Welcome to the Global Hotspots Series | Africa
RE-ENERGISING AND POSITIONING UPSTREAM EXPLORATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
Showcasing Recent Success and Upcoming Investment Initiatives
17-18 February 2021 | Online
Event Overview
On 17-18 February 2021, EAGE held an online event on Re-energising and Positioning Upstream Exploration in Southern Africa, with the main focus of the event being on showcasing recent successes and upcoming investment initiatives. Below are some of the topics and sessions that were addressed:
- Government and regulator policies & strategies to protect and develop the oil and gas business
- Upcoming licensing round announcements and bid terms
- Recent exploration success & upcoming wells to watch
- Trends and developments on M&A transactions
- New players on the block
- Championing net zero in Southern Africa - Transition to Gas but where and how ?
- Session on technology
PROGRAMME
Wednesday, 17 February 2021
All timings are per GMT
| 10.00 AM | Welcome Address by Charles Thomas |
Renewed and Reformed - the role of Government in E&PModerator: Charles Thomas (Striped Horse) | |
| 10.10 AM | Namibian Petroleum Legal Framework: Unlocking the Hydrocarbon Resource Potential of Namibia Maggy Shino (Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy) |
| 10.35 AM | Marginal fields and Local Content – How to Align Expectations Belarmino Chitangueleca (ANPG Angola) |
| 11.00 AM | Towards Improving Readiness of the Oil and Gas Industry in South Africa Adrian Strydom (South African Oil & Gas Alliance) |
| 11.25 AM | Break |
Recent Exploration Success & Upcoming Wells to WatchModerator: Karyna Rodriguez (Searcher Seismic) | |
| 11.35 AM | Deep water discoveries and update on the upstream in South Africa Dave van der Spuy (Petroleum Agency SA) |
| 12.00 PM | Multiple high impact wildcats ready to spud across the Southern Africa region Peter Elliott (NVentures Ltd) |
| 12.25 PM | Petroleum geology and potential of Karoo related rift basins, NE Namibia and NW Botswana Scot Evans (Recon Africa) |
| 12.50 PM | Break |
Exploration Derisking and TechnologyModerator: Andy Sewell (Xodus) | |
| 1.00 PM | How modern CSEM data can be used as an exploration game changer in Africa Dag Hansen (EMGS) |
| 1.25 PM | Source Rock Conjugation in Future Exploration Offshore Southern South Africa Karyna Rodriguez (Searcher Seismic) |
| 1.50 PM | Onshore Kwanza: Exploring the pre-salt (Angola) Emily Kay (ION) |
| 2.15 PM | Extended Q&A Session with Presenters |
| 2.45 PM | End of Day 1 |
Thursday, 18 February 2021
All timings are per GMT
| 10.00 AM | Keynote: The Ever-Changing Dynamics of the International Oil & Gas Industry Tako Koning (Energy Consultant) |
The Role of Independents & Local Content SME's in Southern AfricaModerator: Karyna Rodriguez (Searcher Seismic) | |
| 10.30 AM | Namibia Exploration: How Past Knowledge Can Shape Future Opportunities Daniel Rodriguez (Galp) |
| 10.55 AM | A new look at an old basin; Gamtoos Basin, offshore South Africa Gavin Elliott (New Age) |
| 11.20 AM | Angola – Oil & Gas New Rules, Regulations and Upcoming Events Dilo Sa (Striped Horse) |
| 11.45 AM | Ten billion bbls prospective resources, deepwater Comoros Curtis Cohen (Petroleum Exploration Consulting) |
| 12.10 PM | Break |
Upstream E&P and the Energy transitionModerator: Gavin Elliott (New Age) | |
| 12.20 PM | Responsible utilisation of gas resources to power economic growth in southern Africa Andrew Sewell (Xodus) |
| 12.45 PM | Are net-zero offshore operations possible? Michael King (Ocean Infinity) |
| 1.10 PM | Cabora Bassa Basin – The next major oil and gas province in Africa? Scott Macmillan (Invictus Energy) |
| 1.35 PM | Things to do when you’re not looking for Oil and Gas - novel application of technologies for mapping of Sea Bed Minerals and Ground water resources Lucy MacGregor (Ocean Floor Geophysics) |
| 2.00 PM | Extended Q&A Session with all presenters |
| 2.30 PM | End of event |
EVENT CHAIRMAN
Charles Thomas
Striped Horse Resources Ltd
Charles Thomas is the founder and managing director of Striped Horse Resources Ltd. He has previously held technical, business development and leadership roles with EMGS ASA and Halliburton, where he spent 17 years working and living in various African locations including Lagos, Luanda, Cairo and Cape Town. In his early career phase, Charles spent two years as an offshore engineer with Halliburton Energy Services working in West Africa. He then spent three years working at BG International in Reading (UK) as a contractor in their upstream technical computing group.
Charles graduated from the University of Liverpool with a joint honors degree in Physical Geology and Geomorphology (1994). He also holds a master's degree in Petroleum Geoscience from Imperial College, London (1995). With 25 years of continuous industry experience, Charles has been involved in a wide variety of technical & commercial upstream projects throughout Africa and has long established relationships with key African NOC's, Ministries and Regulators.
MEET OUR PRESENTERS
Maggy Shino
Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy
Maggy Shino heads the Exploration, Production and Promotion division within the Petroleum Directorate of the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy. Mrs Shino has ten years’ experience in the exploration and production sector of the oil and gas industry and two years’ experience in renewable energy. Her current role as the Petroleum Commissioner involves amongst other responsibilities the promotion of oil and gas investments, negotiating Petroleum Agreements, issuing of licenses and the administration of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act. Mrs Shino has served as a Board member of Namibia’s Petroleum Training and Education Fund (Petrofund) since 2012. Mrs Shino holds a Masters degree in Petroleum Geochemistry from the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom, a BSc degree in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Namibia and a diploma in Upstream Management of Petroleum Development and Operations from PETRAD, Stavanger in Norway. She has attended trainings in various petroleum related fields including Oil, Gas and Mining Governance from Blavatnik School of Governance at the University of Oxford. Mrs Shino is the recipient of the Global Women Petroleum & Energy in Africa 2017 Award that was bestowed upon her at the 9th Global Women Petroleum & Energy Club for Africa.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Namibian Petroleum Legal Framework: Unlocking the Hydrocarbon Resource Potential of Namibia
Tako Koning
Energy Consultant
Tako Koning has over 40 years of oil and gas experience as a geologist and manager, including almost 30 years with Texaco in Canada, Indonesia, Nigeria and Angola. From 2003 to 2015, he was employed as a consultant in Luanda, Angola with Tullow Oil and Gaffney, Cline & Associates (GCA). In the past three decades, Tako has published over 150 abstracts and presented papers worldwide on geology of Sumatra, Canadian east coast geology, Nigeria and Angola geological and geophysical overviews, and exploration and development of fractured and weathered basement reservoirs. He has closely followed the issue of basement oil and gas reservoirs since 1982 when Tako worked on such a field in Sumatra and subsequently have published papers on it with the Indonesia Petroleum Association, Geological Society of London and most recently in the Russian scientific journal Georesources. Tako has given presentations on basement reservoirs in London, Lagos, Abuja, Cape Town, Istanbul, Singapore, Jakarta, Calgary, Pittsburgh and in September, 2019 at an international conference in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia gave a presentation on "Exploring in Asia and Africa for Oil & Gas in Naturally Fractured Basement Reservoirs - Best Practices & Lessons Learned". Tako moved back to Canada in 2015, doing consulting work on overseas oil and gas projects. During his time in Angola (1995 - 2015), Tako was involved for 8 years as a volunteer Residential Representative with water (drinking water) of Yme Foundation, a Norwegian NGO. He also served on the boards of professional societies including the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Society of Petrophysicists & Well Log Analysts (SPWLA) and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). For the past three years, Tako has been a board member of Calgary's Marda Loop Justice Film Festival. He graduated with a B.Sc. in Geology in 1971 from the University of Alberta and a B.A. in Economics in 1981 from the University of Calgary.
KEYNOTE TITLE | The Ever-Changing Dynamics of the International Oil & Gas Industry
Belarmino Chitangueleca
ANPG
Belarmino Chitangueleca holds a BSc in Mining Engineering from Agostinho Neto University,Luanda - Angola and a MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Scotland –UK. Over his 30 years work experience in the oil and gas industry, he worked at severalcompanies including (1) Cabinda Gulf Oil Company LTD (Chevron), in Cabinda (Angola) as SeniorDrilling Superintendent and Asset Manager; (2) Chevron Corporation Global Upstream and Gas,in Texas and Louisiana (USA) as Sponsor for Drilling and Completions International Workforce,and Deepwater Operations Consultant Engineer “ Gulf of Mexico”; (3) Sonangol (Concessionaire)in Luanda (Angola) as Production Manager before joining ANPG where he holds the position ofExecutive Member of the Board of Directors, for the upstream business.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Marginal fields and Local Content – How to Align Expectations
About a year ago the Government of Angola approved legislation to give incentives to oil operators to develop marginal fields in Angolan oil and gas concessions. About 4.5 billion of barrels of contingent resources of oil have remained underground waiting for opportunities to be monetized.The original production sharing contracts (PSC), under which contractual terms such discoveries were made, did not support economic hurdles required to pass funding investment decisions.After legislation was passed, expectations were set high to finally see those opportunities translated into development projects and move into the right direction. However, each one of the opportunities has yet to be ranked against other opportunities that investors (international oil companies and associates) may have in their global portfolio.The objectives of this presentation is to review our strategy as far as the operationalization of the decree that gives approval for such incentives and see how the newly approved LocalContent Law may expedite the process and help overcome many other challenges that come with the global ranking of investor ́s portfolio and have our marginal oil accumulations take off the ground transforming resources into reserves and then into production (R2R2P).
Adrian Strydom
South African Oil and Gas Alliance (SAOGA)
Adrian was Programme Manager with SAOGA since 2009, where he headed up the Skills Development Division. Prior to accepting the position with SAOGA, Adrian was Director of the Centre for Open Learning at the University of Cape Town where he also served on the UCT Senior Staff Management Group and Higher Education Development Committee. He worked at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (previously Peninsula Technikon) for 17 years, where he was Director of the Centre for Continuing Education (CCE), Senior Lecturer and Lecturer respectively. Adrian was employed in the FET College sector for several years, as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer and worked in the City Engineer’s Department of the City of Cape Town as a Professional Assistant. He lead a number of significant local and international projects such as; Project Director of an Australian/South African Technology Education Project, Vice Chair of the Adult Education Standard Generating Body nationally, established Learning Circles in prisons, lead research in a Ford Foundation funded skills project. He spearheaded the development of degree programmes in Technology Education and ABET respectively. Adrian is Chair of South African Presidential Phakisa work group on offshore skills and represents the South African Minister of Higher Education on the Northlink College Council. He serves on the Advisory Board of SAIMI, based at Nelson Mandela University.
Adrian is a life-long learner. His first qualification was in Civil Engineering. In addition to which he holds degrees in Psychology, Economics, Education and Business Administration from UNISA and the University of Stellenbosch, Business School respectively. He is a trained life coach.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Towards Improving Readiness of the Oil and Gas Industry in South Africa
David van der Spuy
Petroleum Agency SA
David has been involved in the South African oil and gas industry for over 30 years. He started his career as a geochemist with SOEKOR and has worked for Halliburton, and as an independent consultant. Since 1990, he has been with Petroleum Agency SA where he has worked as a geochemist and general exploration geologist, and now holds the position of Conventional Resource Evaluation Manager. He manages a team responsible for appraising South Africa’s offshore resources, as well as promoting South Africa’s offshore to local and international oil and gas explorers. He holds degrees in geology and geochemistry, and a post-graduate diploma in management and has published widely, mostly on the petroleum geology of offshore South Africa. In 2014 he was awarded the PetroAfricanus Excellence in Africa award, in recognition of his efforts in attracting international explorers to South Africa.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Deep water discoveries and update on the upstream in South Africa
This presentation looks at the role of South Africa’s upstream regulator and focuses on the latest upstream activity taking place in the country. It offers an in depth look at the latest deep-water gas condensate discoveries in the southern Outeniqua Basin at the Brulpadda and Luiperdpadda sites, where three further prospects have been mapped in the greater Paddavissie play. A new play has also been mapped to the east. Upcoming drilling offshore and production developments onshore are also discussed.
Karyna Rodriguez
Searcher Seismic
Karyna is a Petroleum Geoscientist with 30 years multidisciplinary technical experience in global exploration-inclined projects. She possesses diverse experience from her time at PEMEX, BG and other major oil companies, including regional seismic interpretation, prospect generation, amplitude anomaly and sequence stratigraphic play analyses, integrated reservoir characterization field studies and prospect and volumetric chance evaluation. She has also worked closely with high level management to develop their strategic portfolios. She currently works at Searcher as part of a high performing team dedicated to Identifying, pursuing, and realizing new ventures to support efforts in optimizing exploration for oil and gas in mature and frontier basins around the globe.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Source Rock Conjugation in Future Exploration Offshore Southern South Africa
South Africa is once again in the spotlight with Luiperd-1 announced as a significant gas and condensate discovery following the Brulpadda-1 play opener in the Outeniqua Basin. Lower Cretaceous, Barremian to Albian source rocks have been interpreted all along the western margin of southern Africa but had not been associated with large hydrocarbon accumulations prior to Brulpadda and Luiperd discoveries. Along with many other recent discoveries, this is forcing us to break old paradigms related to source rock quality, thermal maturity, reservoir presence and trapping geometries in deep-water basins.
Gavin Elliott
New African Global Energy
Gavin has over 15 years of experience in exploration from basin to prospect scale and would like to think he has some knowledge of tectono-stratigraphic evolution of sedimentary basins and continental margins. Gavin has held Senior Geoscientist positions in Lukoil, New Age and CNOOC International working in both asset exploration and business development roles across 24 basins along both the Central and South Atlantic margins including South Africa for the last 2 years.
PRESENTATION TITLE | A new look at an old basin: Gamtoos Basin, offshore South Africa
The presentation will provide new insights into exploration in the Gamtoos Basin using new data and new ideas to unlock potential of a basin that has been explored for that last 40 years and has teased us with working petroleum systems elements. The talk will review previous exploration campaigns and using the insights from analogous basin worldwide to help predict the presence of reservoirs.
Andrew Sewell
Xodus Group
Andrew Sewell is Xodus Group’s director of subsurface. He has close to 30 years’ experience working in the oil and gas industry, initially as a geophysicist. Sewell has worked across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe delivering projects including exploration management, field development planning, and M&A support. He holds an MA in Physics from the University of Cambridge. As part of Xodus’ Advisory team, he is involved in both oil & gas, and energy transition projects and regularly works with banks, private equity firms, and oil & gas operators. Sewell may be reached at advisory@xodusgroup.com.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Responsible Utilisation of Gas Resources to Power Economic Growth in Southern Africa
Southern Africa from Angola around to Mozambique will have large resources of natural gas in offshore hydrocarbon fields that could be used as an engine for economic growth in the region over the next twenty years. This presentation looks at how large the primary energy demand will be in the region through to 2040 and at how this demand may be met by a combination of hydrocarbon and renewable energy sources. Will there be a need to use the gas locally, or will southern Africa be able to leapfrog hydrocarbons and go straight to a widespread use of renewables? If natural gas is required to meet the large potential demand for energy from a growing population that is getting wealthier, then how can it be utilised both economically and responsibly when compared to renewables?
Scot Evans
Reconnaissance Energy Africa
Scot Evans is a geologist and energy industry leader with a combined 35 years of experience with Exxon, Landmark Graphics and Halliburton. In his last position, Mr. Evans served as Vice President of Halliburton’s Integrated Asset Management and Technical Consulting organizations, where he grew production from 20K to over 100K barrels of oil equivalent per day, creating the equivalent of a Mid-Cap upstream oil company. Mr. Evans’ experience in the US extends to the Delaware, Midland, Eagle Ford and Monterey plays, and internationally in Algeria, Kuwait, India, Russia, Angola, Ecuador and Mexico. He is an expert in new resource development.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Petroleum geology and potential of Karoo related rift basins, NE Namibia and NW Botswana
This presentation will illustrate recent technical work that has identified a significant deep sedimentary basin below the Kalahari Desert in NE Namibia and NW Botswana. Termed the Kavango Basin, the basin geometry is clearly defined by recent high density/quality aeromagnetic data. This extensional basin is part of the Southern Trans Africa Rift and Shear System (STARSS). Extension initiated in early Permian time, and should harbor deposition of a thick section of Karoo Super Group source, reservoir and seal sections. Drilling of a 3 well program and 2D seismic acquisition will initiate in December 2020.
Dag Helland-Hansen
EMGS
Dag Helland-Hansen has worked in the Oil & Gas business for 26 years, within the areas of exploration, development and production with small Norwegian to American super-major oil companies and now the last 3 years in a geophysical service company. He has a MSc in geophysics from the Norwegian Institute of Technology and a MSc in Reservoir Evaluation and Management from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Dag has a broad geoscience background with a specialty in quantitative seismic interpretation and the practical use of such data in geoscience interpretation and hydrocarbon volumetric and risk assessment. His background spans from frontier play assessments, through prospect generation/maturation to planning and drilling exploration and appraisal wells and finally valuation of development projects and producing assets. In last 15 years Dag have progressed into team-lead and various managerial positions while keeping a technical momentum. Currently he is the EVP of Global Sales and Marketing while at the same time acting as the Global Exploration Advisor with EMGS.
PRESENTATION TITLE | How modern CSEM can be used as an exploration game changer in Africa
We demonstrate with case examples how the marine Controlled Source Electromagnetic (CSEM) technology has developed and matured into a robust geophysical technology with appropriate workflows and proper understanding of its applicability. Legacy African CSEM data examples shows how the same improvement is valid in West Africa and we discuss how new modelling results demonstrates that the application of the technology will change the African exploration game.
Peter Elliott
NVentures Ltd
Peter holds a degree in Geology and an MSc in Petroleum Geology. He has 25 years experience in the international oil and gas industry working in New Ventures and Business Development. He has recent experience of building oil company JVs in West Africa, including Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal AGC, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea.
He has recent experience managing exploration contracts and work programmes, including frontier programmes in West Africa and works closely with African Oil and gas companies and service companies. Peter has a track record of advising large cap companies and small start-ups in identifying and securing suitable growth assets in Africa. Recognised as a specialist in Sub-Saharan Africa, he has completed deals with the likes of Oando (Sao Tome), Black Star (Guinea Bissau), Talisman (Sierra Leone) and Rocksource (AGC) Peter and team constantly research and report on Africa E&P activity, providing valuable insight to clients around the world and regularly speaking at major industry events.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Multiple High Impact Wildcats Ready to Spud Across the Southern Africa Region
After a slow-down in exploration drilling across the region, exploration companies are geared up to commence a number of exciting wildcats campaigns from Namibia to Mozambique. Using insights from the NVentures database, we present six prospects where the operator is energetically pursuing a spud date, and the results are expected to be significant for the frontier basins across this region. The Orange Basin in Namibia and South Africa, West Cape coastal basin, Owambo/Kavango basin onshore Namibia, Durban/Transkei basin offshore S Africa, Cabora Bassa onshore Zimbabwe and the offshore Angoche basin in Mozambique will all host world class exploration campaigns in the next 12 to 24 months. The focus on hydrocarbons in the new Energy Mix is gradually regaining ground, and these vital campaigns will determine economic development in and around many of these wildcat basins.
Daniel Rodrigues
Galp
Daniel is a Geologist from the University of Lisbon and an MSc in Petroleum Geoscience from the Heriot Watt University with over 12 years of experience in the O&G industry. Begun his career working for a service company in North Africa and the North Sea before joining Galp in 2012. In 2016 was assigned as a Technical Lead for the team working in PEL82 and PEL83 assets in Namibia with a close proximity to all activities done by Galp in country.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Namibia Exploration: How Past Knowledge Can Shape Future Opportunities
Galp’s presence in both the Walvis & Orange Basins in Namibia for more than 8 years, places us in a privileged position to understand the petroleum systems present in Namibia. Lessons learned from previous drilling campaigns, including the three wells which we participated directly in, coupled with new high-quality 3D seismic, has helped Galp focus on new targets and identify new prospects, and has further enlightened what we know of the Namibian margin.
Curtis Cohen
Petroleum Exploration Consulting
Curtis Cohen is a graduate of The University of Chicago Lab Schools, Lawrence College and Columbia University. A geoscientist by training, he has four decades experience, half with majors Gulf Oil in Latin America and Esso affiliates in Norway, France, UK, Spain, Turkey, Somalia, Nigeria, Australia, Texas and Exxon NJ Corporate HQ. After the majors, Curtis led exploration in Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand, UK and Denmark at Pogo Producing and following Pogo's merger, Curtis ran exploration in Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kurdistan, Thailand and Laos for pre-IPO startup Terralliance Technologies. Since then, Curtis led indigenous Nigerian independents Sahara and Brittania to first production, doubling production, as well as IOC producing asset acquisitions. For the past four years he has consulted on Nigeria and the Comoros. Curtis is a member of the SEG, AAPG and SPE, a biographee in Who's Who in Frontiers of Science and Technology, and the author of two dozen professional papers the most recent of which on Tsunamis and Earthquakes in subduction zones was just published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Ten billion bbls prospective resources, deepwater Comoros
Since 2009 when the first giant gas discoveries were made in Mozambique and Tanzania, seismic contractors helped build the case for the extension into deeper water of lower oil legs within basin floor fan facies there. New 2D spec seismic first acquired in Comoros in 2011 was infilled in 2014 when the first deepwater leases were awarded to Discover Exploration and Western Energy. Comoros water depths at 3 km are 1 km deeper than fields on the slope in Areas 1 and 4 in Mozambique and, unlike them, are on oceanic crust that formed as Madagascar separated from East Africa, opening the Somali Basin. Seismic data tied to wells in Mozambique show the presence in the Comoros of giant untested, inverted anticlinal structures larger than Paris or Houston and as big as Bahrain. Oil prone Type II source rocks off-structure are modelled to have matured in the Tertiary and today these remain in the oil window, supported by the presence of surface oil seeps. Isopachs on structure prove inversion and support the presence there of compaction resistant, sand prone reservoirs within basin floor fan facies. New 3D has already been acquired by Discover; Western's survey is in preparation.
Emily Kay
ION
Emily is an Exploration Geoscientist with over 8 years experience within seismic based service companies in the oil and gas industry. She has a wealth of experience of evaluating both geological and geophysical data from regional to prospect scale. She has specialist knowledge of the provision of geological input and technical interpretation support for velocity model building projects in a variety of basins and tectonic settings. Emily has undertaken numerous prospectivity evaluations of 2D and 3D seismic datasets; from truly frontier acreage right through to mature basins. Emily currently works at ION within the Investment & Programme Assurance Group.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Onshore Kwanza: Exploring the pre-salt
The Onshore Kwanza basin has historically had exploration success within post-salt Albian carbonates and Tertiary clastics in structural and combination traps. The first commercial discovery (Benfica) was made in 1955 and the most recent exploration well was drilled in 1982. A license round has been announced for 2021 offering 6 blocks for license. This presentation will present an evaluation of the most recent (2012) 2D seismic dataset and discuss the remaining potential in the basin, particularly within the pre-salt which was not historically targeted onshore but has seen recent exploration success in the Offshore Kwanza basin.
Dilo Sá
Striped Horse
Dilo Sá is a managing Partner of Striped Horse Atlantic Limited. Dilo has over 17 years industry experience in the upstream E&P exploration business having initially worked as a Geoscientist for the Angolan state oil company and its different subsidiaries such as Sonangol-DEX, SonaGas, and Sonangol P&P and more recently as a Geophysicist for BP Angola in Exploration and Development for Block 31 & 18.
Dilo graduated from Texas A&M University (USA) with a degree in Geophysics (2002). He also holds a Master´s degree in Structural Geology with Geophysics from the University of Leeds, UK (2005).
PRESENTATION TITLE | Angola – Oil & Gas New Rules, Regulations and Upcoming Events
Angola, one of the largest African oil producers, for some years now, has been experiencing a natural decline in its production, due to the disinvestment in research and the maturation of fields in production. Since 2017 that the government has been approving and publishing new legal packages to restructure the oil and gas sector, in order to intensify the replacement of reserves, aiming to mitigate the decline in hydrocarbon production, attracting new and greater foreign and also national investment, and creating new business opportunities.
This presentation will make a brief summary of the recent updates of the legal framework made public in Angola, by the new government, to re-energize the sector, focusing on the new rules of local content, the new block licensing strategy, the exploration strategy for 2020-2025 by the concessionaire and its recent results, and what are the events in attention to be carried out in the coming periods.
Michael King
Ocean Infinity
With a technical background as a geophysicist, Michael started his career working offshore in oil and gas exploration across the world, and subsequently on shallow and coastal hydrographic surveys in Europe. This was followed by a move into project management, where he gained extensive experience across a range of oil and gas projects, within the offshore renewables sector and for the subsea cables market in the UK and Europe. Since 2016, he has been focussed on business development and innovation, responsible for providing strategic commercial support and insight, with particular concentration on uncrewed systems and their applications. He is currently a senior member of the commercial team at Ocean Infinity, responsible for their new Armada Fleet, and sits on numerous industry advisory and steering committees, including IMCA’s USV Workgroup and the Marine Studies Group of the Geological Society.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Are net-zero offshore operations possible?
Ocean Infinity are world leaders in the use of multiple autonomous marine robotic systems. Through the use of uncrewed underwater and surface survey platforms, offshore data collection can be accomplished far more efficiently, significantly reducing offshore exposure hours and reducing the carbon footprint of projects. However, the industry is now at a point where moving towards a truly robotic operational model allows even greater reduction in offshore personnel, and technological advances allow projects to be completed with no one at sea. New-build hybrid robotic ships provide a platform for a range of offshore data acquisition projects whilst simultaneously proving the option for net-zero carbon operations – but there are significant challenges to be overcome.
Scott Macmillan
Invictus Energy Ltd
Scott Macmillan is Managing Director and founder of Invictus Energy Ltd based in Perth, Australia. Scott is a reservoir engineer and member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) who has worked in various technical and commercial roles for Woodside and AWE. He has broad international experience in Australia, South East Asia and Africa. Scott holds a degree in chemical engineering and petroleum engineering.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Cabora Bassa Basin – The next major oil and gas province in Africa?
An overview presentation of the Cabora Bassa Basin in Zimbabwe and the Mzarabani prospect a huge four way dip closed multi-tcf and liquid rich target – the largest undrilled seismically defined prospect onshore Africa.
Lucy MacGregor
Ocean Floor Geophysics
Lucy MacGregor is a leading researcher in multi-physics analysis with particular expertise in the integration of electromagnetic methods into reservoir characterisation workflows. She served as SEG Honorary Lecturer in Europe in 2011, and will serve as the SEG Distinguished lecturer in the first half of 2021.
Lucy has a PhD from the University of Cambridge for research in the field of marine controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) methods and over 25 years’ experience in marine EM surveying and its application to the detection and characterisation of fluids in the earth. Following her PhD, Lucy was a Green Scholar at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California working on marine CSEM methods, before returning to Cambridge as a Leverhulme Trust research fellow at Downing College.
In 2000 she moved to the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton as a NERC research fellow to continue her work, and took part in the first survey targeting CSEM at hydrocarbon reservoirs. In 2002, Lucy co-founded OHM and joined the company as CTO. She remained with the company, through its merger with Rock Solid Images, until December 2018, leading the company’s technical group which specialised in rock physics driven quantitative reservoir characterisation and multi-physics analysis. Lucy co-founded Edinburgh Geoscience Advisors in 2019.
PRESENTATION TITLE | Things to do when you’re not looking for Oil and Gas - novel application of technologies for mapping of Sea Bed Minerals and Ground water resources
In recent years the importance of combining diverse geophysical datasets in multiphysics workflows has been demonstrated. In the upstream oil and gas industry, approaches that integrate seismic and electromagnetic data have been used successfully to improve imaging in areas of complex geology (for example around basalt or salt), leading to greater understanding of structure and stratigraphy. Similarly, rock physics driven workflows combining pre-stack seismic and controlled source electromagnetic data have been used to distinguish commercial from sub-commercial hydrocarbon accumulations, something that is notoriously challenging using seismic alone, leading to better exploration decision making.
The lessons learned in hydrocarbon exploration have application in other fields that are of both social and economic importance. Two examples are considered here. The first is the mapping and characterisation of offshore aquifers containing freshened groundwater. Identified globally, these represent an important resource, with the potential to contribute to the needs of growing populations and industrial requirements. However careful mapping is required to understand such resources and allow their sustainable exploitation. The second example examines the mapping of seafloor mineral accumulations. With greater reliance on electronics and battery technology as the world transitions to renewable energy, the need for rare earth elements and metals is increasing. Offshore accumulations represent an important resource, but one that must be carefully characterised and understood to ensure it is used in a responsible manner.
In both cases combining multiple geophysical approaches, exploiting the technical and operational synergies between them, leads to a better understanding of the sub-surface.
Local Registration Rates*
| EAGE Member | € 75 |
| Non-Member (Does not include EAGE Membership) | € 75 |
| EAGE Student Member | € 25 |
| Student Non-Member | € 25 |
Global Registration Rates*
| EAGE Member | € 200 |
| Non-Member (Includes EAGE Membership) | € 300 |
| EAGE Student Member | € 125 |
| Student Non-Member | € 150 |
Contact
For more information on this event, please contact the EAGE Middle East & Africa Officemiddle_east@eage.org | +971 4 369 3897