What's new in exploration

	Vol. 224 No. 1
PERRY A. FISCHER, EDITOR

 How fast is it? Much of life is getting used to things you know nothing about. Gravity is one of those things: It keeps you grounded. You think you know what it is, but if asked, you actually know nothing about it at all. It seems to be an attribute of matter, such that all matter is attracted to all other matter. We often use it in hydrocarbon exploration but in that same ignorant vein of knowing how to use it without knowing what it is. We have labeled it one of the four fundamental forces in nature (the weak and strong nuclear forces and electromagnetism being the others), and we know that it can act at a great distance. And that's about it.

 We don't even know for certain that it is a propagating force, that is, that it travels at a finite speed, although we assume that to be the case. Dr. Sergei Kopeikin at the University of Missouri had an idea to measure the speed of gravity: find a large, nearby celestial object, such as Jupiter, that will graze (nearly occult) a distant object, such as a quasar. It happens that such an event occurs about every decade or so, and it happened again on September 8^th.

 A team of scientists, put together by Dr. Ed Fomalont at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia, was waiting. 

 Eleven radio telescopes stretching from Germany to Hawaii form the Very Long Baseline Array. It was used to continually record the position of the quasar before, during and after the event. As Jupiter grazed the quasar, its gravity should have caused the quasar to appear to deflect. The amount and timing of the deflection should allow a direct measurement of the speed of gravity for the first time.

 I spoke with Dr. Kopeikin to see how the experiment went. His answer: muddled. It seems that several factors have combined to smear the data. Only one frequency was used for positioning and Jupiter's magnetosphere could be an interfering factor, among other things, all of which have increased the uncertainty in the measurement. I asked how confident he was about eventually obtaining good results. “About 90% sure,” he replied. “But it may take well into January or later – colleagues have to be convinced. At least we are certain that the speed of gravity is not infinite,” he added.

 According to Einstein, gravity should travel at the same speed as light, and nothing – not even information – can travel faster. The real problem with muddled results is that even if the data ultimately lean toward a speed of gravity different from that of light, the scientists would necessarily have to discount such extraordinary heresy. At least for now. Be on the lookout for the results early in 2003.

 Nano-oil. ChevronTexaco researchers have discovered a new class of molecular structure called higher diamondoids. Small diamondoids – hydrocarbon molecules with a three-dimensional structure whose carbon framework constitutes the fundamental unit of a diamond lattice – were first synthesized in the 1950s. However, synthetic methods to produce higher diamondoids have always failed.

 Diamondoids have been found in deep Gulf Coast reservoirs such as the Norphlet and Smackover formations. They have also been reported in dry gases and condensates in deep reservoirs in Canada and Russia. So far, they are most often found in reservoirs at temperatures above 390°F. Higher diamondoids (C22 and higher) begin with four crystal cages of the diamond lattice and have recently been produced with up to 11 crystal cages, which is essentially a diamond weighing less than a billionth of a billionth of a carat.

 ChevronTexaco is the first to isolate these higher diamondoids from oil. It hopes to one day produce nanometer-sized gears, motors and various devices and structures that are assembled at the molecular scale. The potential benefits are enormous, which is why it is being funded at more than $2 billion by U.S. and international governments (cumulatively), with additional money from industry.

 Diamondoids have superb characteristics for use in the rapidly evolving field of nanotechnology: rigidity, durability, multiple shapes and the potential for precise self-assembly. In addition, higher diamondoids can be polymerized to create specialty materials and can be modified to vary their electrical and other properties. The commercial potential of these diamondoids led ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures to form a new business unit, MolecularDiamond Technologies, which will make small quantities of proprietary higher diamondoid materials commercially available for R&D uses by mid-2003.

 Big discoveries. Shell and Petrobrás have independently made additional discoveries in Campos basin, offshore Brazil. Shell's 1-Shell-11-ESS was drilled by the semi Stena Tay in 6,740-ft of water and contains a minimum 150 million bbl of 20° – 24° oil. It's the sixth find for Shell on Block BC10, which cumulatively represents 480 million bbl of reserves.

    Petrobras struck 300 million bbl in heavy oil reserves on Block BC60, drilling in 4,900 ft of water. The discovery is about 6 mi from the company's 600-million bbl Jubarte field, located on the same block.

    TotalFinaElf added its 17^th discovery on the extremely prolific Angola Block 17 with well Zina-1. It was drilled by the Pride Angola and is undergoing production testing. All other information is being held tight.

    Apache made its fourth consecutive deepwater discovery in its West Mediterranean Concession offshore Egypt. Indications are that the El King-1X found possible reserves in the Tcf range, but the company would not be more specific. More important, the gas was rich, and various tests in intervals comprising several hundred feet of oil and gas columns yielded up to 2,600 bpd of 32° oil and 31 MMcfgd constrained. 

 Multi-multi-component. The U.S. DOE has begun a new advanced technology project to explore stratigraphic traps using nine component (9C) seismic acquisition. 9C is really 3C with a twist. A simple explanation: The sources are polarized into x, y and z components, then each of these is mapped into x, y and z-sensitive receivers; thus, three components into three receivers equals nine components.

 The Rocky Mountain Region project is co-funded with Vecta Exploration and its subcontractor, the Exploration Geophysics Lab at the Bureau of Economic Geology, and will explore for difficult Mission Canyon oolitic limestone reservoirs in the Williston basin of the Rocky Mountain Region. USGS estimates as much as 22 billion bbl of undiscovered oil in stratigraphic traps in the U.S.