OK, a bit tongue-in-cheek, but Merlin did take 15 acquisition and processing specialists from AkerBP to Dorset to enjoy a whistle stop tour through a working petroleum system. In October no less!
Merlin’s Phil Copestake and Bill Wilks have taken client groups on field trips before, but usually it has been for geoscientists, or management wishing to de-mystify sub-surface jargon!
In this case, they had the pleasure of taking 15 Scandinavia-based specialists to the three iconic locations on the Jurassic Coast, namely Burton Bradstock, Lulworth Cove and Kimmeridge Bay.
Although the trip focused on the Dorset petroleum systems elements, so much is directly analogous to the global industry, such as structural trap geometries (and how to image them), fault damage zones, internal reservoir architecture, source rocks, migration pathways, sequence stratigraphy and so much more. The inversion structure at Lulworth Cove was directly compared to an AkerBP seismic example from the Norwegian North Sea and the group was able to discuss the details of what can and cannot be imaged on seismic data, together with the seismic resolution of reservoirs, at the outcrop. In addition, some of the North Sea’s key unconformities and sequence boundaries can be viewed in Dorset and their importance revealed.
One unique aspect of the Dorset coast is the ability to view the surface footprint of active oil fields, including the giant * Wytch Farm, and to consider the minimal impact that they have had on the environment and the local population. How many people who sail to France from Poole harbour realise that they are sailing over the largest onshore oilfield in Western Europe!
The AkerBP group were great company and did not let the Merlin trip leaders off the hook with easy questions! Phil and Bill have rediscovered the bug for fieldtrip leading, so if your team needs to ‘Go Mad in Dorset’, Merlin can put together a bespoke trip to emphasise specific aspects of the geology and have fun with non-geological team-building activities. Visit our dedicated website page to find out more. Well, it can’t all be about the rocks…… can it? Oh, one more thing, there were also fossils to collect – of course!
* Well… nearly a giant. Just 20 million barrels short!
Source: Merlin Energy Resources
