Fracture scaling parameters – the detailed relationship between the number of ‘big’ to ‘small’ fractures – are typically one of the most critical inputs when modelling naturally fractured reservoirs, and can have a profound influence on upscaled flow predictions. Scaling varies between different litho-stratigraphic units, and because of the inherent limits in seismic resolution, and the sparseness…

We’ve been following the renewed seismicity in the northern Zagros with great interest, including the recent Mw 6.3 and Mw 5.7 earthquakes on 25th November and 16th January. These events occurred in the general area of the Khanaqin lineament that is broadly coincident with the SE margin of the Kirkuk embayment in NE Iraq and the western…

Sometimes things happen a bit sooner than expected! Barely a month after Max Wilkinson (GRL’s GNSS expert) installed our latest network of autonomous ground monitoring units on the flanks of Etna, on December 24th the mountain started to rumble. Large amounts of ash billowed from the summit craters, followed by lava emission from newly opened…

Congratulations to GRL Chairman Bob Holdsworth, nominated for the 2018 NERC Economic Impact Awards for his scientific work related to faults and fracture networks in the fractured basement of the West of Shetland basin and its onshore analogues in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. The work of Bob and the team has helped to inform…

Our instrumentation expert Max Wilkinson is currently deploying a suite of our GNSS units at key locations on Etna, as part of our latest low-cost monitoring project, carried out with Fabian Wadsworth and colleagues at Durham University, in collaboration with INGV. Although Etna is already one of the most closely monitored volcanoes in the World,…

Fractured reservoirs and virtual outcrop geology are recurrent themes for us during a busy week at PETEX this month. We will be using examples from a range of well fractured outcrop analogues to illustrate how virtual outcrop technologies can provide continued value throughout the life of a field – catch us in the poster session…

Representatives from BP, Equinor, Shell, Aker BP, DEA, JX Nippon, OPL, Tangram, Vermilion, and others joined us for the pre-conference ‘Geology of Fractured Reservoirs’ fieldtrip to see coastal exposes of complex Zechstein carbonates, and enjoyed clear Autumn weather, great discussions on the outcrop, and some fine fish & chips!

Fractures and more fractures this month … more fracture measurements in the core store, more fractures studied in outcrop, more workshops delivered on fractured reservoirs, and then some more! … We’re really looking forward to the Geology of Fracture Reservoirs conference at the Geological Society, London next week. Our first presentation on Reducing uncertainty in…

It’s geothermal energy … but with a difference! Exciting work by our colleagues Charlotte Adams, Jon Gluyas and co-workers in Earth Sciences at Durham University is exploring the geothermal potential of extracting heat from groundwater in abandoned mine workings. Following the onset of the industrial revolution, coal extraction in the NE of England was prolific,…