An update on our work to monitor seismicity in central Italy (see September News 2016)… This year we’ve developed a ruggedized GPS (i.e. GNSS) unit to provide continuous, high resolution monitoring of ground movement in relation to underground gas storage, cavern and mine flooding, or hydraulic fracturing. We currently have units deployed on operative gas…

This month we’re busy presenting a diverse sample of our work in fracture network characterisation and unconventionals at PETEX (UK’s largest subsurface-focussed E&P conference and exhibition). This includes some key results from our large multi-disciplinary analysis of Zechstein reservoir properties, based on outcrop, core and production data. Main image (above): Fantastic fractures, vugs and stylolites…

For us, one positive consequence of the current industry downturn is that we’ve been able to spend more time writing-up the results from a whole range of projects that we’ve not had time to publish over the last 10 or 12 years! So now we’re busy dusting-off a variety of different datasets, and working on…

We’re currently involved in the scientific rapid-response to the August 24th central Italy earthquake. We’re carrying out a campaign of fieldwork with university researchers from Durham, Leeds, Sheffield, Birkbeck, and UCL, in close collaboration with Italian colleagues. This involves structural mapping of the coseismic expression of the surface rupture, alongside investigation of ongoing postseismic deformation in…

Work is progressing well in the “New Appraisal of the Western Approaches Basins” project, which is financed by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and facilitated by the Oil and Gas Authority as part of the government’s initiatives to increase activity on the UKCS. We’re part of a multi-faceted consortium led by…

We’ve released the latest phase of our Zagros Regional Mapping! It’s great to be able to see the end result of many hundreds of days work, combining outcrop geology satellite imagery and very extensive published data. This is the fourth iteration of our Zagros mapping since 2008, and by far the most detailed and comprehensive.…

July often tends to be a quiet period in the office, while many of our clients enjoy a Summer break. This year though, we’re rather busy: mainly working on the final stages of our detailed re-mapping of Zagros geology. However, we’ve also made a bit of time for some outreach activities … firstly, to help…

Just on the way back from a great trip to the AAPG Annual Convention & Exhibition in Calgary… not a cowboy in sight, but there was a palpable vibe throughout the conference that made it much more upbeat than other recent events we’ve attended. And as always in Calgary, there was some spectacular geology close to hand:…

A busy month with more industry-focused conferences… We’ll be at the Geological Society on May 19th for Finding Petroleum’s meeting on the challenges of doing business in Iran. Obviously we have a very strong geoscience interest in the entire Zagros region, so it will be interesting to hear more about the wider business challenges facing…