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- Volume 25, Issue 1, 2007
First Break - Volume 25, Issue 1, 2007
Volume 25, Issue 1, 2007
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Upstream boom likely to frustrate North Sea investment opportunities
By H. WestwoodEstablished UK oil and gas consultancy Hannon Westwood* has just published its forecast for the UK offshore sector in 2007 in which it predicts lack of available equipment and resources could frustrate those companies hoping for a quick turnaround in their investments in North Sea prospects. When we look at the UKCS over the past three years or so, we can see a new story unfolding, with large scale acreage releases by the DTI, the doubling in the number of acreage owners, and the creation of well activity unseen since the early 1990s, all taking place within an environment of a worldwide increase in rig rates and the tightening of rig supply. In addition, we are seeing the emergence in the UK of new forms of longer-term finance for smaller or independent companies.
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Time to take prospect generation to the next level
By M. MikulisMarisé Mikulis, energy industry manager, Microsoft, presents the case that, with available technology and innovation, geoscientists can improve their prospect generation by optimizing their workflows and collaboration with colleagues. It’s difficult to imagine that many geologists and geophysicists now in their 60s were trained before the now widely accepted theory of plate tectonics theory. Why? The notion was only proposed and defended in the 1960s. Similarly many interpreters in their 50s were trained before the now widely accepted method of seeking ‘bright spot’ signals. Why? The technique was only proposed and defended in the late 1970s. These examples are only two in a remarkable legacy and culture of innovation the oil and gas industry is built upon. The people who pioneered these innovations, in fact, contributed not just one, but two things. Besides expanding our methods of interpretation, they also expanded our methods of discovery. One might argue that novelty and innovation in discovery method is really a prerequisite for innovation in interpretation. Plate tectonics and bright spots are two examples of innovation being as much a part of the industry’s DNA as it is in space programmes or genome projects.
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Change of CDA strategy aligns data management with business needs
Authors M. Fleming and R. JohnstonMalcolm Fleming, chief executive, Common Data Access (CDA) and Rick Johnston, National Data Centre solution champion, Schlumberger, discuss the recent change in the management of the UK’s major offshore data storage system. Successful data management is not a static goal that is achieved, checked-off and forgotten. Business needs evolve and change, demanding growth and evolution from data management systems. Technological innovations make commonplace what was near impossible only a few years previously. Business organizations must embrace these changes and be ready to do what is necessary to take data management to the next level, to align the systems with the business needs, for maximum ROI and competitive advantage. Getting to the next level of data management sometimes requires bold moves, for example, changing service providers to move from a legacy system to leading edge technology. To the outside observer, this type of bold move may seem less than wise. But if you’ve done your homework, have a process for system evaluation, a vision of where you need to be, a plan on how to get there, and reliable technology on which to develop the system, the bold moves can pay off big and quickly.
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Huygens’ high definition PSTM technique promises improved resolution of seismic data
By B. KampsBill Kamps,* Tsunami Development, describes new work which allows interpreters to achieve better resolution images from migration of standard seismic datasets. Interpreters of seismic datasets are always looking for greater resolution and higher frequencies. It often happens that they zoom into the data further than the dataset can accommodate. When they do this, they wind up looking at either a fragment of a seismic wavelet, or some very coarse, pixilated view of the geology. It seems interpreters want as much resolution as the dataset will allow. We now have the ability to provide greater resolution, higher frequency images from the same input datasets. This will provide far more information to interpreters and geologists particularly in those areas of interest where productive wells may be drilled. Using patented technology developed by N.S. Neidell & Associates, we can increase the frequency content and the resolution of the migrated seismic dataset dramatically.
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Exploring exploration: new paradigms
More LessWell known for his hydrocarbons research work in Western Siberia, Professor Nikolay P. Zapivalov, Institute of Petroleum Geology, Novosibirsk, Russia, used the occasion of the biannual conference of India’s Association of Petroleum Geologists (APG) conference (held in Goa last September) to challenge some traditional theories about the origins of oil and gas and how it should be explored. We publish this edited version of his address. The American petroleum journal AAPG Explorer once asked the question: What finds oil? The answers were varied, but many professionals responded with ‘ideas’. In fact, ideas, belief, and intuition all have significant value in oil and gas science and exploration, and along with professional knowledge, are the key factors in investigations. However, in recent years, it has become clear that we need a crop of new ideas which can be transformed into fresh technologies.
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Structure of the Sea of Galilee and Kinarot Valley derived from combined geological geophysical analysis
Authors L.V. Eppelbaum, Z. Ben-Avraham and Y. KatzThe Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) is located in northern Israel in an area of complex tectonic setting where the Dead Sea Fault (DSF) (Figure 1) crosscuts other fault systems. This transform is more than 1000 km long, and is a plate boundary separating the Sinai and Arabian plates (Garfunkel et al., 1981). This lake is located with a larger Kinneret - Bet Shean basin which is a part of a series of rhomb-shaped grabens (pull apart basins) along the DSF (Freund et al., 1970). The lake is the main source of fresh water in Israel with an average surface of 166 km2 and an average volume of 4·109m3. Maximal depths of the lake (about 50 m) are located in the NE part of the basin (Figure 1C). The present configuration of Lake Kinneret was formed about 24,000 years ago (Hazan et al.,, 2005). Geological studies indicate that rock outcrops in this area and rock samples discovered in wells surrounding the lake range from Jurassic to Quaternary.
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Petroleum industry and renewables
Authors P. Corbett, S. Kerr, B. Richards, J. Side and D. DaviesIn this paper, we review activity by the large petroleum majors in the renewables sector. Oil companies have traditionally invested in other energy sectors (e.g., coal, nuclear) but in recent years the trend has been to concentrate on the petroleum sector. The low price of oil throughout the last decade of the 20th century limited the scope for speculative investments outside the core oil and gas business. Most majors sold off other ventures, although there were some notable long term investors in solar. As we enter the new century certain major oil and gas companies are once again investing in alternative energy to become broader ‘energy’ companies. This trend is the result of greater awareness of future energy demand, greater pressure and incentives to reduce emissions in their own operations, and the promotion of social responsibility and other general sustainability issues.
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Computer science for geophysicists. Part I: elements of a seismic data processing system
By L. HattonOf the many subjects of interest to the practising geophysicist, that of computer science is at the same time one of the most important and one of the least well understood. This article is the first in what will be a series talking about computer science and its relevance to exploration geophysics. The material in this article is extracted from a series of lectures on computer science which form a smaIl part of the M.Sc. course in Petroleum Seismology at Oxford University. It is common to find geophysical programming considered as a ‘black art’, amongst both geophysical programmers and the geophysical users of their products. One of the main reasons for this is that the demands of seismic data processing have traditionally pushed computer technology to its limits. At any stage in the last twenty years there have always been a number of processes which we could apply to the data but could never afford. Nothing has changed. Algorithmically, we know how to do fuIl three-dimensional depth migration before stack, but it would take the world’s most powerful computers many years to do it. (I must confess, however, that our knowledge of the necessary velocities might be a bit shaky.) Even something as mundane as demultiplexing can induce early retirement in a computer centre manager if the tapes concerned happen to be uncorrelated, thirty-odd second sweep, 2 msec Vibroseis at 6250 fpi (more on these arcane subjects later). These difficulties in implementing geophysical techniques have unfortunately tended to breed the computer ‘guru’ who by dint of erudite and obscure solutions, manages to get them to work. Such solutions tend to be extremely difficult either to maintain (correct errors), or enhance (add new functionality). Hence, each time the computer hardware laboriously (and temporarily) catches up, the whole lot often has to be re-written.
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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)