Exploration

The Norway and UK Central North Sea exploration efforts are based in the Stavanger office. There is a large community of geologists and geophysicists addressing all aspects of the exploration program in Norway and the UK Central North Sea. This team is supplemented with other skills located in the Stavanger office and within the head office in Germany.

Exploration is conducted within an exploration license. Licenses are usually gained in licensing rounds. A team reviews the acreage available and applications are submitted to the authorities. These are assessed and then awarded to an oil company, or more likely a consortium of companies with an associated work program which has to be completed within a specific period of time. Acreage around the more mature parts, i.e. in and around producing field areas, are awarded annually. Licenses in the more frontier areas such as deep water Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea are usually awarded every two or three years. The basis for an application is usually a review of existing seismic survey data and geological ideas.

Once a license has been awarded, typically further seismic survey work will then take place. This is likely to be 3D seismic acquisition. This data is processed and reviewed, and if a prospective structure is identified, an exploration well may well be drilled. It is usually difficult to predict what the well will bring. A prediction is made based upon the supporting data, but very often a well will be dry, i.e., no hydrocarbons, oil or gas, are found.  Even if a well is successful, it is unlikely that the full extent of the oil and gas accumulation will be revealed and further appraisal drilling may be completed. Once the full extent of a field is determined and additional data is gathered on fluid type and reservoir quality etc., then the field will be transferred to Production and Development for further evaluation.