What's new in exploration

	Vol. 224 No. 12
PERRY A. FISCHER, EDITOR

SEG shows off. This year’s Society of Exploration Geophysicists International Exhibition and Seventy-Third Annual Meeting was held in Dallas, Texas. The show kicked off with the TLE Forum, which was packed with nearly 1,000 people attending. It’s amazing the interest that six head honchos can attract. Speaker Peter Gaffney, former SPE president and international consultant, said, “There is not a lack of real estate for exploring. Half of the world’s exploration areas have become available in the last 10 – 12 years.... We’ve discovered about half of what we will ultimately produce.” Dalton Boutte, president of WesternGeco, said that one of the major challenges for the seismic industry is to have 4D results available in days, not weeks or months. He also showed data indicating that the percentage of R&D spending by oil companies continues to shift toward service companies. The other speakers were Steven Farris, president and CEO of Apache Corp.; Peter Rose, Rose & Associates; Raoul Restucci, CEO of Shell E&P Americas; and John Gibson, president and CEO of Halliburton Energy Services Group.

Each speaker gave a good presentation on what they knew best, which, in some cases, was their companies. John Gibson was a noteworthy exception. He was an engaging speaker who, without any slides or props, spoke about sustainable development, as he has been doing a lot of in recent months. Gibson made a persuasive case that sustainable development issues should be embraced by everyone in our industry, even if only for their business value. (I agree, which is one of the reasons it’s featured annually in this issue of World Oil. See “Editorial Comment”.)

Aside from the usual excellent technical presentations and overall good organization of the meeting, the number of attendees – especially the ones most important to exhibitors – were again lackluster. There were 6,620 attendees. Probably less than a third of those attendees were of prime importance to exhibitors – potential clients. While not as paltry as AAPG’s and SEG’s attendance was at their last meetings in Salt Lake City, these numbers are still less than what is needed on an ongoing basis for exhibitors.

Dave Robson, Chairman and CEO of Veritas, questioned the value of so many oilfield shows in an editorial in the company’s Observer  magazine. And International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC) chairman Jon Miller let the societies know, in a no-holds-barred editorial in the October issue of The Leading Edge, exactly what its members wanted, paraphrased here:

SEG and IAGC membership overlap in annual meetings and exhibitions. IAGC’s members are the largest financial supporters of the Annual Meeting, deriving from booth space, registration fees and advertising. Its members feel they are receiving decreasing value from their participation in the Annual Meeting due to less participation by key E&P company decision makers. Worse, a large number of regional programs have been added to the SEG, AAPG, SPE and EAGE meetings and exhibitions. It is no longer economically viable for the IAGC membership to support all these events. IAGC wants a decrease in the technical program on purely exploration issues and an increase in cross-discipline and business-focus presentations that address new technologies and commercial successes in field development and production. Finally, IAGC wants SEG to work with other organizations such as AAPG, SPE and EAGE to reduce the overall number of annual meetings and exhibitions. As our industry has consolidated, our professional societies must adjust as well. As a start, rotate the SEG Annual Meeting between Houston, New Orleans and perhaps San Antonio. IAGC wants SEG to combine its Annual Meeting with those of other professional societies, particularly AAPG. As soon as planning allows, IAGC further urges SEG to replace every other SEG Annual Meeting with a combined SEG/EAGE event in Europe.

Some sort of editorial gumption award should go to the TLE board for allowing this issue to be aired in print. The amount of money that is at stake for the society is considerable, and this editor has been privately told that at least a few major exhibitors will abstain from attending some shows if nothing is done. SEG’s newly elected president, Peter Duncan, has promised a response in the November issue of The Leading Edge.

Big discoveries just keep coming. ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) and Sonangol made two deepwater oil discoveries, Kakocha and Tchihumba, the 15th and 16th oil finds on the prolific Angola Block 15. Kakocha-1 was drilled in 3,376 ft of water to a TD of 9,140 ft. The exploration well tested 4,500 bopd. Tchihumba-1 was drilled in 3,904 ft of water to a TD of 13,684 ft and tested 7,470 bopd.

In the last four years, Esso and partners have made 14 discoveries in Block 15. Together with previous discoveries on Blocks 17, 31 and 32, these bring the company's Angolan resource base to more than 10.5 billion boe (gross). Block 15 alone has the potential to recover more than 4 billion boe (gross). In addition to Esso (operator, 40%), other participants in Block 15 are BP Exploration (Angola); Eni Angola Exploration B.V. and Statoil Angola. Sonangol is the concessionaire.

   Woodside’s C-4-6 Tiof exploration well offshore Mauritania has been completed and the well is being suspended (P&A’d) with the status of being a significant new oil and gas discovery. Wireline logs confirmed a minimum hydrocarbon column of 288-ft thickness, with an overall net reservoir sand ratio of about 45%.

The well is in 3,540-ft waters, about 16 mi north of Chinguetti field, 56-mi west of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. Tiof prospect is associated with a salt diapir and has about 50 sq km of closure, about four times larger than at Chinguetti. Participants in the Tiof well and PSC Area B are Woodside Mauritania Pty Ltd (operator); AGIP Mauritania BV; Hardman Resources; Fusion Mauritania; and Roc Oil (Mauritania) Co. Partner Hardman estimates the field might hold over 200 million bbl of recoverable oil, but the true size of the discovery will only be determined by further drilling. 

   BHP Billiton drilled its first appraisal on Shenzi field, discovered last year on Green Canyon Block 653 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Shenzi-2 is in 4,238 ft of water and was drilled to a 25,500-ft TD, encountering about 500-ft of net oil pay in a 1,250-ft gross hydrocarbon column of lower Miocene reservoir sandstones. The discovery is along the same geologic trend as Mad Dog, Atlantis and Neptune fields. BHP Billiton has partners Amerada Hess and BP on the field.