Martyn Millwood Hargrave, managing director of London-based company Ikon Science, believes that rock physics based technologies could help find and access a further 4 billion barrels of oil in the North Sea, on top of the 4 billion barrels thought to be left to be recovered through normal means.
Technologies to double the oil in the North Sea? - Martyn Millwood Hargrave, managing director, Ikon Science
Exploration and Drilling
"In the North Sea there are about 4 billion barrels left to be found with conventional E&P methods but up to 8 billion barrels using rock physics based technologies", claims Martyn Millwood Hargrave of Ikon Science. "Properly applied these technologies can double the amount of oil we can find in the North Sea."
Mr Millwood Hargrave believes that by using rock physics techniques, it is possible to find oil which is stored in all kinds of rock structures, not just the conventional structural traps which geologists have predominantly looked for to date.
But to reliably find oil which is stored in more subtle structures and sedimentary configurations (known as 'stratigraphic traps'), you need to have much more insight into rock properties. For example, you might notice hydrocarbon effects in real data outside of obvious structural depth highs or upswept oil in depleted fields using time lapse methods that depend on rock physics.
Ikon Science calls this 'quantitative' interpretation, the ability to use, model and predict specific physical properties of the rocks remotely, rather than only looking for, trends and patterns in seismic and other geophysical attributes.
Rock physics techniques can be used to find new oilfields; they can also be used to provide additional insight on current developments and producing fields, to get a more reliable idea of the presence of oil and gas before drilling.
Discoveries
While it's not possible, of course, to know how much oil is available in stratigraphic traps around the world, Ikon Science has already been involved in two major discoveries in the North Sea by using these techniques. One discovery, which was drilled and is being produced by Canadian oil and gas company Oilexco, was a 80 million barrel oilfield now producing at over 30,000 barrels per day.
On the original seismic information, the existing oilfield was only visible as a small and insignificant closure. But rock physics analysis spotted an anomaly in the data, which led to the discovery of the new field. "It was a major transformation event for them," claims a proud Mr Millwood Hargrave, "and we were awarded a $10m contract after that."
About Ikon Science
Established in 2001, backed by Enterprise Oil and Tullow Oil, Ikon Science has already expanded to 70 employees, with a head office in the UK, and offices in Durham, Houston, Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, and Beijing. The company does not claim any monopoly over rock physics - it is not promising access to any patented scientific techniques - but it does claim to be making rock physics accessible, easier to use and more effective, particularly to smaller oil and gas companies. It is also making rock physics easier to integrate with other geoscience methods and processes, such as electromagnetics and reservoir modelling.
"Other service companies may have their rock physics on spreadsheets, with bits of code here and there," explains Mr Millwood Hargrave. "But they haven't been able to bring it all together. We're the only company in the world that's dedicated to pulling it all together and helping interpreters work out what the rock properties mean and can do for their projects."
The company offers both the leading software in its class - RokDoc and specialist services including rock physics based analysis and interpretation, helping oil and gas companies integrate rock physics into their geoexploration processes.
"We describe it as software and know how," he says. "We've worked with oil companies to integrate what they wanted into their asset groups.
"We explain how to use this information, plus what it means commercially. That's our USP (unique sales proposition). Our driver is the integration of this technology to create success for our clients and ourselves, that's what gets me up in the morning."
Modelling while picking
Ikon's latest software release typifies this integration. The 'Modelling While Picking - The RokDoc-Petrel plug-in', enables users to interpret seismic data using rock physics (through the Ikon Science RokDoc software), and draw predictive models (using Schlumberger's Petrel software) at the same time.
The link enables the same data to be viewed simultaneously in both packages. The interactive link operating between RokDoc and Petrel means that any changes made by the user on one model are instantly updated to the other model.
Previously, these tasks were carried out in two separate steps, now they can be completed as one seamless process. "It's an efficiency improvement and an insight improvement combined," claims Mr Millwood Hargrave.
He also believes that the word 'integrated' is overused, or might imply that you were able simply to import data from one application to another. "If this is the definition of 'integration' then maybe we need another word for when two pieces of software can both update each other automatically because it is a much more creative fusion".
"The analogy I use is: model making is currently like a 56k modem. Modelling While Picking is like broadband - it's always on. Any changes move through the model straight away. This makes the model making far more fluid and dynamic, and makes the older systems look very static."
Future developments
Ikon Science is developing its technologies so it can incorporate a greater range of data sources into the model, creating a more robust and reliable result.
For example, it is working on ways to include electromagnetic data in the rock physics model. "Electromagnetics are becoming very important, but they don't work well on their own.
What's required are rock physics enabled workflows which are linked to realtime integrations via inversion and forward modelling, that way you can really understand what all the data types are telling you together," he said.
More on rock physics
Rock physics is about discovering a lot more information about the rock - which will help you get much greater insight as to presence of oil and gas and gain more understanding from the subsurface data.
In the early years of oil and gas exploration, explorers only had seismic data to go on. But now most exploration data is being generated from areas of the world which have already been drilled.
There exists a large amount of well log information that can be used together with the seismic to provide greater insight into the rock physics.
"There are not many areas of the world where you don't have well information," says Mr Millwood Hargrave. "The business needs to make use of expensively collected information that we've already got now."
Using knowledge of nearby rocks in order to understand remote rocks you know little about is one of the staples of rock physics.
"We say, rock physics is the DNA of exploration," says Mr Millwood Hargrave. "Rocks are quite complex things, aggregations of minerals and chemicals, with the memory and overprint of the processes that created them and reactive to their current conditions."
Team
"Our staff comes to Ikon because of the flexibility we provide, and because we give people a bit of free space to think and work. We also pay well," he says. "If the environment is fun, people tend to work better. We like to live hard and work hard. Being in London is also a bonus, because most people in the world would like to spend some time of their lives in the city."
Personal skills are ranked as highly as academic skills in the recruiting process.
"You can almost take for granted their qualifications and intellect, but what's important is their character and personality," he says.
"I look for some evidence that the people we recruit are independent thinkers, energetic and enthusiastic," he says. "We don't say, we're only taking people with a certain qualification.
"I ask them, what got you interested in the business, what makes you happy? That's a very interesting question."
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