What's New in Exploration

The way forward in exploration may be by looking back, past 1986. We have seen exploration’s troubles coming for a long, long time. The big news about WesternGeco, aka Schlumberger, folding and a desired asset sale is unfortunate, but not a surprise. Western long ago gave up its land seismic business. What was a surprise was Big Blue getting them back into it. 

Western Geophysical was founded in 1933 by Henry Salvatori. He sold to Litton Industries. In turn, Litton and Dresser Industries formed a JV, Western Atlas, which was spun off in 1994. Western purchased Halliburton Geophysical Services—made up from my old alma mater, Geophysical Service Incorporated [GSI]—Geosource and many others that were collected from the 1960s and 1970s. Western Atlas was then acquired by Baker Hughes. The merry-go-round continued, when Western Geophysical became part of a JV between Baker Hughes and Schlumberger, called WesternGeco, in 2000. Obviously, these were efforts at chasing operating capital over time.

Down the ancestry of Geco [Geophysical Company of Norway] there was Geoteam-Computas Ltd. Geco merged with Statex, a subsidiary of Statoil, and Kongsberg. Schlumberger purchased the entire company in 1986. Then, it was merged with Merlin Geophysical. Mergers continued, absorbing Delft Geophysical; my personal favorite seismic contractor, Prakla-Seismos; and Seismograph Services [SSC]. Geco-Prakla was shoehorned into a JV with Western Geophysical, then part of Baker Hughes. Schlumberger retained 70% ownership in the venture; Baker Hughes owned the remaining 30%. Schlumberger acquired Baker’s interest for a reported, mere $2.4 billion.

Today, not even government-controlled oil giants want to join into a bail-out of seismic contractors. So how do people plan to cope with the continued downturn, a downturn caused by shale and an endless race to save money on minimal-tech approaches, thus low-balling all geo services? Here are some examples:

1. Offshore? Jump into the bargain basement with still-technical companies, but supported by new NOC funding, i.e., Chinese funding [BGP- subsidiary of Chinese National Petroleum Cooperation (CNPC); COSL-China Oilfield Services]. Onshore? Use smart-sweat companies like Dawson and Geokinetics? 

2. Work with even fewer people, but use high tech, such as AI tools. “BP’s powerful computer finds oil reserves in Gulf of Mexico. BP said its supercomputer….finds oil reserves....makes images of underground layers and analyzes seismic data, and has identified about 1 Bbbl of oil at BP projects in the Gulf of Mexico,” Houston Chronicle, Dec. 15, 2017. Did robots take over BP? Of course, the Chronicle story was not written by a geophysicist, and no, the computer did not act alone, nor could it “see” underground anywhere. The computer is only a tool to create an image of digital input that is useful for calculating a series of what-if analyses. BP, however, does make a point about the direction in which we are trending, in information management and interpretation. Machines after all, do not pay income taxes, require workman’s compensation, create personal liability, or want maternity leave. 

Modern folks know that someone wrote a program and coded it, and that it does something and then returns results to a human interface, not the human. Younger people call those “Apps.” I am elated that I no longer write routines, read Octal, handle Base 2 paper tapes, or type FORTRAN cards to pretend I am calculating an integral using a finite difference iterative method. DOS was not my friend, and a 512 Kernel was not [and is not] the best way to talk to a binary language “Brain.” Thank you, redhat.

3. Concentrate on improving reservoirs–Hope for the reservoir analyst? Rob Stewart, geophysics professor at the University of Houston, has been using the 3D printer for seismic reservoir evaluation for some years. The way a 3D printer constructs an object, regularized lines of “glue” in a micro-lattice, is useful to model seismic responses to various porosity and permeability scenarios. Petrophysicists are now using 3D printing in detailed pre-modeling of nanno-parameters in reservoir porosity simulations and flow predictions. Simulation analog science has come full circle from descriptive rock “licking” to 2D color screen simulations of 2D and 3D layered rock, back to physical 3D objects that look solid but are not, nor are they tasty. Yes, 3D printers work for simulation of larger, mm-sized objects, but what about nanno? 

Sergey Ishutov and Frankciszek Hasiuk have been working on the nanno-perm problem. Could this be the “missing link” that we have longed for in translating remote sensing, mega-macro approximations of perm from about every parameter but perm, to actual rock mechanics phenom? The 3D printings’ use of regularized rectangle shapes of tiny straight lines creates a homogeneous distribution of interconnected holes that we can call pores. 

Berea sandstone has particles of about 20–40 micro-m, 19%-to-20% porosity, and measures 60–100 milli-darcies. A 3D printer can build 132 micro-m “lines,” with a standard deviation of 35 micro-m across gaps, therefore, serving as a near-real-life proxy. That information can calibrate common well logs with 8-in. resolution or seismic at 20 feet of vertical control—Petrophysics, Vol. 58, No. 6, December 2017, p. 592.

4. Focus on environmental, geotech and groundwater issues. What if you do not want to leave traditional oil and gas exploration? Then you have fewer choices. Most explorationist folks that I know, who are older than 49, have started their own prospecting/evaluation companies and work the difficult small-investor crowds. This year’s NAPE Winter Expo appeared larger than either of the recent annual SEG or SPE meetings!

About the Authors

William (Bill) Head

Contributing Editor

William (Bill) Head is a technologist with over 40 years of experience in U.S. and international exploration.