ said Rystad energy partner and head of oilfield service research Audun Martinsen.

Rystad Energy expects projects may still have to contend with 30% to 50%

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fewer work hours. Construction progress may also be slowed by supply delays, as the delivery of bulk materials, modules and equipment is hampered by transportation restrictions both within and outside of mainland China. The plant utilization rate in China’s equipment manufacturing sector has now fallen to less than 10%.

In addition, project management will face severe issues as travel bans restrict contractors, engineering firms, certification companies and E&P officials from accessing shipyards.

As the virus has caused reduced industrial activity and travel restrictions in China and beyond, much of this year’s global expected oil-demand growth will be lost.

Lower oil prices will result in oil and gas companies scaling budgets, especially shale operators in the US as well as some offshore exploration and production (E&P) players.

‘Our current assessment forecasts that COVID-19 could result in global E&P investments falling by around $30 billion in 2020 – a significant hit to the industry,’ Martinsen said.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Shearwater makes move into OBS remotely operated vehicle surveys

Shearwater has won a contract from TGS for a big ocean bottom seismic deepwater ROV project in the US Gulf of Mexico.

This will be Shearwater’s first OBS ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) survey.

‘Shearwater has an extensive track record of innovation and commercial

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success in ocean bottom seismic. By adding deepwater OBS ROV operations we are now the only company able to offer a complete portfolio of towed-streamer and ocean bottom seismic marine acquisition and processing geophysical services,’ said Irene Waage Basili, CEO of Shearwater GeoServices. The company will have three OBS crews operating in 2020.

Two Shearwater vessels, the SW Diamond and SW Emerald, will be used for the project, equipped with three high-capacity sources, each composed of three sub-arrays. This investment in a new source configuration will allow two source vessels to be used instead of three for the survey, with a consequent increase in efficiency and reduction in operational greenhouse gas emissions.

The survey will commence in Q2 2020 and is scheduled to be completed over four months.

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ION develops its port software in Scotland ION Geophysical has received another grant from Scottish Enterprise to broaden the scope of its Marlin software towards the ports and harbours market.

Marlin SmartPort development will enable new web-based features, such as port call optimization, back office digitalization and port community engagement, and will expand ION’s offshore operations optimization capabilities to address a range of digitalization requirements for ports and other sectors. The software development will take place in ION’s Edinburgh office in the UK.

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‘ION selected ports and harbours as the initial expansion point for Marlin because the market has a clear need for, and values, digital solutions that can enhance operational knowledge and decision-making,’ said Chris Usher, ION’s president and chief executive officer. ‘Digital transformation is still at a relatively early stage for port operations and is clearly a growth market. Combining Marlin’s renowned ability to track complex vessel and operational activity with new web-based functionality has the potential to transform port efficiency.’

Quick, Easy-to-Use and Powerful Data Processing, Analyses, Display from the Largest to the Smallest datasets

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TGS reprocesses data in US Gulf of Mexico

TGS has launched the Eastern Delta Refocus 3D OBS (ocean bottom seismic) imaging programme in the US Gulf of Mexico.

The reprocessing project marks the next phase of imaging over the mature, hydrocarbon-producing areas of Main Pass and Viosca Knoll. By applying advanced imaging techniques in this highly successful region, TGS will further illuminate the key subsurface

structures and provide new insight into the prospectivity within the deeper Mesozoic section.

TGS plans to reprocess an area of around 2250 km2, helping E&P companies to fully explore the new plays in this area. The project started in Q1 2020 and final data will be available in Q4 2020.

Kristian Johansen, CEO at TGS, said: ‘This project has been launched after increased client interest in the area,

PTRC carries out 4D survey on CO2 project in Canada Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) has carried out a 4D monitor survey of the Aquistore CO2 injection project in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The project will monitor carbon dioxide captured at the Boundary Dam Power Station that has been injected into the Aquistore wells 3.4 km below the surface in deep saline acquifers.

Erik Nickel, director of operations at PTRC said that this was the latest of several surveys, with the first few done before the injection well and observation well were drilled. ‘The first surveys were meant to provide a baseline, prior to the injection of any CO2,’ Nickel said, ‘Then we look at certain tonnages of CO2 injected to take another survey to monitor the plume. Right now, we’re seeing about 260,000-270,000 tonnes injected here. The last picture, at about 141,000 tonnes, showed it be on the order of about 300 to 400 m across.

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‘It’s filling up the porous zones.

It’ll be interesting when we see almost a doubling of what we had before. The plume probably won’t double in size, but I’m guessing it will be 400 to 500 m across. It’s elongated, in a northwest to southeast direction. The important thing is that we’re not seeing it rise up hole anyway at all, or shoot off in one direction,’ he added.

There is a permanent geophone array installed around the Aquistore site as well as a network of fibreoptic cables with the aim of finding the optimal signal-to-noise ratio.

‘The CO2 injection has been pretty steady at 400 to 500 tonnes per day, but there are plans to increase the injection rate to 3000 tonnes per day to see that, if necessary, this injection well can handle that amount,’ said Nickel.

Nickel added there has been zero induced seismic activity at Aquistore.

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with recent leasing of acreage and exploration plans targeting the highly prolific Norphlet play.’

Meanwhile, TGS has completed a ‘Geological Carbon Storage Atlas’ of British Columbia, Canada for a big oil and gas company.

The objective of the study was to provide the most up-to-date understanding of geological carbon storage locations, onshore and offshore, throughout the province of British Columbia. With its partner Canadian Discovery Limited (CDL), TGS leveraged its basin evaluation expertise, subsurface data library, and geological knowledge and experience of working in British Columbia, to create a framework for carbon storage assessment and an atlas for potential storage locations. Katja Akentieva, EVP of onshore & well Data at TGS, said the company was enabling its customers to evaluate carbon storage opportunities.

Shell and Equinor team up on AI Shell and Equinor have signed an agreement on digital collaboration to develop solutions within areas such as data science, artificial intelligence and 3D printing.

Equinor said that the speed of implementation of new digital solutions has already delivered a cashflow impact of more than $400 million in 2019, mainly due to earlier start-up of Johan Sverdrup.

‘We are already collaborating closely in the Open Subsurface Data Universe (OSDU) initiative and see many mutual benefits as both companies have applied cloud-based digital solutions as an approach to our industry’s digital transformation. Such collaborations are increasingly important to strengthen safety, reduce carbon emissions and realize value by applying digital technologies,’ said Torbjørn F. Folgerø, chief digital officer in Equinor ASA.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Seabird raises cash to renew its fleet Seabird has agreed a $16 million loan with Sparebank 1 SMN to repay the SBX04 bond loan expiring in June, and to outfit the vessel Fulmar Explorer for seismic operations. The outfitting project will commence in Q1 and take three months.

The company has also signed a twoyear plus 2x1 year options ‘pay as you work’ flexible charter agreement with Uksnøy & Co for the 2007-built Geo Barents. The vessel will be equipped for source, 2D and niche 3D work with expected availability and will be available for work starting in April.

Finally, the company has decided to decommission the 1985-built Osprey Explorer and recycle the in-sea seismic equipment to the Geo Barents. A final decision on the Harrier Explorer will be taken well before the next special survey.

‘Through these initiatives, Seabird will have an upgraded fleet of six owned and chartered vessels, enabling the company to offer its clients a modern and competitive fleet in its industry segments,’ said Seabird in a statement. ‘Furthermore, the initiatives will allow the company to operate with a more flexible cost base, where the modern owned vessels offer a competitiveness that allows for a significant base utilization while the chartered

SeaBird has agreed a minimum two-year charter for the 2007-built vessel Geo Barents.

vessels provide flexibility as activity levels fluctuate.

‘Together with the previously announced restructuring and cost reduction programme, this will ensure a stronger, leaner and more competitive Seabird for the benefit of our clients and shareholders in the years to come,’ it added.

Meanwhile, Seabird has won an OBN source contract with an expected duration of about five months. The contract is expected to start in April 2020. SeaBird will employ the Voyager Explorer on this

contract and the bareboat-charter for the vessel will therefore be extended.

Finally, Seabird has negotiated an extension to the charter period of the vessel Petrel Explorer until 31 May 2020.

The company said that it has received a bid from a prospective buyer of the vessel. ‘Given the positive market backdrop, the company’s preferred strategy for the vessel is to maintain exposure through the current charter party. However, pending further extensions, the company may seek a new owner for the vessel.’

Exploration round-up Wintershall has won consent to drill exploration well 6406/3-10 in PL 836 S in the Norwegian Sea. The well will test a prospect named Bergknapp.

Equinor and partner Neptune have struck oil in the Sigrun East prospect in the North Sea. Recoverable resources are estimated at between 7 and 17 million barrels of oil equivalent. Two wells in production licence PL025/187 were drilled 11 km south-east of the Gudrun field. The main well proved oil in three zones in moderate-quality sandstone in the Hugin formation.

Aker BP has won consent to start up the Skogul field in the North Sea. Skogul was proven in 2010 and the Plan for Devel-

opment and Operation (PDO) was approved in early 2018. Recoverable resources are estimated at 1.5 million standard cubic metres of oil (9.4 million bbls).

The government of Somalia has agreed with the Shell/Exxon joint venture on the next steps towards the exploration and development of certain offshore hydrocarbon blocks as part of production sharing agreements.

SDX Energy has announced an oil find from its Rabul-3 well in the West Gharib Concession in Egypt. The well was drilled to a total depth of 5129 feet and encountered approx. 116 feet of net heavy oil pay across the Yusr and Bakr formations. The Yusr and Bakr formations

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are of excellent reservoir quality with an average porosity of 21%.

Equinor has been granted a drilling permit in production licence PL 827 S in the North Sea. The well will be drilled about 11 km southwest of the Vega field.

Eni has made a new oil discovery on the Saasken Exploration Prospect in the mid-deep water of the Cuenca Salina in the Sureste Basin, offshore Mexico. The discovery is estimated to contain between 200 and 300 million barrels of oil in place. The well was drilled to a water depth of 340 m and reached a total depth of 3830 m. Saasken-1 discovered 80 m of net pay of good quality oil in the Lower Pliocene and Upper Miocene sequences.

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PGS completes interpretation of offshore Australia data Final data is now available for the PGS Mawson multi-client 3D seismic survey covering the prospective North Carnarvon Basin of Australia.

The Mawson 3D survey applied a triple-source GeoStreamer 3D survey design and delivers seismic data with prestack AVO/AVA fidelity to image the deep Triassic fault blocks of the Outer Exmouth, Carnarvon Basin.

The survey was acquired over 10 weeks during March and April 2019, with

initial fast track data delivered to prefunders in almost real time.

Processing and imaging of the full integrity data are now complete, covering an area that PGS believes will be relevant for 2020 licensing.

‘The survey offered an extremely fast method of delivering a new understanding of held acreage for licence holders while expanding coverage to vacant acreage that may provide future licensing opportunities. It adds a greater understanding of

the geological settings,’ said Rick Irving, PGS vice-president for new ventures and sales, Australasia, who commended the company’s ‘integrated’ approach.

The North Carnarvon Basin is a frontier area that contains a variety of structural/stratigraphic trap styles within the prospective Triassic fault blocks and Upper Jurassic sediments. The area is on trend with existing gas accumulations to the south and close to existing infrastructure.

TGS completes processing of Norwegian North Sea OBN survey TGS has announced that processing of the northern half of its ocean-bottom node (OBN) multi-client survey in the Norwegian North Sea is complete and has been delivered to pre-funding customers. Data processing will be complete for the southern half of Utsira in September 2020.

Undertaken with its partner, Axxis Geo Solutions (AGS) the 1584-km2 Utsira survey was completed in October 2019.

The total number of nodes deployed for the survey was 143,567 and total shots were 3,942,230. The size of the input data for processing the survey was 1.5 petabytes. To put the project into context, the data collected is equivalent to a typical 520,000-km2 marine survey — enough to cover an area the size of Spain.

‘OBN has proven to be the ultimate imaging tool to help operators overcome complex geological imaging challenges,’

said TGS. ‘With full azimuth and ultralong offsets acquisition, complex geology can be illuminated in all directions and structures and attribute variations can be properly understood. Greater than ten times higher fold significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio, as well as the ability to distinguish between structure and attribute anomalies. OBN is also the ideal tool for characterization of fluids in a reservoir.’

US launches latest Gulf of Mexico sale The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is offering 78 million acres for a region-wide lease sale scheduled for 18 March, 2020. The sale would include all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Lease Sale 254, scheduled to be live streamed from New Orleans, will be the sixth offshore sale under the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Programme, which includes ten region-wide lease sales. Two Gulf lease sales are scheduled to be held each year and include all available blocks in the combined Western, Central and Eastern Gulf of Mexico Planning Areas.

Some 78 million acres are being auctioned.

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The Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), covering about 160 million acres, is estimated to contain about 48 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and 141 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable gas.

Licences resulting from this sale would include stipulations to protect biologically sensitive resources and mitigate potential adverse effects on protected species.

Terms include a 12.5% royalty rate for leases in less than 200 m of water depth and a royalty rate of 18.75% for all other leases.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Shearwater wins contract for Black Sea survey Shearwater Geoservices has won a contract for a large towed-streamer 3D acquisition and fast-track processing project in the Black Sea for client Total.

The survey covers 5500 km2 in the Han Asparuh block 1-21 offshore Bulgaria using Flexisource triple source together with fast-track processing enabled by Shearwater’s proprietary Reveal

software. The three-month survey starts in Q1 2020 and will be carried out by the vessel Oceanic Vega.

The contract award follows an active 2019 season in the Black Sea for Shearwater.

A consortium of Total (40%), OMV (30%) and Repsol (30%) has been searching for oil and gas in the Han Asparuh 1-21 block.

Fugro carries out geophysical survey offshore Indonesia Fugro has won a contract from Inpex for a large marine survey contract for the Abadi liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Indonesia.

Fugro will perform geophysical and geotechnical surveys and the associated studies needed to support front-end engineering design (FEED) for offshore production facilities and the submarine pipeline to the onshore LNG terminal.

Autonomous vehicles and drills will be launched.

Geo-data will be acquired using Fugro’s deepwater autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Echo Surveyor and its robotic seafloor drill, Seafloor Drill 2, deployed from Indonesian support vessels.

The Abadi LNG project is based on an onshore LNG development scheme that Inpex as the operator is preparing for development in partnership with Shell in the Masela block, offshore Indonesia. The project will produce a total output of natural gas (LNG equivalent) of 10.5 million tonnes per year and up to 35,000 barrels of condensate per day.

Jerry Paisley, Fugro’s business line director, Asia Pacific region, said: ‘Overcoming engineering challenges including slope stability, regional seismicity, subsea faulting and carbonate sediments will require a collaborative and informed approach at each stage of the geo-data acquisition, analysis and advice.’

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BRIEFS EMGS has been advised by Pemex that the company will not receive additional acquisition work under the two-year acquisition contract announced last year.

EMGS said that it will immediately initiate a comprehensive cost reduction programme to adjust to the new confirmed backlog level.

Somalia has ratified the country’s petroleum law, creating the Somali National Oil Company (SONOC) and the Somali Petroleum Authority to act as a regulatory body overseeing oil and gas activity.

Somalia’s first offshore licensing round will conclude later this year with a closing date for submissions of bids at the end of Q3 2020.

Axxis Geo Solutions has won a contract from a major international oil company to carry out an ocean bottom node (OBN) survey in the North Sea. The work is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2020. The scope of work will include acquisition of 67 km2 of receiver area, comprising of approx. 30 days of operation for an OBN crew consisting of two seismic vessels.

Petrobras has extended the deadline for the sale of its equity interest in the BM-PAMA-3 and BM-PAMA-8, concession in the Para-Maranhao Basin offshore Brazil. Companies will now have until 3 May 2020 to express interest.

Fugro has partnered with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (NOAA OER) to use remote command and control technologies to acquire high-resolution data for mapping deepwater areas of the US Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Some 28,000 km2 of mapping data in the Blake Plateau region off the coasts of Georgia and Florida has been delivered to NOAA. Marathon Oil has responded to the dramatic fall in commodity prices by reducing capital spending in 2020 by at least $500 million to $1.9 billion.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Equinor finds Lower Jurassic CO2 storage site in the North Sea Equinor is drilling a well in the North Sea to investigate whether the reservoir rocks in the Lower Jurassic formation are suitable for storage of carbon dioxide (CO2).

The well has been drilled 17.5 km southwest of Troll A in the northern part of the North Sea, about 100 km west of Bergen, in the Cook and Johansen formations, where there are currently plans to store CO2.

A total of 173 m of sandstone was encountered with good to very good reservoir quality, said Equinor. Above the sandstone reservoir, the well encountered

75 m of sealing homogeneous shale in the Lower Drake Formation. Formation pressure data shows that the rocks over and under the sealed shale layer are not in communication.

Extensive volumes of data have been collected and samples have been taken. A production test has also been performed.

‘We not only hoped to prove a waterfilled reservoir, but a reservoir that would be well suited for injection and storage of CO2. The well absolutely seems to have done the job, and it is an important premise in the Norwegian full-scale pro-

CGG completes final land seismic contract

India plans seismic surveys to boost coal mining sector

CGG has exited from the land seismic data acquisition sector after completing its last contract in Tunisia.

Following on from the company’s recently announced exits from seabed and marine data acquisition, this milestone marks the completion of CGG’s strategy to exit the seismic data acquisition business.

To date, CGG still retains a minority shareholding in the Argas company operating in the Middle East.

Sophie Zurquiyah, CEO of CGG, said: ‘The exit from our seismic data acquisition business, one of CGG’s long-standing historic areas of expertise, marks the end of an era, and also the start of an exciting new chapter in our history. This is a key milestone in our CGG 2021 strategic vision to transition to an asset-light people, data and technology company. It secures the future sustainability of our business and provides a strong platform for organic growth.’

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ject,’ said Eva Halland, who coordinates the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s CO2 storage project.

Detailed analysis of the data will form the basis for an investment decision for the Norwegian full-scale project for capture, transport and storage of CO2.

This is the first well in exploitation licence 001, which was awarded in January 2019. Well 31/5-7 was drilled to a vertical depth of 2884 m below sea level and was terminated in the Statfjord Group in the Lower Jurassic. Water depth at the site is 307 m.

India plans to add 10 million tonnes to its coal reserves by the end of 2020.

The state-owned mining company Coal India Limited (CIL) is expanding exploration activities, including 2D and 3D seismic surveys, so that more coal blocks can be put up for auction.

The Central Mines Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL), the technical arm of CIL, has promised to introduce 2D and 3D seismic surveys for faster coal and lignite exploration and to cover larger areas in a shorter time.

CMPDIL has purchased vibroseis equipment to ascertain the possibility of deposits up to about 800 m below the surface, with Indian coal typically APRIL

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found at depths of between 300 m and 600 m.

The CMPDIL will receive an estimated $175 million over the next two years to enable it to expand exploration of new blocks and to offer exploration data for more blocks to be put up for auction.

Coal reserves in India were estimated at 156 billion tonnes in 2019. Six-billion tonnes of reserves were added in December 2019 and another 10 billion tonnes are expected to be added by the end of 2019/20.

A total of 188 project reports had also been completed by December 2019 including 12 geological reports.

Special Topic

PASSIVE SEISMIC / UNCONVENTIONALS

Largescale exploration of shale oil and gas in America has driven innovation in the unconventionals sector in the past few years and we will showcase some of the latest developments in this month’s issue. Meanwhile, interest in passive seismic techniques, particularly microseismic monitoring, is continuing to grow, driven by the success of techniques in providing insights into subsurface geomechanical processes.

Mojtaba Moradi and Michael Konopczynki demonstrate why the gas huff and puff method is the most effective enhanced oil recovery of shale resources in North America.

Aissa Bachir et al demonstrate the application of the physics-guided neural network in integrating the reservoir complexity and completion parameters to predict the performance of a multi-fractured horizontal well.

Stephen A. Sonnenberg reviews carry bed plays in the Denver (Codell Sandstone) and Powder River (Turner Sandstone) basins and demonstrates why this new play may be present in many basins around the world.

Ismael Vera Rodriguez et al look for evidence of injection-induced seismicity during monitoring of a CO2 injection in a reef reservoir.

Lindsay Smith-Boughner et al discuss the development of an automated seismic moment tensor inversion workflow for estimating strain evolution and failure mechanisms in underground mines using microseismic waveform data. They demonstrate that automatic methods require less manual work than standard workflows, allowing for faster failure mechanism inversions for assessing hazards.

Soumen Koley et al report on the benefits and the constraints on beamforming and spectral autocorrelation on ambient noise data acquired with a small aperture array deployed at Groningen, the Netherlands.

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

Modelling / Interpretation

April

Passive Seismic / Unconventionals

May

Petroleum Geology

June

Delivering for the Energy Challenge: Today and Tomorrow

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 via EAGE’s ScholarOne website: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fb

July

Machine Learning

August

Near Surface Geoscience

September

Reservoir Geoscience and Engineering

October

Energy Transition

November

Marine Seismic & EM

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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CALENDAR

CALENDAR OF EVENTS 16-18 NOVEMBER 2020

Second EAGE Workshop on Machine Learning Amsterdam, The Netherlands events.eage.org

April 2020 6-9 Apr

EAGE Saint Petersburg 2020 Geosciences: Converting Knowledge into Resources www.eage.org

Saint Petersburg

Russia

7 Apr

Marine Technologies 2020 2 nd scientific workshop www.eage.org

Saint Petersburg

Russia

27 Apr 1 May

World Geothermal Congress www.wgc2020.com

Reykjavik

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7-9 May

GISTAM 2020 6th International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management www.gistam.org

Prague

Czech Republic

12-14 May

5th AAPG/EAGE Myanmar Oil & Gas Conference www.eage.org

Yangon

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12-14 May

Third EAGE Workshop on Offshore Development and Exploration in Mexico www.eage.org

Merida

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12-16 May

EAGE Engineering & Mining Geophysics 2020 www.eage.org

Perm

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8 Jun

YP Summit 2020 www.yp-summit.org

Amsterdam

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8-11 Jun

82nd EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2020 www.eage.org

Amsterdam

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28-30 Jun

First EAGE Conference on Guyana Basins www.eage.org

Georgetown

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30 Jun 1 Jul

GEODAYS www.geodays-event.com

Pau

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May 2020

June 2020

August 2020 17-21 Aug

Geobaikal 2020 6th Scientific Conference www.eage.org

Irkutsk

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20-21 Aug

First EAGE Workshop on EOR Development and Evolution in Latin America www.eage.org

Bogotá

Colombia

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24-26 Aug

GeoUtrecht 2020

Utrecht

Netherlands

25-27 Aug

Second EAGE Marine Acquisition Workshop www.eage.org

Oslo

Norway

30 Aug 3 Sep

Near Surface Geoscience Conference & Exhibition 2020 www.eage.org

Belgrade

Serbia

September 2020 7‑9 Sep

EAGE/AAPG Digital Geoscience Asia Pacific Conference & Exhibition www.eage.org

Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

7‑11 Sep

Geomodel 2020 www.eage.org

Gelendzhik

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8-10 Sep

EAGE Seabed Seismic Today: from Acquisition to Application www.eage.org

Abu Dhabi

United Arab Emirates

14-17 Sep

ECMOR XVII 17 th European Conference on the Mathematics of Oil Recovery www.eage.org

Edinburgh

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15‑17 Sep

IX Simpósio Brasileiro de Geofísica

Curitiba

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16‑18 Sep

90 Congress of the Italian Geological Society www.geoscienze.org/trieste2020

Trieste

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16‑18 Sep

Second EAGE Conference on Pre-Salt Reservoir www.eage.org

Rio de Janeiro

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21‑23 Sep

Third EAGE Geochemistry Workshop www.eage.org

Muscat

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21-23 Sep

Fifth EAGE Eastern Africa Petroluem Geoscience Forum www.eage.org

Cape town

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22‑24 Sep

First EAGE Conference on Machine Learning in Latin America www.eage.org

Cartagena

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28-30 Sep

First EAGE Workshop on East Canada Offshore Exploration www.eage.org

St. John’s

Canada

th

October 2020 5‑7 Oct

First EAGE Western Africa Exploration & Production Workshop www.eage.org

Dakar

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12‑14 Oct

Second EAGE Conference on Sulfur Risk Management in E&P www.eage.org

Braga

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21‑22 Oct

Third EAGE Workshop on Unconventional Resources www.eage.org

Buenos Aires

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26‑28 Oct

EAGE Geomechanics Workshop: Creating Value & Making Decisions www.eage.org

Abu Dhabi

United Arab Emirates

26‑28 Oct

First EAGE Conference on Seismic Inversion www.eage.org

Porto

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26-28 Oct

EAGE Workshop on Quantifying Uncertainty in Depth Imaging www.eage.org

Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia

3 rd EAGE/SPE Geosteering Workshop www.eage.org

Abu Dhabi

United Arab Emirates

3 rd Asia Pacific Meeting on Near Surface Geoscience & Engineering www.eage.org

Chiang Mai

Thailand

15‑17 Nov

Second EAGE Workshop on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles www.eage.org

Muscat

Oman

16-18 Nov

Second EAGE Workshop on Machine Learning www.eage.org

Amsterdam

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30 Nov 3 Dec

First EAGE Digitalization Conference and Exhibition www.eage.org

Vienna

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November 2020 2‑4 Nov 2-4 Nov

EAGE Events

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