The Geological Treasure of the Sierra Madre
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VOL. 14, NO. 1 – 2017 GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED geoexpro.com GEO PHYSICS: EXPLORATION The Future of Marine The Geological Seismic Acquisition? Treasure of the Sierra Madre GEO EDUCATION What Is Geology? GEO TOURISM Barbados Beckons EXPLORATION Independents Rockin’ on Alaska’s North Slope Dive into the Detail Explore regional structures, uncover new leads and develop prospects with these unified 3D GeoStreamer® depth datasets. We have tailored the most advanced imaging workflows to create an exceptional product that o ers both precision and perspective. Visit our website to find out more about GeoStreamer PURE. A Clearer Image | www.pgs.com/PURE Previous issues: www.geoexpro.com Contents Vol. 14 No. 1 This edition of GEO ExPro magazine focuses on the Arctic, the Caribbean, GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico; and New Technologies for Cost Efficiency. h 5 Editorial New plays are opening in Alaska. 6 Regional Update Armstrong Energy, LLC 8 Licensing Update 10 A Minute to Read BNE 12 Cover Story: The Geological v Treasure of the Sierra Madre The founder of BNE explains why she struck lucky with her first well in Belize. 16 Technology Explained: Integrating Seismic Imaging and Inversion 20 Seismic Foldout: Opportunities Within the Southern MSGBC Basin * 26 Exploration: Independents Rockin’ Palm-fringed beaches and on Alaska’s North Slope captivating geology – what more Terri Cook and Lon Abbott could you ask for? 30 GEO Physics: The Future of Marine Seismic Acquisition? 34 GEO Profile: Susan Morrice – MAGE The Oil Within I A potential new oil and gas province 38 Exploration: Beneath Belize in the north-west Russian Arctic. 42 Seismic Foldout: The South-West Barents Sea 48 GEO Tourism: Barbados Beckons RPS Energy : 52 Exploration: New Opportunities in the Central North Sea Unmanned aerial systems are transforming operational efficiency. 54 GEO Education: What is Geology? 58 Exploration: North Barents Basin – Hydrocarbon Potential 64 Seismic Foldout: h @ I Refining Exploration Opportunities in Mexico X W R 70 Technology Explained: UAS – q 8 8 Innovative Technical Solution wFv , * 72 Exploration Update X p 8 74 Q&A: UNESCO Global GeoParks X 76 Global Resource Management GEOExPro February 2017 3 Insight like you’ve never seen Even though budgets continue to stay tight, insight on what has and hasn’t worked, success with your prospects is still expected. where and why. That’s why now, more than ever, you need the insight that only DAKS™ IQ can provide. So, with DAKS IQ you can quickly and easily get knowledge to help DAKS IQ is an analogs-based knowledge, you optimize recovery, support your reporting, and benchmarking platform that decision-making process, and improve provides best practices and lessons learned overall financial performance across the from more than 1,500 of the world’s most entire E&P life cycle. In short, DAKS IQ important fields and reservoirs. Covering gives you insight like you’ve never seen. nearly 500 geological and engineering parameters on every reservoir, DAKS IQ To learn more about DAKS IQ, visit us online at ccreservoirs.com/daksiq. You’ll empowers you with cost-effective, critical be glad you did. TM ccreservoirs.com Editorial Spring is Nigh? GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED There seems to be a distinct www.geoexpro.com air of optimism developing in the oil and gas industry GeoPublishing Ltd since we turned the corner 15 Palace Place Mansion into the new year. Faint buds Kensington Court of hope and indicators of London W8 5BB, UK new growth are beginning +44 20 7937 2224 to show, the oil price has Managing Director stabilized, albeit around $55 Tore Karlsson rather than the over $100 it was a few years back, and Editor in Chief Jane Whaley the US rig count rose by 17 [email protected] in the first week of February, 27% higher than it was in Editorial enquiries 2016*. Even exploration in the highly expensive Arctic has had some boosts, as we report GeoPublishing Jane Whaley in this edition of GEO ExPro. Some, though not all, oil company results for the last quarter +44 7812 137161 of 2016, while not rebounding strongly, showed promising indications that the slump may [email protected] have bottomed out. www.geoexpro.com There are also indications that oil companies of all sizes are beginning to raise their heads above the parapet and think about exploring again, realizing that, with the 2016 Marketing Director Kirsti Karlsson replacement ratio for liquid hydrocarbons falling below 10%, they have to start finding +44 79 0991 5513 more reserves. To help them do it, we now have a much leaner industry, with a strong [email protected] emphasis on cost efficiency, the application of integrated new technologies and ‘doing more with less’. This means that in many places exploring for oil should now be profitable even at today’s crude prices. But have we learnt any lessons, or will we keep on following the boom and bust cycles? The jury is out: if we scurry to increase the pace of production too quickly, we risk increasing the supply glut which was at the root of this downturn. OPEC members appear to have stuck to their self-imposed reduction in output so far, but in December 2016 Russia is reported to have had its highest monthly production for 30 years. Already, into just the second month of 2017, the oil price has taken a couple of knocks on hearing that crude stockpiles continued to build up in the US. We still have a long road ahead of us. Subscription * Baker Hughes GeoPublishing Ltd +44 20 7937 2224 15 Palace Place Mansion Kensington Court London W8 5BB, UK [email protected] VOL. 14, NO. 1 – 2017 GEO EXPro is pub lished bimonthly GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED Jane Whaley geoexpro.com for a base subscrip tion rate of GBP EXPLORATION GEO PHYSICS: 60 a year (6 issues). Editor in Chief The Geological The Future of Marine Seismic Acquisition? We encourage readers to alert us Treasure of the Sierra Madre to news for possible publication and to submit articles for publication. THE GEOLOGICAL TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE Cover Photograph: Geologist David Jiménez is looking at an outcrop of the Chicontepec Main: Stephen Cossey GEO EDUCATION Formation in the southern part of the Tampico-Misantla Basin near the What Is Geology? Inset: Kietta town of Filomena Mata, Veracruz State, Mexico. The photo shows a very GEO TOURISM contorted slump which formed in a slope environment, moved from right Barbados Beckons EXPLORATION Layout: Winslade Graphics to left and is underlain and overlain by thin, undeformed turbidites. This Independents ‘Rockin’ on Alaska’s North Slope Print: Stephens & George, UK indicates it is a synsedimentary slump and is not tectonic. The outcrop is informally named in Spanish Culebra, or snake. issn 1744-8743 © 2017 GeoPublishing Limited. Copyright or similar rights in all material in this publication, including graphics and other media, is owned by GeoPublishing Limited, unless otherwise stated. You are allowed to print extracts for your personal use only. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photographic, recorded or otherwise without the prior written permission of GeoPublishing Limited. Requests to republish material from this publication for distribution should be sent to the Editor in Chief. GeoPublishing Limited does not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication nor does it accept responsibility for errors or omissions or their consequences. Opinions expressed by contributors to this publication are not necessarily those of GeoPublishing Limited. GEOExPro February 2017 5 Regional Update US Back as Largest ABBREVIATIONS Numbers GoM Producer (US and scientific community) M: thousand = 1 x 103 The Mature Gulf of Mexico Continues to Thrive MM: million = 1 x 106 B: billion = 1 x 109 The Gulf of Mexico is currently one of the largest offshore producing areas T: trillion = 1 x 1012 globally. Despite it being a mature province, there are still high activity levels and plenty of interest in the region. Liquids During 2016, 125 new licenses were awarded in the Gulf of Mexico. Of barrel = bbl = 159 litre these, 116 were awarded from the US side, and the remaining eight were on the boe: barrels of oil equivalent bopd: barrels (bbls) of oil per day User Meetings Mexican side through the continuation of the first license round there. This round had mixed success, with offshore deepwater experiencing the largest level bcpd: bbls of condensate per day Houston bwpd: bbls of water per day of interest among the international oil companies. In 2016, operators drilled about 100 exploration wells in the Gulf of Mexico, Gas 29-30 March and Training most of which were located in the US deepwater areas, with only 15 wells on the MMscfg: million ft3 gas Mexican side. The 2016 activity was lower when compared to previous years, MMscmg: million m3 gas which saw an average of ~120 spudded exploration wells per year. In addition, Tcfg: trillion cubic feet of gas the discovery results were disappointing, yielding only 450 MMboe of new Glasgow Workshops volumes, compared to an average yearly discovered volume of 1,200 MMboe Ma: Million years ago from 2010 to 2015. The largest 2016 US discoveries were the Shell-operated Fort 9-10 May Summer and Chevron’s Gibson, and the largest discovery in Mexico was Nobilis, LNG Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is natural 2017 operated by Pemex. gas (primarily methane) cooled to a o 4,500 Mexico United States temperature of approximately -260 C. 4,000 NGL 3,500 Natural gas liquids (NGL) include propane, butane, pentane, hexane 3,000 Rystad Energy UCube and heptane, but not methane and 2,500 ethane.