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- Volume 16, Issue 9, 1998
First Break - Volume 16, Issue 9, 1998
Volume 16, Issue 9, 1998
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Is BP Amoco only the beginning of global realignment in the oil industry?
By A. McBarnetThe mega merger announced in August between BP and Amoco seems to make perfect sense but does it harbinger further consolidation? Andrew McBarnet reports. No one predicted it, but the outcome has a resounding logic which begs the question as to whether other companies will follow suit. When it was announced on 11 August, the BP move to effectively take over Amoco was greeted with almost unadulterated praise with about the only dissenting voice coming from the Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio worried about the effect on jobs in his neck of the woods. The deal, which is not regarded as a problem for regulators in either the US or Europe, will create a company with a combined market capitalization variously estimated between $110 and $125 billion. Whatever the figure, it is believed to be the largest ever industrial merger which in the process turns BP into Britainís largest company. BP is buying Amoco for $49 billion (in stock) which overtakes the pending $40.5 billion purchase (in stock) of the Chrysler Corporation by Daimler-Benz. What the two deals have in common, however, is a European giant flexing its muscles in the USA.
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From Egypt to Oxford: the making of an oil academic
By A. McBarnetSurrounded by the Oxford college environment, Robert Mabro has spent over 25 years delivering a commentary on the politics and economics of oil with particular emphasis on the Middle East. Andrew McBarnet met him recently. Robert Mabro, founder and longtime director of the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies (OIES), sits at his desk with the wine list of St Anthony's College, Oxford in front of him. 'After 29 years,' he sighs, 'they decided I am fit to become the wine fellow, something I wanted to be at the beginning.' The catch, however, is that there is a move at the college, where he has been a fellow since 1969, to close the cellar in favour of a student computer area. Disarmingly Mabro chuckles, 'It's because I am an outsider - I'll get all the flak, not some true Brit.'
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Moving to a layered impedance cube: advantages of 3D stratigraphic inversion
Authors P. Duboz, Y. Lafet and D. MougenotThree case studies demonstrate the benefits of using a layered impedance cube, instead of the conventional seismic volume, for performing 3D interpretation and reservoir characterization. To compute this cube, a 3D inversion program using a global optimization approach was implemented. From a sparsely parameterized initial model, this program updates both time and impedance values. The result is an automatic tracking of all strata in the seismic cube allowing the layer-bylayer display of consistent impedance values. Another advantage of the program is a strong enhancement of the vertical resolution of the seismic down to several metres, a scale which is closer to the reservoir layering. Moving from seismic amplitude to acoustic impedance Stratigraphic interpretation of 3D seismic data is usually performed on a migrated volume with limited resolution, which is due to the length of the seismic wavelet. When picking reflectors, geophysicists interpret interface geometry. The corresponding amplitude variations depend on impedance contrasts and thin layer interferences, and they are not suitable for interpolating reservoir properties on a layer-by-layer basis (Fig. 1). After appropriate preserved amplitude processing and zerophasing, the seismic volume should depict the true reflectivity of the subsurface, and it can be used to compute an impedance cube by means of poststack stratigraphic inversion. Due to the limited bandpass of the seismic, it is necessary to constrain this inversion by introducing the low-frequency variations. This a priori information allows impedance traces to be computed which tie with the absolute acoustic logs at the well locations. Different methodologies have been proposed by the industry to perform such stratigraphic inversion (Fig. 2). We present here a program, which uses a 3D multichannel algorithm, based on a global optimization technique, and which works iteratively to derive a layered impedance cube from a sparsely parameterized initial model (Gluck et al. 1996). This layering conforms to the stratification, and its vertical resolution is strongly improved with respect to the length of the seismic wavelet.
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Volumes & issues
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Volume 42 (2024)
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Volume 41 (2023)
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Volume 40 (2022)
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Volume 39 (2021)
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Volume 38 (2020)
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Volume 37 (2019)
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Volume 36 (2018)
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Volume 35 (2017)
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Volume 34 (2016)
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Volume 33 (2015)
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Volume 32 (2014)
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Volume 31 (2013)
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Volume 30 (2012)
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Volume 29 (2011)
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Volume 28 (2010)
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Volume 27 (2009)
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Volume 26 (2008)
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Volume 25 (2007)
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Volume 24 (2006)
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Volume 23 (2005)
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Volume 22 (2004)
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Volume 21 (2003)
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Volume 20 (2002)
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Volume 19 (2001)
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Volume 18 (2000)
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Volume 17 (1999)
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Volume 16 (1998)
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Volume 15 (1997)
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Volume 14 (1996)
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Volume 13 (1995)
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Volume 12 (1994)
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Volume 11 (1993)
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Volume 10 (1992)
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Volume 9 (1991)
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Volume 8 (1990)
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Volume 7 (1989)
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Volume 6 (1988)
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Volume 5 (1987)
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Volume 4 (1986)
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Volume 3 (1985)
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Volume 2 (1984)
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Volume 1 (1983)