Petroleum Geology: From Mature Basins to New Frontiers – Proceedings of the 7th Petroleum Geology Conference
‘The Proceedings of the 7th Petroleum Geology Conference is the seventh in a series that has become a tradition known as the ‘Barbican’ conferences. They started life over 35 years ago, in 1974, with a focus solely on North-West Europe, and have a reputation, both from the conferences and the accompanying Proceedings volumes, of being at the forefront of petroleum geoscience; the standard reference for successive generations of petroleum geoscientists.
North-West Europe has matured as a petroleum province and, at the same time, the conference series has matured to be a truly global event.
These Proceedings embrace many of the world’s petroleum provinces in a two-volume set. There are sections on Europe, which still provides the heart of the Proceedings; Russia, the former Soviet Union and Circum-Artic; North Africa and the Middle East; Passive Margins; and Unconventional Hydrocarbon Resources.
In addition, the three Geocontroversies debates, highly acclaimed at the conference, are included, as is a summary of the Core Workshop. A DVD complements the books and, in addition to providing electronic versions of all the papers also includes selected posters and video clips from the Virtual Field Trip session; the latter being a major success at the conference. The Proceedings volumes of this seventh conference are therefore a ‘must’ for every petroleum geoscientist’s bookshelf.
Global petroleum systems in space and time
-
Published:January 01, 2010
Abstract
Each of the Earth's approximately 900 sedimentary basins is a unique result of geologic, hydrologic, atmospheric and biologic processes. The interaction of these processes results in complex histories that are palaeogeographically linked within tectonic provinces. Process-based genetic analysis provides the fundamental framework for predicting the distribution and character of petroleum systems. New technologies enable the exploitation of this predictability and are themselves the origin of new ideas and improved systems understanding. Petroleum geoscience embraces both forward modelling of processes as well as observation, calibration and inverse modelling. This approach of forward and inverse modelling promotes a general scientific methodology of simulation, prediction, testing and learning that allows us to describe the genetics of sedimentary basins. Genetic analysis can be applied to the spectrum of resource types from hydrocarbon to groundwater to mineral systems and across the range of scales from regional to play to prospect. Like the study of evolution through the fossil record, fundamental characteristics of petroleum systems can be recovered from the patterns of their distribution within the framework provided by plate motion, palaeogeography and palaeoclimate. These fundamental drivers control regional tectonics, subsidence, fill history and deformation that result in the phenotypic expression of individual basins and their fluid systems. Genetic analysis results in a taxonomic hierarchy that facilitates prediction and guides resource exploration. Although genetic analysis provides a framework for understanding the distribution and nature of petroleum systems, that framework itself is insufficient to address the challenges now facing the petroleum industry. New technologies are required to enable exploration in frontier settings, to identify new opportunities in mature basins, to maximize recovery from existing fields, and to unlock the potential of unconventional resources. Future success in all of these areas is fundamentally dependent on our ability to conceptualize new ideas.