Cross-border petroleum geology in the North Sea: an introduction

The North Sea has entered a phase of infrastructure-led exploration in an attempt to extend the economic lives of the main fields and arrest the overall production decline to a certain extent, while the transition to a future low-carbon use of the basin is also in progress. As the papers in this volume demonstrate, in order to find, appraise and develop the mostly smaller near-field opportunities as well as making sure to grasp the opportunities of the near-future energy transition, a regional understanding of the North Sea is still critical. Even more so, a cross-border approach is essential because 1) some of the plays currently being targeted have a clear cross-border element, 2) it allows the comparison of stratigraphic names throughout the entire basin and 3) it enables explorers to learn lessons from one part of the rift to be applied somewhere else.This volume offers an up-to-date, ‘geology-without-borders’ view of the stratigraphy, sedimentology, tectonics and oil-and-gas exploration trends of the entire North Sea basin. The challenges associated with data continuity and nomenclature differences across median lines are discussed and mitigated. Examples of under-exploited cross-border plays and discoveries are discussed.

Characteristics and influencing factors of Cretaceous reservoir in eastern depression of North Yellow Sea basin

Cretaceous is the key exploration target layer in the eastern depression of North Yellow Sea basin, which has a good prospect for oil and gas exploration. Its huge oil and gas resource potential has attracted great attention from petroleum geologists. In this study, the main rock types, reservoir space types, petrophysical characteristics and main controlling factors of Cretaceous reservoir are studied through core observation, thin section identification, petrophysical analysis and scanning electron microscope observation. The results indicate that the main rock types of Cretaceous reservoir in the eastern depression of North Yellow Sea basin are lithic arkose, feldspar lithic sandstone, some feldspar sandstone and a small amount of lithic sandstone. The average porosity is 6.9%, and the average permeability is 0.46 × 10−3 μm, so Cretaceous reservoir in the study area has poor petrophysical characteristics and belongs to low porosity and low permeability reservoir. Cretaceous reservoirs in the study area mainly develop in secondary pores, which are dominated by dissolution pores (including intragranular pores, intercrystalline pores and cleavage pores), followed by fractures. The main factors affecting petrophysical characteristics of Cretaceous reservoir in the study area are provenance properties, sedimentation, diagenesis (including compaction, cementation and dissolution) and tectonism. The provenance properties and sedimentation are the prerequisite conditions affecting petrophysical characteristics. Petrophysical characteristics of feldspar sandstone of Cretaceous reservoir in the study area and lithic arkose are better than that of feldspar lithic sandstone. Both compaction and cementation reduce the porosity and permeability of Cretaceous reservoir in the study area and make petrophysical characteristics become poor, whereas the dissolution and tectonism play an important role in improving petrophysical characteristics of Cretaceous reservoir.

Improvement of generalization capability of two-dimensional salt segmentation via iterative semi-supervised learning

Accurate interpretations of subsurface salts are vital to oil and gas exploration. Manually interpreting them from seismic depth images, however, is labor-intensive. Consequently, use of deep learning tools such as a convolutional neural network for automatic salt interpretation recently became popular. Because of poor generalization capabilities, interpreting salt boundaries using these tools is difficult when labeled data are available from one geological region and we like to make predictions for other nearby regions with varied geological features. At the same time, due to vast amount of the data involved and the associated computational complexities needed for training, such generalization is necessary for solving practical salt interpretation problems. In this work, we propose a semi-supervised training, which allows the predicted model to iteratively improve as more and more information is distilled from the unlabeled data into the model. In addition, by performing mixup between labeled and unlabeled data during training, we encourage the predicted models to linearly behave across training samples; thereby improving the generalization capability of the method. For each iteration, we use the model obtained from previous iteration to generate pseudo labels for the unlabeled data. This automated consecutive data distillation allows our model prediction to improve with iteration, without any need for human intervention. To demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency, we apply the method on two-dimensional images extracted from a real three-dimensional seismic data volume. By comparing our predictions and fully supervised baseline predictions with those that were manually interpreted and we consider as “ground truth”, we find than the prediction quality our new method surpasses the baseline prediction. We therefore conclude that our new method is a viable tool for automated salt delineation from seismic depth images.

A healthy eating plan for employees engaged in oil and gas exploration and production in the Far North

Proper nutrition is undoubtedly one of the most important factors of good health. Currently, the priority field of study for the Russian nutritionists is the development of well-balanced nutrition plans which can help to prevent or alleviate the most common medical conditions and work-related diseases. Extensive research has been carried out for the stateled program for the Development of Hydrocarbon Resources in the Northern Regions of Russia, including the Far North, where the huge oil and gas fields are located, and the specialists of Art-Life scientific production association have developed a healthy eating plan to help people working in the Far North maintain general well-being.

Dual gradient drilling: a pilot test of decanter centrifuge for CAPM technology

The article is about problem of drilling deepwater oil and gas wells that consists in complicating and increasing cost of their well design due to narrowing mud window at different depths. The authors analyse drilling technology developed and applied in practice of offshore drilling with a dual gradient drilling, which allows drilling significant intervals without overlapping an intermediate casing string. Based on analysis of these technologies and taking into account their disadvantages the authors proposed and tested a new drilling technology of dual gradient drilling with placement of all necessary innovative equipment on drilling platform. Keywords: managed pressure drilling; deepwater drilling; offshore drilling; dual gradient drilling; riser; oil and gas exploration in sea.

Peculiarities of Stratigraphic Distribution and Paleoecology of Jurassic Bivalve Mollusks of the Pre-Сarpathian Foredeep

Pre-Carpathian region is one of the oldest oil and gas producing regions of our country, which is attracting more and more attention of scientists. In the Outer zone of the Pre-Carpathian Foredeep, Jurassic deposits occur at considerable depths (up to 3,000 m), so we obtain almost all geological information about them exclusively during the study of core material selected during drilling. A comprehensive and detailed study of the Jurassic deposits of this zone during exploration drilling in the 1950s contributed to the discovery of the Kokhanivske and Sudovovyshnianske oil deposits and Rudkivske gas deposit, as well as a number of oil and gas manifestations. After that, the interest in the conditions of formation and stratification of Jurassic deposits increased. Researchers have begun to treat them as the promising objects for oil and gas exploration. Jurassic deposits in the Pre-Сarpathian Foredeep fill a single depression – the Stryi Jurassic deflection, covered by a thick layer of Cretaceous and Neogene rocks. The study of their geology and stratigraphy has acquired important applied and scientific significance, because stratigraphic research serves as a basis for clarifying the history of geological development of the region, performing tectonic constructions, reconstruction of paleogeographic and paleoecological conditions, comparison of productive horizons and specification of their stratigraphic position, search for new objects promising for hydrocarbons. Extremely rare finds of paleontological remains (which are not always well preserved) do not allow to unambiguously determining the age of the host rocks. It is still not always possible to clearly stratigraphically distinguish and correlate these rocks due to weak paleontological study and partial uncertainty in the interpretation of the geological structure of these strata. Despite the significant amount of research we have done, there are some debatable issues regarding the completeness of the section of these rocks and the presence of separate stratigraphic units in them. For many years, we have studied in detail and comprehensively bivalve mollusks found in the core of wells drilled in the Outer zone of the Pre-Carpathian Foredeep. As a result, the age of the host strata was specified and confirmed, as well as the thickness of individual stratigraphic units.

Features of the composition of gas sorbed in the rocks of the upper part of the sedimentary cover section

The topicality of the article is determined by the insufficient reliability of geochemical oil and gas exploration data for the localization of petroliferous geological objects. Geochemical surveys are carried out to mapping hydrocarbon anomalies caused by vertical migration of fluid from hydrocarbon deposits. Practice shows that not all anomalies in the content of hydrocarbons in the near-surface environment are related to the oil-bearing capacity of a given subsoil area. Therefore, when interpreting the data of geochemical oil and gas prospecting surveys, it is necessary to take into account not only quantitative indicators (namely, content of hydrocarbon gases on the surface), but also the composition of the gas sorbed by the near-surface substrate. The purpose of the article is to determine the composition of the dissipated gases in the rocks of the upper part of the section, to reveal the inter-component relationships, and, on this basis, to determine the genesis of each gas component sorbed by the rocks of the upper part of the section. To solve this problem, statistical processing of data on the component content of gas from core degassing of shallow (up to 30 m) wells drilled in the petroliferous territory of the north of Western Siberia was carried out. The obtained results confirmed the genetic heterogeneity of dissipated hydrocarbons and inorganic gases in the upper part of the sedimentary cover.

Nano-SiO2/hydroxyethyl cellulose nanocomposite used for 210 °C sedimentation control of petroleum drilling fluid

Cellulose derivatives are widely applied in the field of oil and gas exploration. However, this kind of natural polymers always shows poor temperature resistance due to their organic nature. To improve the temperature resistance of hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), inorganic nano-SiO2 was introduced onto HEC polymer chains through the silylation coupling technique. And Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS), and thermogravimetic analysis (TGA) were used to analyze the nanocomposite. As a result, nano-SiO2 particle is chemically coupled onto hydroxyethyl cellulose molecule, and nano-SiO2/hydroxyethyl cellulose nanocomposite (RJ-HEC) shows excellent thermal stability comparing with HEC polymer. In experiment, thermal aging tests were utilized, and test results suggest that nano-SiO2/hydroxyethyl cellulose (RJ-HEC) nanocomposite can be utilized as thickening agent of water-based drilling fluid, which shows improved rheology stability at 210 °C and excellent salt (NaCl) tolerance.

Digital Ways of Working: PDO Knowledge Management Program

Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO) has grown rapidly over the past few years and is seen as an innovative organization and a leading company within the Middle East when it comes to applying best practice, adding value to the economical and societal development of the Sultanate of Oman through many Knowledge Management (KM) activities. As the Sultanate's leading Oil and gas exploration and production company it is the central engine of the Sultanate's economy. Key to the success of our Digital KM Program has been focus on the importance of developing the human intellectual capital elements to nurture, develop and sustain our people as key assets. PDO is aware of the potential value of the Enterprise Information and the robust data as showcased In the Figure-1 which can be transformed into knowledge that can be turned and can be used to gain the business benefits such as a competitive advantage, cost minimization, innovation.