Dr Graeme Bethune

Local government “out of its depth” opposing oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight

Posted by

Independent energy consultant Dr Graeme Bethune, CEO EnergyQuest, contributed this article on exploration in the Great Australian Bight It’s ironic SA’s local government is being manipulated to oppose oil exploration in the Great Australian Bight. Councils’ claims, led by Kangaroo Island, include that they express the ‘voice of hundreds of thousands’, drilling threatens tourism, ecosystems will become dysfunctional and regulation will be poor. Local government has fallen...

READ MORE

Equinor toasts its ‘first’ oil discovery at the Utsira High

Posted by

Norwegian multinational energy company Equinor, formerly Statoil, and partners Lundin and Spirit Energy have struck oil in the PL 167 licence at the Utsira High in the North Sea with a discovery estimated to contain 15-35 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalents. The wildcat well 16/1-29S is located in the central part of the North Sea and was drilled by the Deepsea Bergen drilling rig, which is now scheduled for appraisal drilling duties at another nearby well operated by Equinor,...

READ MORE

Polarcus Amani and Samur

Polarcus awarded seismic survey projects in Australia and Europe

Posted by

Melbana Energy has awarded Polarcus the contract to undertake a 3D seismic survey over the Beehive Prospect, which is one of the largest undrilled hydrocarbon structures in Australia. The Beehive 3D Seismic Survey is being operated by Australian energy company Santos pursuant to an operations services agreement and is fully funded by French major Total and Santos. Melbana Energy said the Beehive 3D survey is expected to be commenced in July and completed before the end of August...

READ MORE

CGG Adds Two New Surveys to Anadarko Basin Coverage

Posted by

CGG has completed acquisition of its Chickasha 3D survey in Grady and Caddo Counties, Oklahoma. CGG has also purchased the rights to the Ft. Reno 3D survey in Canadian County, adding to its continuously growing data library. CGG said the addition of these two surveys, along with the company's Yukon survey, "will provide extensive coverage of the Scoop and Stack play in the Anadarko Basin and will provide our clients with greater insight into the geology of the area. "High-end imaging...

READ MORE

Searcher Completes 3D Reprocessing Project in PNG

Posted by

Searcher Seismic has announced the expansion of its modern, high-quality and exploration focused seismic, magnetic and geochemical focused production offerings offshore Papua New Guinea with the completion of the Laurabada UltracubeTM 3D reprocessing project. The Laurabada UltracubeTM project entailed the reprocessing of two open-file 3D datasets with a modern broadband de-ghosting and pre-stack depth migration sequence over what is highly sought-after acreage. The UltracubeTM is split...

READ MORE

Geoscience study sees below the salt to solve exploration challenges in Southwest Africa

Posted by

Surmounting the significant challenges of mapping deep structures below salt with seismic data alone, a new non-seismic study which includes the Gabon to Angola margin, encourages further interest in the largely under-explored Southwest Africa offshore region. The newly-released Southwest Africa Margin SEEBASE® multi-client Study and GIS from Frogtech Geoscience focuses on syn-rift basement evolution highlighting the pre-salt petroleum plays that constitute the main target following the...

READ MORE

Jobs setback for Australian geoscientists as 2018 opening quarter cools after improved 2017

Posted by

The employment recovery amongst Australia’s geoscientists has taken a step backward in the opening quarter of 2018  –  cooling by more than four percent after a full year of improved employment outcomes over calendar 2017. This was the result of an Australian Institute of Geoscience survey revealing that unemployment nationally among geoscientists – who are prominent in the mining and exploration sectors - increased from 7.0% in at the end of December 2017 to 11.1% at the end of...

READ MORE

New Zealand suspension of new offshore licensing ‘unlikely to have immediate impact on oil or gas sector’

Posted by

According to data and analytics company GlobalData, the suspension of new offshore licensing in New Zealand is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the oil or gas sector, but does signal the possibility of increased restrictions in the future. Jacinda Ardern, the newly elected Prime Minister of New Zealand, signaled during an interview in October 2017 that the annual licensing process for offshore blocks would be cancelled, after a review of future block offers by the new...

READ MORE

CGG GeoSoftware Releases PowerLog 9.7.2 Petrophysical Software with Machine Learning Capabilities

Posted by

CGG GeoSoftware has launched PowerLog 9.7.2, the latest version of its flagship petrophysical analysis software. CGG said the new PowerLog ecosystem “offers access to extensive machine learning and deep learning capabilities and many numerical analysis and visualization libraries. Users can now develop custom interpretation modules and workflows, as an example:  to generate permeability models in carbonates, porosity and permeability models in unconventional reservoirs, or model...

READ MORE

Oil and gas industry’s $27 billion boost to Australian business

Posted by

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association has welcomed the release of data that highlights nation-wide benefits flowing from Australia’s oil and gas industry. This follows an APPEA member survey reflecting widespread economic benefits from the sector. “The economic footprint of the oil and gas industry goes far beyond its production wells and eight liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants. Oil and gas is not ‘just’ a resources industry – the industry supports...

READ MORE