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1 Executive summary and introduction
The Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) faces considerable challenges in replacing reserves through new discoveries and ultimate field recoveries. Exploration and Reservoir Characterization will play an instrumental role in achieving targets in these areas.
Exploration and exploitation success on the NCS needs continuous improvement. Reserves and production replacement are dwindling due to a decrease in exploration drilling, and limitations in the number of production wells being drilled and worked over. The discoveries are on average decreasing, the remaining prospects have higher risk, and the remaining IOR/EOR targets in declining fields are becoming increasingly difficult to justify, even at high oil price forecasts.
The challenges are similar for oil and gas producing nations around the world, but Norway is depleting the resource base faster than other net exporting countries. We need to speed up the research and development efforts of selected key technology areas to be able to apply them to our resources before it is too late. It will give the country a solid ground for continued valuable export of products, systems and services. Norway may achieve a leading role in crucial R & D areas if we succeed in the ongoing efforts under the OG21 umbrella.
It all starts with exploration - identifying sedimentary basins with possibilities for finding producible hydrocarbons. The ability to map and forecast cost efficiently, yet detailed enough to allow expensive drilling decisions to be made is crucial for both nations and companies.
During the last years a renewed interest has been paid to the Barents Sea region, specially the challenges related to the salt deposits in the Nordkapp Basin. Exploration in these areas demands up-front research and technology development to handle geological features e.g. sub-salt reservoir definitions.
Once hydrocarbons have been found we need reservoir characterization abilities, describing and predicting properties of rock strata and fluids under dynamic conditions to predict future production under different schemes. Solid data on rock properties is only available from wells, like a needle prick in a large field. We need even further improvements in the methods used to interpret conditions in the rest of the field. Fluid properties change over time. The existing models handling compositional issues have a long way to go if we want to incorporate data we already have into efficient prediction models.
Companies compete globally for access to petroleum resources. They use their abilities, especially in the areas covered in TTA2 (and TTA3), as important differentiators in trying to gain access to new reserves in many countries. We need to respect that certain subjects or areas are difficult or impossible for some companies to participate in cooperation with companies that in their opinion have nothing to offer and everything to gain.
The priority areas are
• reliable seismic data calibration with lithology and fluid information;
• interdisciplinary data integration in modern reservoir characterization in mature areas;
• basin analysis and depositional modelling in frontier areas;
• new methods and software for combining core and log data;
• acquire lithology and fluids information in seismic data;
• sophisticated use of dynamical data (production logging), in geological models;
• emerging technologies, like seabed logging using electromagnetic measurements;
• enhancement in uncertainty handling (data sources and basic models) in modern reservoir characterization methods;
• improved predictive capabilities in clastic fault-seal methods;
• tools to evaluate and model the behaviour of fractures and faults in chalk reservoirs;
• develop industry standard databases for various data types (rock physics, biostratigraphy and geochemistry);
• improved data handling and data processing technology (open standards for data communication between software tools) for
seismic data; and
• improved education and research in selected areas (biostratigraphy and petrophysics).
It is recommended that the existing FORCE structure is used to implement the strategy approved under the OG21- TTA2 umbrella.
TTA 2 – Exploration and Reservoir Characterization
Arild Haugen, NPD (Lead Party rep)
Oil Companies:
Egil Bergsager, Chevron
Jens Martin Hvid, DONG
Kristian Kolbjørnsen, Lundin
Per Gunnar Folstad, ConocoPhillips
Rasmus Pedersen, BG Norge
Tim Dodson, StatoilHydro
Tina R Olsen, Gaz de France
Contractors:
Lars Sønneland, Schlumberger
Odd Tjelta, EMGS
Svein Kjellesvik, Bergen Offshore
Sverre Planke, VBPR
Academia:
Ane E Lothe, Sintef
Cato Bjelland, CMR
Dimitrios Hatzignatiou, IRIS
Harald Westerdahl, NGI,
Jan Inge Faleide, UiO
Olav Eldholm, UiB
Per Arne Bjørkum, UiS
Petter Abrahamsen, Norsk Regnesentral
Richard Sinding-Larsen, NTNU
Ritske S Huismans, UiB
Tor Bjørnstad, IFE
Reidar Muller, Norwegian Research Council (observer)
