Study of North Sea Geology Aims to Unlock New Potential

Global geoscience technology company Ikon Science has started an integrated geopressure and rock physics study with the objective of unlocking hidden exploration and development potential in the UK Central North Sea (CNS).

 The project, called Roknowledge CNS, is its most technically ambitious multi-client study to date, the company says. The study shall, for the first time, integrate rock property and geopressure information across a broad area of the CNS in order to identify and unlock hidden potential within the Eocene, Paleocene, Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic intervals. The study will include the construction of a digital rock property knowledgebase and atlas, a detailed interpretation of the pore pressure profiles in every well and the integration of this information with a comprehensive rock physics analysis across each of the key geological intervals in the study area.

Kester Waters, Ikon Science QI manager, said: "This unique study harnesses our GeoPressure and Quantitative Interpretation (QI) teams in a collaborative framework. It draws on our extensive experience and our proprietary knowledge base to bring a fresh and up to date interpretation of the key pressure and rock physics mechanisms in the CNS, by harnessing the power of the ‘regional informs the local’. It is designed to deliver new exploration and development insights into reservoir property interactions and de-risk the seismic behavior of key reservoir intervals."

The study will be performed in a series of discrete phases with key milestones. Sponsors can steer the well selection for the study as well as contribute to key quality control steps and intermediate analysis of the data. Four seed sponsors are already in place, and the project has $700,000 (€550,000) in initial sponsorship.