Abstract The Schiehallion subsea development comprises two fields, Schiehallion and Loyal, which are located approximately 200 km to the west of the Shetland Islands in the UK Continental Shelf. The Schiehallion and Loyal fields were discovered in late 1993 and 1994, respectively, with a combined oil-in-place of more than 2.3 Bbbl. The fields are developed under waterflood and were on production from 1998 to 2013. After an extended shut-in, the fields were brought back on line in 2017, through new floating production facilities. Most of the production to date has been from the Paleocene Vaila Formation deep-water turbidite, in the T31 and T34 reservoir intervals. The ongoing Quad 204 redevelopment drilling programme commenced in April 2015, has drilled and completed 21 wells to date, and is expected to continue for several more years. The campaign includes new producer–injector pairs and stand-alone wells to support existing well stock, targeting stacked turbidite reservoir intervals, including the youngest T35–T34 interval, the main T31 interval and the previously under-developed T28–T25 fairway. In addition to an active drilling programme, a 4D seismic survey was acquired and processed in 2018, and its interpretation is key to unlocking further potential sources of value in this mature field.

Abstract Current recovery from the Statfjord Group in the majority of the fields on the Tampen Spur is less than 50%. A contributing factor to this is an incomplete understanding of multiscale heterogeneities, their distributions within a range of fluvial geobodies and their lateral extent and morphology in inter-well areas. Sedimentary heterogeneities have been modelled, together with petrophysical parameters, at a variety of scales. The modelled properties at a given scale were upscaled to the next level of heterogeneity, thus better honouring effective property values. The use of outcrop analogues is still a key tool for understanding facies relationships and the stratigraphic development of subsurface hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs. The Lourinhã Formation, Portugal, was used as an analogue to collect both qualitative and quantitative data consistently following a three-phase workflow to capture data at various scales of heterogeneity. Traditional field data collection techniques have been supplemented with the collection of LiDAR data. A digital workflow utilizing interlinked datasets facilitates rapid data analysis and better data visualization with results that are more easily utilized in multiscale modelling studies. These scaled models were used to increase our understanding of the effect on flow of lithofacies and facies association distributions together with internal architectural elements and heterogeneities.

After the high-radiation environment and the low gravity field on Mars, dust is arguably the next biggest environmental hazard facing a manned mission to Mars. The seriousness of this threat is still being studied with robotic missions. At its most benign, Martian dust the work undertaken were recorded to study their effects on dust contamination. We found that more than 50 g of dust and soil were transported into the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) during the 12 EVAs (extravehicular activities) that were measured. The largest amount of contamination from EVA activity was due to open-cockpit vehicle travel and depended strongly on the terrain over which the EVA was conducted. Based on first-order dust dynamics modeling, similar behaviors are expected on Mars.

Abstract Recent work by a multi-disciplinary team has led to a significantly better understanding of the prospectivity of the North Red Sea. New regional biostratigraphic and environmental analysis from north to south through the Gulf of Suez and into the Red Sea have placed the Nubian sequences into a regional chronostratigraphic framework. The Nubian Upper Cretaceous pre-rift sandstones are observed in the field on both the Egyptian and Saudi Arabian side of the North Red Sea. This regionally extensive sequence was deposited in a continental to shallow marine setting fringing the Mesozoic Tethys Ocean, which lay further north. Extensive onshore fieldwork and mapping of sediment input points, fault orientations and fault linkages have helped to develop an understanding of the expected controls on syn-rift sandstone and carbonate deposition offshore. Thick halite with interbedded evaporite and clastics in the Late Miocene sequences of the Red Sea pose seismic imaging challenges. Recent reprocessing and newly acquired seismic data have produced a step change improvement in imaging of the prospective pre-rift section. Petroleum systems modelling incorporating new information on rift timing and crustal thinning as well as onshore core analysis for source rock properties and temperature variation through time indicates that oil expulsion occurs in the inboard section of North Red Sea – Block 1. This is supported by hydrocarbon shows in the drilled offshore wells which can be typed to pre-rift source rocks from stable isotope and biomarker data. All the key elements of the Gulf of Suez petroleum system exist in the North Red Sea. An integrated exploration approach has enabled prospective areas in the North Red Sea – Block 1 to be high-graded for drilling in early 2011.

Abstract Based on available tectonostratigraphic, geochronological, and structural data for northeastern Canada and western Greenland, we propose that the early, upper plate history of the Trans-Hudson orogen was characterized by a number of accretionary–tectonic events, which led to the nucleation and growth of a northern composite continent (the Churchill domain), prior to terminal collision with and indentation by the lower plate Superior craton. Between 1.96 and 1.91 Ga Palaeoproterozoic deformation and magmatism along the northern margin of the Rae craton is documented both in northeastern Canada (Ellesmere–Devon terrane) and in northern West Greenland (Etah Group–metaigneous complex). The southern margin of the craton was dominated by the accumulation of a thick continental margin sequence between c . 2.16 and 1.89 Ga, whose correlative components are recognized on Baffin Island (Piling and Hoare Bay groups) and in West Greenland (Karrat and Anap nunâ groups). Initiation of north–south convergence led to accretion of the Meta Incognita microcontinent to the southern margin of the Rae craton at c . 1.88–1.865 Ga on Baffin Island. Accretion of the Aasiaat domain (microcontinental fragment?) in West Greenland to the Rae craton resulted in formation of the Rinkian fold belt at c . 1.88 Ga. Subsequent accretion–collision of the North Atlantic craton with the southern margin of the composite Rae craton and Aasiaat domain is bracketed between c . 1.86 and 1.84 Ga (Nagssugtoqidian orogen), whereas collision of the North Atlantic craton with the eastern margin of Meta Incognita microcontinent in Labrador is constrained at c . 1.87–1.85 Ga (Torngat orogen). Accretion of the intra-oceanic Narsajuaq arc terrane of northern Quebec (no correlative in Greenland) to the southern margin of the composite Churchill domain at 1.845 Ga was followed by terminal collision between the lower plate Superior craton (no correlative in Greenland) and the composite, upper plate Churchill domain in northern and eastern Quebec at c . 1.82–1.795 Ga. Taken as a set, the accretionary–tectonic events documented in Canada and Greenland prior to collision of the lower plate Superior craton constrain the key processes of crustal accretion during the growth of northeastern Laurentia and specifically those in the upper plate Churchill domain of the Trans-Hudson orogen during the Palaeoproterozoic Era. This period of crustal amalgamation can be compared directly with that of the upper plate Asian continent prior to its collision with the lower plate Indian subcontinent in the early Eocene. In both cases, terminal continental collision was preceded by several important episodes of upper plate crustal accretion and collision, which may therefore be considered as a harbinger of collisional orogenesis and a signature of the formation of supercontinents, such as Nuna (Palaeoproterozoic Era) and Amasia (Cenozoic Era).

Abstract: Actualistic studies of the distribution, formation, and taphonomy of vertebrate and invertebrate traces at saline (60-100 g l -1 TDS), alkaline (pH: 10.5) Lake Bogoria in the Kenya Rift Valley have revealed a diverse trace assemblage in the lake-margin sediments. Although hypersaline lakes like Lake Bogoria restrict lacustrine faunal diversity, local marginal subenvironments, including hot springs and ephemeral streams, provide favorable areas for the activities of many species of insects, mammals, birds, and reptiles. Several factors, including sediment texture and moisture content, substrate cohesion, substrate consolidation, and the presence of a food source (i.e., vegetation, microbes, animal waste, flamingo carcasses), control the distribution of traces at Lake Bogoria by influencing the behavior of vertebrates (e.g., “dirt bathing” and nest building) and invertebrates (mainly feeding and locomotion). The distribution of vertebrate traces is also controlled by the proximity to fresh water, but the relationship between invertebrate trace formation and pore-water salinity is less clear. Many characteristic features of closed-basin lakes, including frequent changes in lake level and shoreline position, the presence of thermal springs, and evolved fluid compositions resulting from evaporation, can have direct impacts on trace taphonomy. Notable taphonomic factors include efflorescent salt crystallization, which may temporarily cement substrates or destroy traces during crystal growth in the capillary fringe; substrate wetting and drying, which can induce soil crusting and the shrinking and swelling of smectitic clays, which in turn can modify trace morphology; and the presence of benthic microbial mats and biofilms, which can temporarily stabilize substrates or contribute to their early cementation by mediating carbonate precipitation. Semiarid environments, such as the Kenya Rift, are favorable settings for the early cementation of substrates by carbonates (e.g., calcite), and, during prolonged, stable dry phases, the preservation of trace fossils and their substrates by zeolites and other minerals (Mn- and Fe- oxyhydroxides).