The search for mountains of oil: Exploration activity in the Atlantic Margin, West Of Shetland

摘要

BP Amoco and Shell have been major participants in the ex-plorationactivity in the deep water, West of Shetland,U.K.C.S. which has led to two new oil fields producing lessthan 6 years after discovery. The discovery of Foinaven andSchiehallion, both named after Scottish mountains, not onlyinvolved detailed technical understanding of the seismic re-sponseand rock properties, but also commitment by the par-ticipantsto the vision of opening a new basin.This paper reviews the historical exploration effort West ofShetland (W.o.S.) and then focuses on BP's discovery of boththe producing fields. It describes the critical role of integratingcareful seismic processing/analysis with the rock and fluidproperties to exploit the Direct Hydrocarbon Indicators(D.H.I.’s). These were applied to reduce exploration risk andbuild the drilling strategy.The discoveries also fundamentally changed the oil industry'sperception of the basin. This led to a large investment in newacreage, widespread 3-D seismic surveys and a flurry ofdeepwater drilling activity. However, to date, no commercialdiscoveries have been announced outwith the main Foinaven-Schiehallionfairway. This paper concludes with an overviewof the type of future opportunities that may exist within thebasin.