MEET OUR PRESENTERS
OPENING ADDRESS
Masoud Al Hamadi
Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC)
Masoud Al Hamadi is the Exploration & Production Manager of Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) and has worked for the company since November 2015. Mr. Al Hamadi has 12 years of experience in Petroleum Engineering and work over operations. Previous to his role with SNOC, he started his career working for his family business company as a Managing Director from 2004-2005. He served as the Petroleum Engineer working for BP Sharjah Asset’s Resource Team from June 2007 to October 2010. He also served as the Petroleum Engineer working for Petrofac Sajaa Asset sub-surface-team from November 2012 to July 2012 and sub-surface and wells Team Leader for Petrofac Sajaa Asset from November 2012 to 2015. He served as the Marketing Director for Al Shaab Sports Club in July 2012 to 2016 as a volunteer and he served as the Reservoir and Production Team Leader for SNOC from August 2015 to October 2015.
Mr. Al Hamadi is a dedicated member of the Petroleum Institute, a certified Wells Technical Authority in 2012. In 2009, Mr. Al Hamadi received a Certification of Petroleum Professional from the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). In 2013, he completed the Sharjah Leadership Program which was conducted at American University of Sharjah.
Mr. Al Hamadi holds a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering from the U.A.E. University in 2004 and a Master’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering from Scottish Herriot Watt University in 2010.
Dr. Giacomo Firpo
RAK Gas
Dr. Giacomo Firpo, currently part of the RAK Gas technical department, is an exploration geologist with about 17 years of experience (10 of which spent in the Oil and Gas industry). After graduation in Geology, Giacomo obtained a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Siena (Italy) and an MSc in Integrated Petroleum Geoscience from the University of Aberdeen (UK). Over the last decade, Giacomo has been involved in a variety of exploration projects (and fieldwork activities) mostly focussed on East Africa Margin and Middle East (UAE, Mozambique, Madagascar, Namibia, Somaliland, Malawi, Tanzania and Yemen).
PRESENTATION TITLE | Systematic review of the play concepts in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah: an effective paradigm to appreciate the exploration potential of the Northern Emirates domain
Integrated PBE studies and geological fieldwork activities have been recently carried out to identify the whole array of proven, potential and speculative play concepts, which constitute the base for the future exploration of the RAK margin and, more in general, of the Northern Emirates domain.
Callum Thurley
Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC)
Callum Thurley is an exploration geologist working for the Sharjah National Oil Corporation with 6 years’ experience in the O&G industry, all within operator companies. Callum has a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Durham and an M.Sc. by Research in Earth Science from Royal Holloway University of London. Callum has worked in the Middle East since the start of his career, where he has been involved in projects in the Northern Oman Mountains, Kurdish Zagros, Indian Ocean, East Africa, as well as onshore UK.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Regional Geology of the Oman Mountains Fold and Thrust Belt, Insights from Seismic and Well data in the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE
Unlocking the potential of the Oman Mountains Fold and Thrust Belt in Onshore Sharjah has been an enigmatic task for Explorationists since 1958 when the first exploration well was drilled. The first commercial discovery to be made in the structurally complex mountain front was not for a further 22 years when the Sajaa-1 well was drilled in 1980. This was a play opening discovery in the region and led to the drilling of the Margham, Moveiyed, and Kahaif fields which follow the Oman Mountains Thrust Front Play. This presentation discusses the subsurface geology of the thrust belt within Sharjah, its structure, stratigraphy, and the wider implications of these on additional prospectivity and tectonic evolution of the basin.
To the west of the Hatta region the fold and thrust belt in Sharjah is almost entirely buried beneath desert sand dunes, with the exception of small isolated Cretaceous-Tertiary outcrops. Seismic interpretation reveals a classic fold belt geometry consisting of a Tertiary-aged foreland basin to the West which extends to the offshore area and a hinterland comprised of imbricate thrusts to the East of the Sajaa to Margham deformation front. Regional mapping integrates both 2D and 3D seismic data and illustrates a series of NNE to SSW trending en-echelon structures, indicative of additional transpressional deformation.
The Sohar Basin, located offshore the East Coast of the Arabian Peninsula, is an area that has seldom been the focus of International Oil Companies. While all commercial discoveries in the UAE and Oman have been made to the west and south of the Oman Mountains, the Sohar Basin is underexplored and remains attractive to Explorationists. This lack of activity is primarily due to the fact that the Thamama reservoir that has yielded huge success to the west of the Oman Mountains is not believed to be of reservoir quality within the Sohar Basin. However potential traps, reservoirs and source rocks are present within the Tertiary.
The Sohar Basin was initiated in the late Cretaceous after the obduction of the Semail Ophiolite onto the Arabian Plate. Following a period of tectonic quiescence, which lasted until the Early Eocene, gravitational collapse occurred along the eastern edge of the present day Oman Mountains.
Interpretation of both 2D and 3D seismic reveals that the subsurface can be split into three tectonostratigraphic units, pre-, syn-, and post- tectonic packages. North-South trending thrust faults generate distinct mini-basins within the pre- and syn-tectonic sequences. These thrusts are of Oligocene age and are in response to extension along basin-bounding listric faults. The post-tectonic sequence is defined by the development of prograding systems in a passive continental margin that formed in the Lower Miocene and has persisted to the present day. Deep-water depositional systems dominate the undrilled far-east and south of the basin where the presence of submarine canyon systems and associated basin floor fans is supported by 3D seismic data. In more recent times, the basin has been subject to extensional faulting likely driven by the loading of sediment from the prograding sedimentary wedge.
The results of this work reveal that multiple untested play types exist within the Sohar Basin which are comprised of both structural and stratigraphic elements. This paper integrates both a structural and sequence stratigraphic interpretation to provide insights into the tectonostratigraphic evolution of the Sohar Basin. Consequently, the fundamentals of play based exploration have been employed to unlock the hydrocarbon prospectivity offshore the UAE’s East Coast.
Michał Kępiński
PGNiG
Michał Kępiński is a graduate of the Faculty of Geology at the University of Warsaw. Currently, he is Senior Geologist in PGNiG. In his professional work he deals with prospect evaluation, pore pressure prediction, reservoir geomechanics, wellbore stability, structural geology and seismic interpretation. Member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) and SITPNiG.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Pore pressure profile characteristics in Northern Emirates
Pore pressure investigation is a vital element of the hydrocarbon exploration practice at every stage of development. Without proper understanding of mechanisms generating overpressure the reduction of risks related to wellbore instability is not possible. Careful examination of the pore pressure profile within reservoir section as well as overburden allows its subsequent safe development. Therefore, improving methods of predicting pressures in hydrocarbon wells is of continuous concern for the industry, especially in Emirates where zones of anomalous pressure are frequently reported while drilling causing numerous complications and increasing cost of operations. The objective of the study is to present pore pressure conditions within the Northern Emirates with regard to processes that led to such characteristics.
Mihai Tarapoanca
Danubian Energy
Mihai Tarapoanca has been the chief geologist of Danubian Energy Consulting since its very beginning in 2006, where he carried out exploration and field development projects in various basins from Romanian Carpathians and foreland, UAE Oman (Musandam) belt and foredeep, Tajikistan Fergana valley or Mongolian East Gobi Desert.
Mihai got the Bachelor and Master degrees in geology and basin analysis from Bucharest University in 1994 and 1996, respectively, followed by a PhD in tectonics from Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam in 2004. With over 23 years of experience in especially Romanian-based companies, Mihai worked in 2004-2005 as a postdoctoral researcher in Institut Français du Pétrole (Rueil-Malmaison, France) on the kinematic and thermal modelling of the newly acquired long seismic transects across the Oman Mountains and foreland in UAE.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Structural styles and evolution of the Musandam peninsula: new insights from outcrops in northern Oman Mountains (UAE, Ras Al Khaimah)
The main outcomes of the field work are related to the pre-compressional history of the area: Triassic to Middle Jurassic. A series of direct outcrop observations are clearly indicating a previously undocumented Upper Triassic extensional event. Most of the normal faults were inverted at the beginning of Jurassic, the inversion being marked by a first angular unconformity. A second angular unconformity characterizes the base of the Middle Jurassic boundary, which may have been produced by a change in the regional subsidence and tilting. This type of Triassic to Jurassic evolution is typical for a Neo-Tethys margins: i.e. Carpathians system. “Old and Mid Cimmerian unconformities” – equivalent, analogies with peri-Charpathian areas, Iberia and North Sea).In some cases this evolution is controlling significant proved oil plays. Another important outcome is related to the structural styles characterizing the post-obduction shortening (from Late Cretaceous onwards), which is far more complex & bigger than is apparent from previous papers. Thrust sheets were documented in the internal area of J2 (BGS’ Musandam 2 fm.) outcrops and appear to be kinematically connected to those from the footwall of Ghalilah-Rahbah (GR) fault (in Lower Cretaceous fms., ex. Wadi Rahbah). The steeply dipping GR fault is thus a late tectonic lineament prolonging perhaps as north as Tibat-Bukha area at least.
Dr Christoph Kierdorf
APT AS
Christoph Kierdorf is a Petroleum Systems Analyst and Exploration Geologist with 15+ years of international experience in the oil and gas industry, skilled in petroleum and exploration geology, basin analysis, organic geochemistry, and basin modelling. Christoph's expertise lies in multiple geological settings and petroleum systems with a special technical focus on hydrocarbon source rock evaluation, interpretation of fluid and gas geochemistry data and thermal maturity, expulsion and migration modelling. He has worked with the identification, definition, resource assessment and risking of exploration projects at all scales, from basin evaluation and play analysis to prospect maturation and well evaluation. Christoph has participated in long-term regional projects, licensing round applications, data room evaluations and drilling activities.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Petroleum Systems of the Northern Emirates
North of Dubai onshore commercial discoveries have been restricted to the mountain front fields discovered in the 1980s and 1990s (Sajaa, Moveiyeid and Kahaif); all of which are gas-condensate bearing with variable liquid yield. Challenging seismic imaging and complex structural geology had limited further exploration success until recently, when SNOC and their partners Eni discovered the Mahani Field in Sharjah in January 2020. All commercial discoveries have been made in thrust related roll-over anticlines, are sealed by the Wasia Group (Nahr Umr Formation) and are reservoired within the Lower Cretaceous Thamama Group. The timing of hydrocarbon generation and trap formation is thought to be driven by the collision of Arabia with Central Iran along the Zagros Suture. This event began in the Late Oligocene along with the culmination of the Musandam Peninsula. To date, all discoveries have been made without penetrating a confirmed source rock and thus the source of the gas-condensates is currently unknown. Candidate source rocks for the thrust related play and their respective merits are reviewed.This work reports on the integration of an updated review of the geochemistry of the discovered fluids, combined with newly generated regional depth maps, structural restoration, and analysis of the regional geology to construct an updated petroleum systems model for the Northern Emirates area. This approach has resulted in further constraint being placed on the origin of the gas condensates and has created a framework in which to risk the petroleum systems aspects of the exploration prospect inventory. The petroleum system defined here is compared with the better understood systems in Dubai & Abu Dhabi.
Dr. Paul Swire
RAK Gas
Dr. Paul Swire is currently part of the RAK Gas technical department, he is Principal Geologist with over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. He has worked in various mainly international roles after graduating with a PhD in Geology from Nottingham University UK. After working for Robertson Research in Wales he spent a number of years in Libya with Veba Oil and then PetroCanada as head of their Regional Team before working as a Staff Geologist. He has also worked in senior technical, management and lead roles with KUFPEC and KOC in Kuwait, Canadian Natural Resources International (CNRI) in Aberdeen, Dana Petroleum in Cairo, Egypt and Mubadala Petroleum in Bangkok, Thailand.
PRESENTATION TITLE | The Wasia Group carbonates prospectivity in the Northern Emirates
The Wasia Group of Middle to Late Cretaceous age (Albian to Cenomanian) consists of a number of formations deposited on the stable Arabian carbonate platform with identified sequences related to mainly eustatic sea level changes that can be correlated over large distances.
Often seen as a secondary reservoir target to the underlying Aptian aged Shuaiba Formation, in the only field that has produced hydrocarbons to date in Ras Al Khaimah, the Saleh Field, the Wasia Group was the primary reservoir. The top of the Wasia Group represents both the top of the Arabian Platform and the Middle Cretaceous unconformity. The main producing formations in the offshore are represented by bioclastic wackestones / packstones and grainstones represented by the main Ilam, Mishrif and Mauddud reservoirs. The whole Wasia Group thins towards the present day onshore probably truncated by erosion so that an inner platform is only represented by the Mauddud in a shoreface facies of bioclastic shelly limestones. As well as being identified in well sections the Mauddud can here also be identified in onshore sections overlying with unconformity the underlying Shuaiba Formation.
This presentation will detail an ongoing review of the Wasia Group in the Northern Emirates area to identify remaining hydrocarbon potential with the use of modern play based exploration techniques and new 3D seismic that has been recently acquired as part of a fast tracked exploration drive to find new resources in this highly prospective area.
Raffik Lazar
GeomodL International
Raffik Lazar is the Principal Geological Consultant for GeomodL International, a geological consultancy group based in Ras Al Khaimah. He holds a MSc in Carbonate Sedimentology and Geomodelling from the Université of Provence, in Marseille, France. His main activities revolve around providing carbonate reservoir modelling expertise and supporting exploration and appraisal efforts for companies in the Middle East. He runs a petroleum geology field trip in Ras Al Khaimah as analogue to the main producing reservoirs in the region.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Inferring Prospectivity in the Northern Emirates from Surface Geology Observations: Implications for Exploration and Development
The Northern Emirates region is a relatively underexplored, underdeveloped province in the Middle East compared to its southern neighbour Abu Dhabi or the Sultanate of Oman. Paradoxically, direct analogues of the Arabian Platform sequence subsurface reservoirs, outcropping in the Northern portion of the Al Hajjar mountain range, provide invaluable insights on the Northern Emirates petroleum system. This presentation aims to summarize surface geology observations leading to an inventory of the prospectivity in the Northern Emirates and its implications for future hydrocarbon exploration and development efforts. Three main structural traps and two reservoir types, for deposits ranging from the Upper Permian (Khuff equivalent) to the Late Cretaceous, are among the main petroleum system parameters inferred from surface geology observations. Surface hydrocarbon paleo-seepages indicate that a working petroleum system was historically present in the near thrusted zone area.
Davide Maggi
Eni
Davide Maggi is a graduate from the Faculty of Telecommunication Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He is a geophysicist working for Eni with 7 years of experience in borehole and surface seismic. He has strong expertise in depth imaging projects mainly from land acquisition. In parallel, Davide is working in R&D activities related to seismic modeling and imaging.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Cutting-edge technologies and integrated workflow for velocity model building and imaging in a geologically complex area – A Case Study (Onshore Sharjah – UAE)
This paper illustrates a seismic processing and velocity model building case study on the concession areas A-B-C (Eni & SNOC JV), located onshore of the Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. From a geological standpoint, the three areas are located along the northeastern margin of the Arabian Plate, in the transition zone between the thrust-and-fold belt of the Hajar Mountains to the east (related to the collisional events from Late Cretaceous to Pliocene) and the undeformed or poorly deformed foreland to the west. The exploration targets are the Jurassic-Cretaceous carbonate platform structures of the deformed foreland, locally over thrusted by the allochthonous Hawasina (argillaceous-cherty limestones) and Sumeini (ophiolites) nappes (from bottom to top).
Giant gas and condensate fields occur in this area, where the Mahani discovery (SNOC 50% Op & Eni 50%) was made at the beginning of year 2020 and is already in production. A vintage (2018) processing was used as the base of the study of this complex area, but despite a state-of-the-art time and depth processing workflow, we observed drawbacks in the imaging. The imaging presented some inconsistencies with the geological setting which we had in mind and had to be resolved for a better understanding of the thrust in order to de-risk potential targets. The low signal to noise ratio of the input data, and the very complex and heterogeneous characteristics of the subsurface formation made the use of conventional ray-based tomography impractical for both the shallowest area and the deeper sections. In order to build the best velocity model, all the available geophysical and geological information was used, namely the well sonic logs, the check shots, the VSPs, the well markers and the regional and detailed horizons. At this point, an iterative migration-picking-update (seismic migration – surfaces picking – velocity update) flow was performed, until all the surfaces were calibrated and correctly positioned to create the final velocity model. In addition, a Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) was performed to produce a more detailed velocity model of the shallowest section. FWI is the most advanced algorithm for the velocity model building; it works by minimizing the difference between observed and modelled seismic data, potentially using all the information contained in the data. Its application allowed to obtain a detailed model in the near surface, highly improving the overall imaging.
Final migrations, using both Kirchhoff and RTM algorithms, were followed by a tailored processing sequence to reduce the residual multiples as well as increasing the signal to noise ratio and balancing the frequency spectrum. The improved velocity model and the application of the most advance technologies resulted in significant enhancements of the final seismic volume that showed improvements in the target structures’ geometries.
A second stage of this project was to add some 2D data from Area C to the 3D volume integrating the velocity models built on the 2D data into the 3D model. This allowed exploration to expand their understanding to a larger area and to open up future exploration studies and activities.
The strong integration between geologists, geophysicists and explorationists, exploiting all the technical know-how built up in Eni on complex basins, was a key factor to the success of the project, which ultimately helped assessing the Mahani field and allowed the identification of a number of new exploration leads & prospects.
Mark Cowgill
CGG
Mark joined CGG as a structural geologist in 1995 and has since worked in a wide range of technical and managerial roles within the organization. His current role as Technical Advisor to the Geological Interpretation group at Robertson enables him to be involved with peer reviews, day-to-day project work and business development.
Mark holds a degree in earth sciences from Oxford Polytechnic and a Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of London. After graduation from his first degree, Mark spent a year working as a mud-logger in the U.K., Norwegian and Dutch sectors of the North Sea. He contributes to and instructs on training courses within CGG on seismic interpretation, petroleum geology and structural geology. Mark has extensive experience of the petroleum geology of North Africa, the Middle East, the UKCS and South Asia and has presented work at many conferences on the petroleum geology, geological evolution and hydrocarbon potential of these areas and other petroleum-rich areas such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
The discovery of gas in the Mahani structure in early 2020 has significantly increased interest in the hydrocarbon potential of onshore Sharjah, UAE and has placed the Northern Emirates in the spotlight for exploration.
Gas and condensate fields in Sharjah as well as Dubai form a roughly NNE-SSW chain from Sajaa to Margham and mirror basement lineament trends, which have influenced basin development, structural evolution, and sedimentation throughout geological time. The fields all produce from Early Cretaceous Thamama Group reservoirs overlain by Late Cretaceous Aruma Group sediments.
Interpretation of newly acquired 3D seismic data along with re-processed legacy 2D data has highlighted several interpretation challenges and underlined the requirement for a robust structural model. Our understanding of the tectonic and stratigraphic history of the Oman Mountains fold belt and foreland has been significantly improved by combining regional knowledge with structural restoration on a series of 2D transects.
Existing models for the area have been reviewed and critically assessed and a revised geological history as well as geological model is proposed here. In common with existing models, disharmonic folding and thrusting has been observed between the Thamama and the Aruma Groups and a detachment or series of detachments within the Aruma have been recognised.
The structural style is dominated by a series of widely spaced high-angle reverse faults with prominent antithetic faults or back-thrusts. Here we propose that the high-angle reverse faults comprise a series of transpressional structures developed during the Late Cretaceous. These structures acted as buttresses to the westward migration of the foldbelt during the Cenozoic. Emplacement of the Semail Ophiolite during the Late Cretaceous was followed by gravitational collapse and bulldozing of the Aruma Group sediments during the Eocene to Oligocene. This bulldozing is observed to cause imbrication, isoclinal folding and tectonic thickening of the Aruma Group immediately to the east of the thrust front. Deformation is observed to affect the lower sections of the Pabdeh Formation as well as the entire Aruma Group. Onlap surfaces and tectonically induced dipping of the Pabdeh and Fars Formations indicates that the area underwent further compressional reactivation in association with the Main Zagros deformation phase during the Miocene.
Our improved understanding of the timing of Cenozoic thrusting and transpression, integration with basin modeling to define key petroleum systems events, and identification of common features in success-case prospects has significant implications for identifying further exploration potential in the area.
Luca Spaggiari
Eni
Luca is a structural geologist for Eni based in Milan. He holds BS degree in Geological Sciences (2012) and MS degree in Earth Sciences from University of Milan (2015). With valuable academic and practical experience in geological mapping and collection of field structural data, he started his career in the Basin Geology Dept. of Eni in 2015. Currently, he is dealing with seismic interpretation and multiscale structural study and leading an R&D project for seismic interpretation with Machine Learning approaches.
Francesca Di Falco
Eni
Francesca received a B.S. in Geological Sciences (2015) and a M.S. in Applied Geology with Geophysics option (2018) from the University of Naples. With practical experience in the geophysical data acquisition and processing as well as in the field of the integrated petroleum system analysis (AAPG’s Imperial Barrel Award Program), she joined Eni (H.Q. in Milan) in 2018 in the Basin Geology Dept., where she is currently working as a geophysicist. Her activity concentrates on gravity and magnetic data processing and interpretation as also on the integration of such datasets with geophysical and geological data (seismic, wells, geological maps, outcrops) in order to maximise their use in the hydrocarbon exploration.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Eni approach to support the hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment through integrated multiscale structural and gravity analysis: the offshore RAK case study
The structural subsurface characterization at different scales plays a key role in the hydrocarbon exploration, from play identification and prospect generation to well planning development and optimization. Faults and fractures can act as barriers or conduits and when they trap hydrocarbons, even minor fault blocks can hold residual potential or separate areas with different pressure regimes. A proprietary workflow, based on high-resolution gravity data integrated with structural analysis, has been developed in Eni in order to support the hydrocarbon prospectivity assessment both in frontier and more mature areas. The method provides useful tools to improve the exploration process efficiency, allowing faster decision making, time-saving and ensuring more reliable results. It integrates geological and geophysical evidences arising from seismic interpretation, a proprietary workflow named T-Frac (Tectonic Fracture Recognition and Characterization) and the FTG (Full Tensor Gradiometry) technology to build a full-field fracture model, characterizing the discontinuity system at different scales. The T-Frac approach is based on the assumption that lineaments, visible on structural seismic attributes slices (e.g. coherency, curvature), are an expression of medium to large scale tectonic events. Automatic extraction and statistical analysis (length, orientation, density and distribution) of such lineaments through proprietary digital tools (Petrel plugins) provide drivers that act as proxy for the sub-seismic structural characterization and Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) building. On the other hand, the FTG is a multicomponent high-resolution gravity surveying technology that measures different components of the Gravity Gradient Tensor, whose impact may be significant on mapping geological bodies, contact information and complex structural frameworks where density contrasts occur. The data volume, which accounts for the high-frequency content uniquely associated with near surface geology, can be optimally evaluated by using edge analysis techniques and invariants representations, enabling the geological models fine-tuning at different scales. In this study is presented an application of the methodology in the offshore Northern Emirates, an area of complex geology, characterized by autochthonous and allochthonous thrust sheets, as also by both compressional and salt tectonics in the foreland domain. The presented workflow provides integrated deliverables, highlighting the correlations between density contrast and fracture distribution, to be used as additional constraints for hydrocarbon resource evaluation, reservoir model building and future drilling activities. The application of the approach is expected to increase the probability of success in this region, which still host a potential yet to be discovered.
Registration Rates
| EAGE Member | € 125 |
| Non-Member (Includes EAGE Membership) | € 225 |
| EAGE Student Member | € 75 |
| Student Non-Member | € 100 |
Contact
For more information on this event, please contact the EAGE Middle East & Africa Officemiddle_east@eage.org | +971 4 369 3897