There is no doubt: oil and gas will remain the preferred energy source for years to come, according to Exxon Mobil’s comprehensive review of energy demands in the next 30 years.
The first of the Geocontroversies debates held at the Petroleum Geology Conference in London earlier this year brought up some interesting arguments and ideas around the concept of ‘Peak Oil’.
Ivar A Sandø, Ola-Petter Munkvold and Rigmor Elde, StatoilHydro
Building on ongoing IOR research efforts, StatoilHydro aims to be a leading company in quantitative integration of 4D data in reservoir modelling in order to meet challenges in the most complex reservoirs.
Offshore Norway, exploration activity over the last couple of years has reached record-breaking levels, leading to many discoveries, but few of any size. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, however, believes that large discoveries can still be made in areas of the shelf that have not been extensively explored.
As Iraq's political and security situation gradually becomes more stable and safer, the country's rich oil and gas resources will increasingly draw the attention of international oil companies. This article evaluates the geological inventory of Iraq's oil and gas fields, linking the progress and problems of the past to the prospects of the future.
William E. Galloway, Institute for Geophysics, The University of Texas at Austin
The Gulf of Mexico Basin has proved to be a highly successful hydrocarbon province, and the vast untapped volume of both oil and gas ensures that the basin will continue as a major player for decades to come.
Recent tests in the Arctic permafrost clearly demonstrates that gas hydrates can be produced using current technologies, opening the door for a new, viable energy source.
With more than 2 billion barrels of oil to be recovered, StatoilHydro has a huge resource to tap into in the Alberta oil sands, which may last into the second half of this century.
