VOL. 7, NO. 6 – 2010 GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED GEO EXPRO VOL. 7, NO. 6 – 2010 Success breeds Success geoexpro.com FRONTIER EXPLORATION Ocean Bottom Node Seismic The Bay of Bengal Geotourism: India - Deccan Traps Technology, Experience • MEXICO and Performance • ANGOLA • GoM • NIGERIA TECHNOLOGY • NW EUROPE The Arctic: The Next Global Frontier EXPLORATION Is the ‘Shale Gale’ Blowing Itself Out? Seabird_ad_180 x 250 mm.indd 1 08/07/2010 11:35 GEOLOGY GEOPHYSICS RESERVOIR MANAGEMENT Previous issues: www.geoexpro.com GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED Photo: Jamaica Tourist Board Photo: Jamaica Tourist columns 5 Editorial 6 ExPro Update 52 12 Market Update The beautiful Caribbean Island of Jamaica was home to pirates and their 16 A Minute to Read loot in the past, but is there treasure of a different sort in its sparkling waters? 42 History of Oil: Exploration in Alaska Data collated for a new bid round, due to close in March 2011, suggests 46 ExPro Profile: Jim Thompson, Fairfield that there may well be. 62 Recent Advances in Technology: Marine Seismic Sources V 66 GeoTourism: The Deccan Traps 72 Geomedia 74 Exploration Update © BP Archives 76 Q&A 78 Hot Spot: Barmer Basin, NW India 80 Global Resource Management features 20 Cover Story: The Next Global Frontier 24 Alternative Technology: Mining Heat 30 Frontier Exploration: Bay of Bengal 42 - Many Possibilities and Challenges Ahead 36 SEISMIC FOLDOUT: NE Greenland Continental Margin The North Slope of Alaska is a cornerstone of US oil production with sev- 48 Technology: Grabbing a Larger Share of the Market eral giant fields, notably Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk and Endicott, plus extensive heavy oil at Ugnu and West Sak. The generation that discovered these fields 52 Exploration: Buried Treasure in Jamaica is almost gone; what can we learn from their efforts? 58 Unconventional Resources: Is the ‘Shale Gale’ blowing Itself Out? 20 36 42 14 6 24 58 76 74 74 78 66 30 52 74 8 this year’s frontier - next decade’s paymaster GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED The Arctic and the Bay of Bengal are two exciting but very different frontier areas, both suggesting great po- www.geoexpro.com tential, but offering many challenges to the hydrocarbon industry. GeoPublishing Ltd In order to exploit the Arctic, it is not just the technical issues involved in exploring in such harsh and 15 Palace Place Mansion extreme conditions that must be faced. Some of these issues, in fact, have already been investigated, and both Kensington Court service and exploration companies are moving closer to being able to successfully discover and produce oil and London w8 5bb, u.k. gas from this frozen environment. But the +44 20 7937 2224 industry faces many questions, and hard political, financial and environmental de- Managing Director Tore Karlsson cisions will need to be made. Jane Whaley The Bay of Bengal faces very different Editor in Chief challenges. Surrounded by some of the Jane Whaley fastest-growing populations and econo- [email protected] mies in the world, the Bengal Fan is the world’s largest fluvio-deltaic-slope fan Contributing Editors Thomas Smith complex, yet it is largely unexplored. Now [email protected] that exploration has moved successfully into deepwater, the issues here again are Halfdan Carstens not technical, but political. The maritime [email protected] boundaries between the countries sur- rounding the Bay of Bengal – India, Ban- Rasoul Sorkhabi [email protected] gladesh and Myanmar - are under dispute, Successful exploration in the deep waters off Ghana means the area is as they have been for many years, and until Paul Wood no longer considered ‘frontier’ these are established, they will not be able [email protected] to fully exploit the potential hidden under their shared ocean. Editorial enquiries GeoPublishing If these countries, encouraged by the oil industry and the promise of wealth beneath their waters, resolve Jane Whaley their differences, we may not refer to the Bay of Bengal as a frontier area for long. Until a few years ago, the +44 7812 137161 offshore West African Transform Margin, west of the Niger Delta, was so little considered that it would be [email protected] hard to have even called it ‘frontier’. Now, after a string of major discoveries off Ghana, Liberia and Sierra www.geoexpro.com Leone, it’s one of the hottest properties in town, as evidenced by the overcrowded rooms at recent conferences whenever a paper is given on the area. The East African Rift looks set to follow in its footsteps. Marketing Manager Kirsti Karlsson So look carefully at frontier areas; they may be paying your salary soon! +44 79 0991 5513 [email protected] Jane Whaley Editor in Chief Subscription GeoPublishing Ltd +44 20 7937 2224 15 Palace Place Mansion Kensington Court London w8 5bb, u.k. [email protected] geo expro is pub lished bimonthly VOL. 7, NO. 6 – 2010 for a base subscrip tion rate of gbp GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED Success breeds Success 2010 – 6 NO. 7, VOL. EXPRO GEO geoexpro.com 50.- a year (6 issues). FRONTIER EXPLORATION Ocean Bottom Node Seismic The Bay of Bengal We encourage readers to alert us to ARCTIC EXPLORATION Geotourism: India - Deccan Traps news for possible publication and ION Geophysical spent three seasons working in the Arctic Beaufort and Chukchi to submit articles for publication. Seas, investigating ways of extending the very short ice free season. They achieved Technology, Experience and Performance • MEXICO Cover Illustration: this by towing the streamer below the ice, with an ice breaker travelling in front• ANGOLA of • GoM ION the source vessel, and can now work in the Arctic for up to nine months of the• NIGERIA year. • NW EUROPE TECHNOLOGY Inset: Molly Wrigley The Arctic: The Next Global Frontier EXPLORATION Inset: The Taj Mahal is India’s most famous tourist attraction, but there are plenty Is the ‘Shale Gale’ Blowing Itself Out? Layout: Skipnes Kommunikasjon Seabird_ad_180 x 250 mm.indd 1 of other fascinating places to visit, including the Elephanta Caves, near Mumbai,08/07/2010 11:35 Print: NXT Oslo Reklamebyrå G E O L O G Y G E O P H Y S I C S R E S E R V O I R where the basaltic Deccan Traps have been carved into temples and statues. M A N A G E M E N T issn 1744-8743 © 2010 GeoPublishing Limited. Copyright or similar rights in all material in this publication, including graphics and other media, is owned by GeoPublishing Limited, unless oth- erwise 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. GEO EXPRO DECEMBER 2010 5 ExPro Update JANE WHALEY Industry Responds to Macondo ABBREVIATIONS International co-operation can help prevent such an accident happening in the future Numbers (U.S. and scientific community) As the furore over the Macondo incident record much lower than at ways to make the possibility of M: thousand = 1 x 103 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico comparative industries such as a similar disaster happening as 6 finally begins to die down, gov- mining – and actually less than low as possible; Oil Spill Emer- MM: million = 1 x 10 9 ernments, regulatory authorities the retail industry!” he explains. gency Response, outlining plans B: billion = 1 x 10 and oil and gas companies are “The issue is personal safety versus in the event of a major spill; an T: trillion = 1 x 1012 getting together throughout the process safety: we have to ensure Indemnity and Insurance Group, world to ensure, as far as possible, that the processes are in place that to ensure that there would be suf- that such an accident in deep will prevent accidents happening. ficient funds to cover the costs of Liquids water can never occur again. But any response has to be care- a clean-up operation (as Mark barrel = bbl = 159 litre In the report BP published on fully analysed – we must beware pointed out, most small compa- boe: barrels of oil equivalent the blowout, it cited eight barriers of the poorly thought through nies in the North Sea would have bopd: barrels (bbls) of oil per day which should have prevented the knee-jerk reaction which could been destroyed by payouts similar bcpd: bbls of condensate per day accident happening that were potentially be the source of the to those being made by BP); and crossed – interestingly, none of next tragedy.” an International Group, to liaise bwpd: bbls of water per day them actually strongly related OSPRAG was setup to provide with other countries in the region to deepwater. And according to a focal point for the sector’s review to provide pan-North Sea regula- Gas Mark McAllister, Chair of the Oil of the industry’s practices in the tions and response mechanisms. MMscfg: million ft3 gas Spill Prevention and Response UK, involving all stakeholders, OSPRAG has been instru- 3 Advisory Group (OSPRAG), set including major and small inde- mental in developing a new MMscmg: million m gas up by the UK to look at lessons pendent exploration companies, well-capping device, which will Tcfg: trillion cubic feet of gas to be learnt from Macondo for the contractors of all sizes, the Govern- be kept in Aberdeen along with North Sea, the majority of these ment Department of Energy and vital cutting equipment, all avail- Ma: Million years ago were about human responses to Climate Change, the coastguard able immediately in the event of a incidents, rather than technology.