What's happening in exploration
Stop plate tectonics!The University of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics has an ongoing program of research into plate tectonics and geologic reconstructions called Plates. It is supported by a consortium of companies that includes Conoco, Elf, Exxon, Norsk Hydro, Saga and Statoil. Funding for projects comes not only from Plates sponsors but also from the National Science Foundation, Joint Oceanographic Institutions/U.S. Science Advisory Committee, Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities, Shell Oil and others. The project’s main objectives are:
Plates tools are useful to those engaged in hydrocarbon or mineral exploration on global and regional scales. Tectonic reconstructions provide a solid framework on which to build detailed geological models, such as basin response to regional crustal motion, likely sequences of depositional paleoenvironment, or probable geothermal consequences of plate position or movement. The project’s databases and software system allow users to produce plate recontructions from present-day back to the Paleozoic and older. Plates 4.1 is an interactive, 3-D graphics, plate-reconstruction, UNIX-based program. The program displays a globe with digital geographic data. The user can interactively manipulate the globe and the data, obtaining Euler poles of rotation for the various plates displayed. The software has the ability to animate or stop plate motion from the Late Precambrian through the present. The project maintains an extensive, global, digital database that includes information on coastlines, continent-ocean boundaries, marine magnetic anomalies and fracture zones, bathymetry, basin outlines and large igneous provinces. It continually adds new paleomagnetic, hot spot, geological and geophysical data to extend the span and accuracy of global plate reconstructions. The project also maintains a series of bibliographies, in electronic format, specializing in such regions as East / Southeast Asia (3,600+ references) and the Caribbean (4,700+ references). To join the project costs $30,000 for the first year and $20,000 for subsequent years. Among many other things, sponsors receive access to 240 Plates progress reports, 83 publications, 5 animations (for cost of reproduction), as well as all new progress reports, bibliographies and reprints of publications, distributed semi-annually. Sponsors also get the most recent Plates software and digital databases on tape or CD-ROM. For more information, contact Lisa Gahagan at: plates@utig.ig.utexas.edu or 512/471-0488. Who invented 3-D seismic? Exxon was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award from SEG for inventing and developing 3-D seismic. The award has been presented only 10 times in the Society’s 69-year history, and Exxon is the first oil company to receive it. SEG considers 3-D seismic to be the most important geophysical innovation in the past 30 years. Surprisingly, Exxon began research on the subject 36 years ago. After seven years of R&D, the 3-D seismic method was presented at SEG’s 1970 annual meeting. The company also pioneered massively parallel processing for computing seismic data. Today, Exxon routinely images complex structures such as subsalt plays using its proprietary 3-D prestack depth migration software. It is one of a dwindling number of oil companies that still conducts major E&P research. Commercializing space. The Ikokos satellite, owned by Space Imaging of Thornton, Colorado, is described as having unprecented resolution (1 meter) for a non-military satellite. It was launched on September 24 on a Lockheed Martin Athena II rocket. Images just became available for sale at prices ranging from $30 to $600 per sq. mi. A minimum order of $1,000 is required. And if James Benson has his way, some of you will be prospecting for minerals on asteroids. At least that’s the vision Benson has for Spacedev, a commercial space-science provider. The company plans to outperform NASA’s "faster, better, cheaper" motto. This is a serious company. Formed two years ago, SpaceDev claims to be the world’s first commercial space exploration and development company. It recently won a $5 million contract from the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, to design, build, integrate, test and operate a microspacecraft that will conduct a one-year astronomy mission in low Earth orbit. Among the many missions planned (moon, comets, various planets), the one that brought the company to this editor’s attention was asteroid exploration. The few asteroids that are extremely rich in precious metals comprise the Holy Grail of minerals. When found on Earth, these meteorites command top dollar for their rarity and beauty, but a mountain-sized asteroid of precious metals brings out the greed in all prospectors. Check out www.spacedev.com for more information. 4C gains support. Relatively
new offshore, 4C OBC has usually been done as 2-D, or when 3-D is used, it is often shot
just over the reservoir. Schlumberger and Seitel have formed the 4Sight
alliance to shoot what it claims is the largest multi-component seismic program to date.
Sufficient pre-funding will enable the initial phase – some 35 blocks in the West
Cameron area – to begin shooting this month. A second phase will commence in mid-2000.
Ultimately, the alliance will undertake 444 blocks in nine Gulf of Mexico areas.
Copyright © 1999 World
Oil |
- Applying ultra-deep LWD resistivity technology successfully in a SAGD operation (May 2019)
- Adoption of wireless intelligent completions advances (May 2019)
- Majors double down as takeaway crunch eases (April 2019)
- What’s new in well logging and formation evaluation (April 2019)
- Qualification of a 20,000-psi subsea BOP: A collaborative approach (February 2019)
- ConocoPhillips’ Greg Leveille sees rapid trajectory of technical advancement continuing (February 2019)
