4 | Halliburton Landmark
Exploration Insights | 5
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Figure 1 > Global reserve replacement ratios for conventional oil and gas, calculated as the difference between yearly production and
discovered reserves, and expressed as a percentage. (Source: Rystad Energy, UCube, version 2019-08-07)
TRADITIONAL SCREENING
resources to use this digital revolution to its full
advantage.
Screening is a commonplace workflow in
which areas are assessed for their hydrocarbon
potential across a range of scales. At a global
scale, the geology of basins may be analyzed
to estimate yet-to-finds and recoverable
resources. These estimates are then considered
alongside additional economic and political
factors. At the regional to basin scale, the goal
is typically to high-grade the most prospective
areas for particular plays, often in relation to an
upcoming licensing round. The main objective
in any scenario is to assess the balance
between the potential for economic discoveries
and exploration risk, prior to making further
investment decisions.
The combined challenges of undertaking frontier
exploration with reduced resources and ever-
increasing volumes of data speak to a need
for faster, better-integrated, and more rigorous
screening of exploration opportunities. This
article explores how cloud-hosted geoprocessing
technologies can be applied to typical, early-
stage exploration screening workflows,
enabling geoscientists to assimilate and upscale
geological content rapidly, to answer key
exploration questions. These efficiencies allow
geoscientists to test numerous play concepts
or consider many scenarios with the click of a
button. By removing laborious data collection and
processing from a geoscientist’s workload, more
time can be spent understanding key risks and
making better-informed decisions.
A typical exploration screening workflow for a
region or a basin can take weeks or months for
a geoscientist to complete. Initially, a significant
proportion of time is spent collating and
assimilating data into a common framework, so
that it can be interpreted. This process is often
complicated by the varying formats in which
both proprietary and vendor datasets are stored.
Once collection and assimilation are complete,
data are loaded into a desktop GIS (Geographic
Information System) or spatial ETL (Extract,
Transform and Load) software package, which
allows the geoscientist to utilize geoprocessing
tools and algorithms to map the extent of
petroleum system elements and assess their
effectiveness against a depth framework.
Finally, a series of common chance maps are
constructed to assess total play potential and
highlight key exploration risks (Figure 2).
?
Collect and
interrogate data
Manually edit input
maps
Process and stack
input maps
Add vendor and
proprietary data
Manually assess
presence and
effectiveness
Single Play CCM
Output
Weeks
Figure 2 > Traditional screening workflow performed by geoscientists to determine the hydrocarbon potential of a region. (CCM= Common Change Map).
As global exploration begins to recover from
one of the deepest downturns in history,
explorers are facing significant challenges in the
landscape it has left behind. Firstly, discovered
volumes reached historic lows during the
downturn, with many companies failing to
replace their produced volumes for several
consecutive years (Figure 1). To address this
deficit, exploration must regain confidence and
venture back into frontier regions. However,
such basins continue to be high-risk and,
understandably, many companies remain
cautious. Secondly, in regions that have yielded
disappointing results to date, the pressure is
on to identify creative new play concepts in
order to revitalize exploration. Finally, while the
ongoing digitalization of the industry is providing
more data than ever before, exploration teams
remain reduced in size and often lack the
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Source: Rystad Energy Ucube, version 2019_08_07
Image https://www.flickr.com/photos/159124985@N05/37845654022
Wallace Pratt, 1952
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0
By: Marcus Wiltshire and Mike Treloar
“Where oil is first found, in the final analysis, is
in the minds of men. The undiscovered oil field
exists only as an idea in the mind of some oil-
finder. When no man any longer believes more
oil is left to be found, no more oil fields will be
discovered, but so long as a single oil-finder
remains with a mental vision of a new oil field
to cherish, along with freedom and incentive to
explore, just so long new oil fields may continue
to be discovered.”
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The Impact of
Cloud-hosted
Technologies on
Global to Basin
Screening