New Trove Of Information Opens Up For Oil Exploration

Media Release from GNS Science

27 April 2012

New Trove Of Information Opens Up For Oil Exploration Industry

A wide range of new geoscience information has become instantly available to the petroleum exploration industry with the culmination of a two-year project by a team of researchers at GNS Science.

Called the Petroleum Exploration and Geosciences Initiative (PEGI), it comprises 15 research data products designed to enhance knowledge of Taranaki and other key petroleum prospective basins around New Zealand.

The data products are freely available to the oil exploration industry, universities, and independent researchers.

A flagship component of the PEGI project is a new interactive web portal to provide easy access to New Zealand’s petroleum geoscience information.

Called the Petroleum Basin Explorer (PBE), it can be accessed at: http://data.gns.cri.nz/pbe

“Petroleum is New Zealand’s fourth largest export earner and there are large unexplored tracts of our sedimentary basins that could contain significant accumulations of petroleum,” said Director of the Geological Resources Division of GNS Science Kevin Faure.

“If all the geological factors are favourable then significant accumulations of oil potentially worth trillions of dollars could be waiting to be discovered in New Zealand’s basins, " Dr Faure said.

“The development of these resources would have a very significant impact on New Zealand’s future standard of living.”

Ready access to high quality data was one of the main requirements for exploration companies as they assess whether
a region is worth investing in.

The new geoscience information, and the ease with which it can be obtained, would help to significantly reduce the time and effort involved in deciding whether to commit to exploration.

“This project represents a giant leap forward in providing user-friendly information to the exploration industry.

“At the click of a mouse, users can now discover existing information that was previously hard to find, plus a wide range of new value-added information.”

In addition, the new portal had links to other data repositories, including the open-file petroleum archive administered by New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals.

The ultimate aim was to attract new companies to New Zealand as well as helping those already operating here. Increased exploration activity would markedly improve the chances of significant petroleum discoveries, Dr Faure said.

The PEGI project was a joint venture involving the Ministry of Economic Development and GNS Science. MED provided funding of $4 million and GNS Science provided $2 million. The initiative builds on decades of research by GNS Science undertaken through research contracts with the Ministry of Science and Innovation and its predecessor the Foundation for
Research Science and Technology.

A brief description of the 15 data products can be seen in the attached Word document. [below]

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Petroleum Exploration and Geosciences Initiative (PEGI) factsheet

The Petroleum Exploration and Geosciences Initiative (PEGI) is aimed at improving knowledge and access to information on New Zealand’s oil and gas resources.

PEGI projects are a range of evaluations and upgrades of knowledge on Taranaki and other key basins along with specialist studies of the geochemistry of oils and gases and their source rocks, detailed palaeontology control of wells, and screening of frontier basins.
All the products are freely available at the Petroleum Basin Explorer website: http://data.gns.cri.nz/pbe

A team of researchers at GNS Science spent two years developing the PEGI outputs. New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals and GNS Science both contributed funding for this project.

The individual data products under the PEGI projects are:

1. Petroleum Basin Explorer: An interactive web-based tool that allows users to access a wide range of geoscience data from across the New Zealand sub-continent. Petroleum Basin Explorer is the single interface for oil and gas explorers to freely access all PEGI outputs. Go to http://data.gns.cri.nz/pbe

2. Enhanced Frontier Basin Screening: Compilation, integration and digital delivery of metadata on Google Earth of all publicly available swath bathymetry and seismic data that assist in defining the presence of active petroleum systems between the New Zealand coastline and the extended continental shelf boundary. It includes a report on Direct Hydrocarbon Indicators in a selected area of the Canterbury Basin – Tools for Frontier Basin Screening.

3. Seismic Legacy Data QC: A programme to sort, organise, catalogue and upload seismic data and all related metadata into the New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals’ Data Management System, which can be accessed through NZP&M’s Online Exploration Database.

4. NZ Stratlink Project: A suite of interactive digital chronostratigraphic transects from four major exploration regions of New Zealand, referencing New Zealand strata (layers of sedimentary rock) to assist familiarisation and comparison of petroleum exploration basins using Timescale Creator. Containing selected exploration well and outcrop data.

5. Offshore Prospectivity Atlas: A New Zealand-wide compilation of geophysical data. Systematic evaluation of the basin fill and a basin-by-basin assessment of the potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources, initially for the East Coast and Pegasus Basins.

6. CONOP Correlation Taranaki: A quantitative stratigraphic analysis of 20 hydrocarbon exploration and appraisal wells distributed through the offshore Taranaki Basin using the method of constrained optimisation (CONOP). This study also includes some examples of application of the CONOP results to four Taranaki wells.

7. Offshore Taranaki Seismic Sequence Stratigraphy: A set of five regional reference transects to appraise exploration opportunities across the Taranaki Basin, including seismic base images, stratigraphic unit interpretations and seismic facies and sequence stratigraphy interpretations.

8. Well Depth-Two-Way-Time (TWT) Calibration: A reference dataset from a range of 10 onshore and 42 offshore Taranaki wells comprising standardised and quality-controlled checkshot and other velocity information, and derivative conversions of well depth to TWT (two-way travel time).

9. Taranaki Reservoir Quality Database – Analytical Supplement: Enhancement of an existing digital reservoir quality database for Taranaki through compilation and collection of additional data such as core plug descriptions and Special Core Analysis (SCAL) from open-file petroleum reports. It includes a new mineralogical database.

10. Digital Well Log Evaluation Database and Petrophysical Atlas: Wireline log evaluation of 20 wells over Taranaki and Canterbury Basins in New Zealand to develop a consistent methodology for determining basic petrophysical parameters that can be used to determine rock properties for assessment of reservoir and seal quality.

11. NZ Petroleum PVT Database: An Excel database of all open-file PVT (pressure-volume-temperature) data contained in New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals’ Petroleum Report archive. This provides data on 500+ petroleum fluid samples that can be used to model oil, gas and condensate volumes and compositions over the expected production history of a field, and can also be used in exploration to model whether a particular prospect is likely to contain oil or gas.

12. Extension of NZ Oils Database: Addition of molecular geochemical data for 50 New Zealand oils (and gas condensates) to the existing geochemical database of 80 oils.

13. NZ Oil Shows Database: A standardised geochemical database for 80+ key oil show samples from Taranaki, Canterbury and Great South Basins. Oil shows contain molecular geochemical fingerprints that will be matched to those of oil and gas condensate samples from successful wells to provide users with a more detailed picture of the petroleum “plumbing system” within these basins.

14. NZ Petroleum Isotope Database: Two new interpreted databases of compound-specific carbon and hydrogen isotope profiles for 175+ samples of oils, gases, gas condensates and source rocks in Taranaki and other New Zealand basins. These data will add to the understanding of genetic oil families and maturities provided by the Oil and Oil Show Databases. They will also contribute knowledge of the origins of major gas accumulations that the other geochemical data cannot provide, to help understanding of source, kitchen and migration paths.

15. Existing Products: A suite of eight existing GNS Science data products has been made freely available to the industry to aid understanding of the petroleum geology of Taranaki region. These products have been incorporated into Petroleum Basin Explorer and can be accessed through the Science Outputs menu option:
• Taranaki Basin Petroleum Atlas digitally remastered – regional compilation of the petroleum geology of the entire Taranaki basin.
• Offshore Taranaki phase matched seismic database. Integrated dataset from offshore northern Taranaki
• Reservoir quality in the Taranaki basin. A core based study of petrology and ‘poroperm’.
• Mudstone database in eastern margin Taranaki. A seal properties database of lithology along the eastern margin.
• Mangahewa project. Delineating geometrical reservoir distribution through the middle to late Eocene succession with the Taranaki Basin.
• Biostratigraphic review of offshore Taranaki. Review of the tie well biostratigraphy to complement seismic data for deepwater Taranaki.
• Taranaki digital well summary sheets. A collection of standardised composite logs.
• Cretaceous-Cenozoic geology and petroleum systems of the Taranaki basin. Interpretations of the geological origins and development of the Taranaki basin and resultant petroleum accumulations.

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