To address the upcoming ‘Great Crew Change’ industry organisations are putting increasing effort into ensuring new entrants into the O&G business get access to information and training.

Part I: A simple guide to the parameters involved in seismic depth conversion - a complex but important subject in geophysical seismic processing.

Unconventional hydrocarbon volumes have taken the headlines recently – but how are these figures worked out and why are they so big?

Helping non-geologists gain a better understanding of reservoir geology by exposing them to outcrops, in multidisciplinary teams, with geological guides on hand

Is using well data to hunt for those NULFs (Nasty, Ugly Little Facts!) that lead to breakthroughs in exploration thinking becoming a lost art?

Geoscientists do not seem to be able to inspire other people with enthusiasm for their subject. What can be done about this?

As the oil and gas industry enters a new era, what will you be doing?

What makes a sedimentary rock an effective petroleum source rock? A review of the analytical methods used to characterize source rocks for successful petroleum exploration and production.

Special themed edition

“… Best Student Petroleum Exploration Programme in the World”

The science and analytical techniques to investigate petroleum source rocks have been developed over the past four decades. Understanding the geology and geochemistry of source rocks is crucial to petroleum geoscience and engineering. In Part I of this article, we review the protracted (with hindrances) formation of organic matter in source rocks, involving processes from solar radiation to sea-floor sedimentation.

What is the role of field geology today, what will it be in the future and what specifically is the importance of field-based training to petroleum geosciences? Is it a ‘luxury’ we cannot afford to give up?

Shell is leveraging hundreds of years of experience to search for new ideas in its traditional heartlands.

How and why do fractures occur in rocks?

Rock fractures are ubiquitous because rocks in the Earth’s upper crustal levels are brittle. However, the fractures show considerable variations due to their origin, geometry and rock properties. Given the petroleum industry’s major shift in recent years to exploit tight reservoirs, there is now greater interest in rock fracture studies because open fractures, whether natural or hydraulic, provide the essential permeability for fluid flow in such reservoirs. A fresh understanding of rock fractures is thus timely. In this two-part article, we first review the geometry and characteristics of rock fractures. In part two, geomechanics of fractures will be discussed.