VOL. 10, NO. 6 – 2013 GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED geoexpro.com EXPLORATION NEW TECHNOLOGIES Norway: Using Gravity to Enhance Recovery Small is Also Beautiful GEOTOURISM Romania: The Salt Mountain GIANT FIELDS Wytch Farm Ploughs Ahead UNCONVENTIONAL EXPLORATION Monitoring Gas Download www.geoexpro.com GEO ExPro for Free GEOLOGY GEOPHYSICS RESERVOIR MANAGEMENT 2D Seismic Database 2Dcubed Database 3D Seismic Database Licensed Blocks In partnership with PGS EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR THE UK 28TH LICENSING ROUND Modern 3D Data: 38 000 km2 Modern Long Offset 2D Data: 65 000 km Facies Map Browser and well log data available for entire region For more information, contact TGS at: UK Tel: +44 (0) 123 427 2122 Email: [email protected] WWW.TGS.COM © 2013 TGS-NOPEC GEOPHYSICAL COMPANY ASA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PREVIOUS ISSUES: WWW.GEOEXPRO.COM 80 Mihai Nedelcu Mihai The salt mine GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED in Slanic Prahova, CONTENTS Vol. 10 No. 6 Romania This edition of GEO ExPro Magazine focuses on North West Europe and New Technologies COLUMNS FEATURES 5 Editorial 20 Cover story: Norway – Small is Also Beautiful 6 Update 26 Technology: Solutions for Monitoring Gas 12 Licensing Opportunities 36 Seismic Foldout: Croatia: A New Oil Province 14 Market Update 46 Exploration: Oil and Gas Potential of Greece 16 A Minute to Read 50 Technology: 30 Recent Advances in Technology: Pressure Prediction in Exhumed Basins Towards a Ghost-Free Solution 58 Exploration: Exploration Trends on the UKCS 42 GEO ExPro Profile: 62 Technology: Derek Fairhead – Mapping Out a Career Using Gravity for Enhanced Recovery 54 Giant Fields: Wytch Farm Ploughs Ahead 66 Reservoir Management: 80 GEO Tourism: The Salt Mountain, Romania Applying Analogues for Success 86 History of Oil: Unlocking the Earth 70 Technology: The Digital Oilfield 92 GEO Cities: Aberdeen – The Granite City 74 Seismic Foldout: Sub-Salt Plays, Ultra-Deep 94 Exploration Update Water Kwanza Basin 96 GEO Media: Wegener’s Jigsaw 98 Q&A 100 Hot Spot: Cooper Basin, Australia 86 102 Global Resource Management Fracking has a surprisingly long history 10 US Geological SurveyUS 50 20 8 92 42 58 98 80 36 18 18 46 94 94 14 16 96 74 100 16 GEO ExPro DECEMBER 2013 3 Studio E&P KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENT Make expertise more productive— in your key decisions Expert knowledge matters most when you are making critical decisions. The Studio* E&P knowledge environment in the Petrel* platform lets experts capture and share knowledge in the context of the reservoir challenge at hand—enabling every team member to make the best possible decisions. Microsoft technologies, from Lync to SQL Server, combine with on-demand access to the information you need, in the high-productivity Studio environment—so experts can contribute when you need them most. Find out more at: slb.com/Studio *Mark of Schlumberger. © 2013 Schlumberger. 13-IS-0333 Other company, product, and service names are the properties of their respective owners. EDITORIAL Maturing Nicely Following the discovery of gas onshore the Nether- GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED lands in 1959 and offshore the UK in 1963, and then Studio www.geoexpro.com oil in the North Sea a few years later, the hydrocarbon E&P KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENT industry in North West Europe virtually exploded with GeoPublishing Ltd Courtesy of BP activity and excitement. Over 45 Bb of oil and gas 15 Palace Place Mansion equivalent have since been pumped from reservoirs Kensington Court London W8 5BB, UK below the UK and Norway alone, bringing with +44 20 7937 2224 them many jobs, billions of dollars, the development of hitherto struggling centres like Stavanger and the Managing Director Shetland Islands, and an influx of high technology Tore Karlsson companies and innovative intellects. Editor in Chief Fifty years on, most people feel that the major Jane Whaley fields have been found, although we still have The Seaquest drilling rig, which made the first [email protected] surprises like the 2010 >3 Bbo Johan Sverdrup commercial oil find on the UKCS in 1969. discovery on the Norwegian continental shelf. Frontier areas in North West Europe, like the Contributing Editors Thomas Smith Barents Sea and the Atlantic west of the UK and Ireland, may yet yield major resources, and [email protected] technology will be crucial in unlocking important new plays, but this will require concentrated Ken White effort, considerable financial input and possibly government incentives. [email protected] The landscape is changing. Whereas the golden years of exploration offshore North West Europe were dominated by majors and giant fields, many more companies are now involved, Halfdan Carstens [email protected] including small operators with strong expertise in either an area or a technological challenge, such as heavy oil or high temperature/high pressure reservoirs. They come from all over the Rasoul Sorkhabi [email protected] world, including many NOCs, a demonstration of the increasing growth in that sector. Much of their efforts will be directed towards developing smaller fields, and in enhancing recovery and Paul Wood extending the life of older fields. [email protected] In this edition of GEO ExPro we look at some of the new technologies driving these endeavours, Editorial enquiries like predicting reservoir pressures in frontier regions, vital for planning new drilling and for GeoPublishing understanding migration, and the use of 4D gravity data to enhance recovery from fields nearing Jane Whaley depletion. +44 7812 137161 The wild waters off North West Europe have been the location of many pioneering and [email protected] www.geoexpro.com innovative technologies in the oil and gas industry, now mainstream and used throughout the world. The techniques and knowledge being developed in this mature area to keep the oil – and Marketing Director the oil dollars – flowing now will prove vital for the long-term future of the industry. Kirsti Karlsson +44 79 0991 5513 JANE WHALEY [email protected] Editor in Chief Subscription GeoPublishing Ltd +44 20 7937 2224 15 Palace Place Mansion Kensington Court London W8 5BB, UK VOL. 10, NO. 6 – 2013 [email protected] GEOSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINED geoexpro.com EXPLORATION NEW TECHNOLOGIES GEO EXPro is pub lished bimonthly Norway: Using Gravity to Enhance Recovery Small is Also Beautiful for a base subscrip tion rate of GBP Make expertise more productive— 60 a year (6 issues). We encourage readers to alert us NORWAY: SMALL IS ALSO BEAUTIFUL to news for possible publication in your key decisions Norway is the largest oil producer and exporter in Western Europe, and to submit articles for publication. owing its abundant resources in part to the large quantities of reservoir Expert knowledge matters most when you are making critical decisions. The Studio* E&P knowledge environment in the rocks built up on the Norwegian continental shelf after millions of years GEOTOURISM Cover Photographs: Romania: The Salt Mountain of erosion by rivers and ice. Main Image: Halfdan Carstens Petrel* platform lets experts capture and share knowledge in the context of the reservoir challenge at hand—enabling GIANT FIELDS every team member to make the best possible decisions. Microsoft technologies, from Lync to SQL Server, combine with Wytch Farm Ploughs Ahead Inset: Gravitude AS Inset: 4D gravity data can be used to image water influx into a reservoir UNCONVENTIONAL EXPLORATION on-demand access to the information you need, in the high-productivity Studio environment—so experts can contribute Monitoring Gas as gas is depleted. Layout: Bookcraft Ltd. G E O L O G Y G E O P H Y S I C S Download when you need them most. R E S E R V O I R Print: NXT Oslo Reklamebyrå M A N A G E M E N T www.geoexpro.com GEO ExPro for Free issn 1744-8743 Find out more at: © 2013 GeoPublishing Limited. Copyright or similar rights in all material in this publication, including graphics and other media, is owned by GeoPublishing Limited, slb.com/Studio 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 *Mark of Schlumberger. © 2013 Schlumberger. 13-IS-0333 does it accept responsibility for errors or omissions or their consequences. Opinions expressed by contributors to this publication are not Other company, product, and service names are the properties of their respective owners. necessarily those of GeoPublishing Limited. GEO ExPro DECEMBER 2013 5 EXPRO UPDATE certain activity is going to happen. As Early Stage Engagement: the public, we are shown pictures of the location of the well and asked if we UK Southern North Sea Gas Basin Winning Social Acceptance For Shale Gas like it. But despite its title, this approach is not about public consultation, it is 035 036 Hamish Wilson, Technical Director at SLR Consulting, reviews public ‘telling’. Multi-Client 2D Seismic – Data037 Available for 03828th Round 039 how early public engagement can pay dividends in securing public acceptance for seemingly controversial drilling projects. Winning Trust I propose an alternative approach which I live on the Isle of Wight, a lovely spot. I into our stage gate decision processes. involves engaging with local people have seen in the press that drilling activity Secondly, the collective industry early, before technical decisions have is planned off Compton Bay – a beautiful should take a proactive stance towards been taken. This takes time and effort Legend B beach and very unspoilt.