Historic drilling and production data can be used to enhance exploration strategies focused on stratigraphic and subtle combination traps.

Despite the much-vaunted emergence of the ‘Celtic Tiger economy’, the Irish offshore has traditionally been perceived as a high-risk, high cost environment. Can the Irish authorities change this perception in the industry?

Renowned palaeontologist and writer Dr. Richard Fortey is the President of the Geological Society in its bicentennial year. Author of five ‘popular’ books about geology, as well as numerous scientific papers, in 2006 he was awarded the prestigious Michael Faraday Prize for science communication.

The past two years’ drilling in the UKCS has provided an average of over 800 MMboe (127 MMm³) in new or fallow appraised discoveries. There is good reasonto believe that this rate of potential reserves additions should continue.

Because I have been around a few years longer than some of the financial advisors I happen to meet, I can easily remember when the oil price went below USD 10 per barrel.

In northern Ireland, at the heart of one of Europe’s most magnificent coastlines, the Giants Causeway with its rugged symmetry is visited by half a million tourists each year. The Causeway consists of an amazing array of massive black basalt columns.

‘This was too good an opportunity to say no to,’ says Rolf Rønningen, CEO of the new seismic company Eastern Echo. The company is building 4 high-end 10 streamer seismic vessels for delivery in 2008 and 2009 with the unique Ulstein XBow® – a design that provides an exceptionally smooth ride through rough sea.

“Both oil companies and seismic companies are increasingly more interested in accurate positioning,” says Peder Solheim, Managing Director at Geograf. “With prospects decreasing in size, and specific reservoir targets in development drilling that are very small, it is of utmost importance to know the exact position of the drilling targets.”

Statoil and North American Oil Sands Corporation (NAOSC) have entered into an agreement whereby Statoil will acquire all shares at a price of about USD 2 billion. Statoil will become operator and get access to large recoverable resources that will add to the company's production in about 4 years time.

The main objective of the european Geoparks is the promotion of sustainable development of their territories in europe. In addition they serve the purpose of protecting geological heritage for the benefit of the next generations.

Both the UK and the Norwegian sector of the North Sea have reached maturity, meaning that most future discoveries will probably be in the small to medium range (i.e. <100 MMboe) and that small, independent oil companies will increase their share of acreage acquisition and drilling.

Most of the sub-basins of the North Sea geological province are now considered to be in a mature exploration phase. The supermajors are consequently on their way out. Thanks to various initiatives in both the Norwegian and UK Sectors, however, the pace of exploration is being kept up by a high number of ambitious small companies.

Reprocessing of several seismic data sets acquired offshore Norway in the 1980’s have demonstrated significant improvements in both resolution and structural imaging. The improvements were gained mainly through more accurate velocity modelling and effective multiple attenuation.

By preserving data and knowledge we can connect current to future generations of geoscientists. But to safeguard your most valuable assets you need some simple rules of thumb.

Reprocessing of several seismic data sets acquired offshore Norway in the 1980’s have demonstrated significant improvements in both resolution and structural imaging. The improvements were gained mainly through more accurate velocity modeling and effective multiple attenuation.

North Sea Renaissance (NSR) is an ongoing long offset 2D seismic program that will total some 85,000 km at the end of this year. The program is acquired with a cable length of 8,000 m, while data processing is optimised for the purpose of deep imaging and AVO capabilities.

The Los Angeles basin is one of the most prolific hydrocarbon basins in the world. This is due to rapid subsidence and deposition of organic-rich source beds next to turbidite reservoir sands that occurred over only a few millions of years.

Despite the much-vaunted emergence of the ‘Celtic Tiger economy’, the Irish offshore has traditionally been perceived as a high-risk, high cost environment. Can the Irish authorities change this perception in the industry?

Can the reported reserves figures of OPEC countries be trusted? And if not, what are the implications of this to government policy and decision making?

Historic drilling and production data can be used to enhance exploration strategies focused on stratigraphic and subtle combination traps.

Renowned palaeontologist and writer Dr. Richard Fortey is the President of the Geological Society in its bicentennial year. Author of five ‘popular' books about geology, as well as numerous scientific papers.