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Conventional oil reserves in Colombia are depleted. The country´s reserve-to-production ratio is estimated as 5 years. Therefore, the search for new resources and their conversion into proven reserves are essential. In this case, the production of unconventional reservoirs is an option in Colombia. This work evaluates the technical and economic feasibility of the production of a Tight Oil source rock reservoir, considering parameters such as fracture shape factor, fracture propagation, fracture pressure, international oil price, petrophysical characteristics, fluid properties, drilling cost, completion, and fiscal regime. The methodological development of the work allowed concluding that this reservoir located in the middle Magdalena Valley basin has production potential and those factors such as the type of completion, drilling technique, and cost of lifting the resource have a significant impact on the viability of the project. Resumen Las reservas de petróleo proveniente de reservorios convenvionales en Colombia son escazas, la relación reserva/producción en el país es de 5 años. De esta manera, la búsqueda por nuevas reservas y producción de nuevos recursos son imprescindibles. Así, la producción de yacimientos no convencionales es una salida a la escasez de producción de crudo. Este trabajo evalúa la factibilidad técnica y económica de la producción de un yacimiento de roca generadora Tight Oil, fueron considerados parámetros como factor de forma de la fractura, propagación de la fractura, presión de fracturamiento, precio internacional del petróleo, características petrofísicas, propiedades de los fluidos, costo de perforación, completamiento y el régimen fiscal. El desarrollo metodológico del trabajo permitió concluir que este yacimiento ubicado en la cuenca del valle medio del magdalena tiene potencial de producción y que factores como el tipo de completamiento, técnica de perforación y costo del levantamiento del recurso tienen un impacto significativo en la viabilidad del proyecto.

Research on predicting the growth trend of natural gas reserves and production will help provide a scientific basis for natural gas exploration and development. The metabolically improved modified weight coefficient GM(1,n) method is applied to the multi-cycle Hubbert model to predict the trend of new proven natural gas reserves in the Sichuan Basin. The ultimate recoverable reserves (URR) is introduced as a boundary condition in the production-time series to predict the natural gas production growth. The research results show that: (1) The annual newly added proven natural gas reserves of the Sichuan Basin maintain a multi-cycle growth trend, which will reach the peak reserves in 2034, at which time the proven rate of natural gas will reach 36%. (2) Based on the predicted results of proven reserves, the final recoverable reserves of natural gas are estimated to be $$5.25-5.75\times {10}^{12}{m}^{3}$$ 5.25 - 5.75 × 10 12 m 3 . The production in 2035 will reach $$750-810\times {10}^{8}{\mathrm{m}}^{3}/\mathrm{a}$$ 750 - 810 × 10 8 m 3 / a , and production will grow rapidly. The exploration and development of natural gas in the basin will be prospective for a long time.

This paper examines the impact of oil resources endowment, measured by proven reserves and oil rents, on the economic growth in the presence of quality of governance factors. To address this issue,...

With the discovery of the Pre-Salt reserves, exploration of oil and gas is being strongly extended in Brazil, contributing to the recent increase of the demand for drilling capabilities. This paper discusses the impact of this oil discovery by assessing the relationship among the growth of proven reserves, the financial position of firms, and patent applications in the Brazilian upstream oil and gas industry. We provide empirical evidence indicating that firms with a lower financial performance prior to the pre-salt discovery were more aggressive in increasing the number of patent filings addressing technologies of the upstream oil and gas domain.

Natural gas exploration in SINOPEC's exploratory areas in the Sichuan Basin has achieved rapid development. Since discovering the Xinchang gas field, natural gas exploration has expanded gradually, with both reserves and production growing fast. The deepening understanding of geological theory and crucial technology's progress is the main driving force for the natural gas industry's significant development. Considering the rich natural gas resources, various types of promising targets, exploration degree of 16% of conventional natural gas, and the initial stage of shale gas exploration, the HCZ model predicted natural gas exploration. Additionally, it indicated that the shale gas in the SINOPEC exploratory areas in the Sichuan Basin would consistently have rapid development with proven reserves increasing by (160–200) × 109m3/a. In the future, the development strategy is to vigorously develop shale gas, steadily promote marine conventional natural gas, and continually research continental tight sandstone gas. The following tasks need to be strengthened for efficient exploration of the three resource types: prediction of deep and ultra-deep reef-shoal reservoirs, weathered crust reservoirs, and technological breakthrough of efficient drilling and fracturing test of ultra-deep wells; the technological breakthrough of geological-logging-seismic integrated sweets pot prediction of tight sandstones and low-cost multi-layer fracturing of vertical wells; the technological breakthrough of increasing-yield and reducing-cost drilling, completion, and fracturing of deep marine shale gas; resources potential evaluation and adaptive exploration and development technologies preparation of continental and transitional shale gas.

Territorial conditions for the integration of production activities for the extraction and processing of oil in the modern global world have became as a critical issue. The most striking feature of the placement of oil reserves is their high concentration in one relatively small region - the Persian Gulf basin. Here, in the Arab monarchies of Iran and Iraq,almost 2/3 of proven reserves are concentrated, and most of them (more than 2/5 of world reserves) are in three Arabian countries with a small indigenous population - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Even with the huge number of foreign workers who flooded these countries in the second half of the twentieth century, there are just over 20 million people, 0.3% of the world's population. Among the countries with very large reserves (more than 10 billion tons in each, or more than 6% of the world) are Iraq, Iran and Venezuela. These countries have long had a significant population and a more or less developed economy, and Iran and Iraq are the oldest centers of world civilization. Therefore, the high concentration of oil reserves in them does not look unfair, as in the three Arabianmonarchies, where yesterday’s illiterate and semi-wild nomads and herders are swimming in oil and petrodollars. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development includes 29 economically developed countries. It includes Australia, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the United States, Turkey, Finland, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan. The organization of the countries of oil exporters includes Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Venezuela. The aim of this work is to investigate present conditions particularly territorial conditions to production activities integration in order to the extraction and processing of oil which are the main factor in increasing the productivity of this sector of the economy.

Research background: This paper studies the impact of a new so-called green factor on the capitalization of petroleum companies, which is becoming highly relevant in view of the signing of the Paris agreements in 2015 and the support for clean energy. Although society, international organizations, and government authorities encourage companies to reduce their environmental impact, one of the main reasons for responsible behavior is still economic efficiency. The oil industry, on the one hand, faces one of the most volatile markets and, on the other hand, has one of the largest environmental impacts of any industry. That requires a detailed study of interconnections between market capitalization and the green factor. Purpose of the article: A comprehensive study of factors affecting the level of capitalization of oil and gas companies in Russia and identification of the most significant among them with a special focus on the green factor. Methods: Econometric analysis of panel data for Russian petroleum companies. The database includes indicators for six major Russian oil companies from 2011 to 2018. The following groups of factors are analyzed to explain the change in the companies’ capitalization: macroeconomic (GDP and inflation in Russia), microeconomic (companies’ revenue, net profit, tax payment, return on assets, return on equity, ratio of borrowed capital to equity), industrial (oil export, refining, production and proven reserves of the companies), and the green factor. Findings & Value added: The selection of factors showed that the size of capitalization has been influenced most significantly by the following: the volume of the company's proven reserves, net profit, tax burden, and the green factor based on the policy of minimizing environmental damage. This result shows that investors consider companies with high environmental performance to be more valuable than companies with similar financial results but lower environmental ratings.

With the depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the increasing concern about greenhouse gas emission, the need to develop technologies for using renewable and sustainable energy resources is becomin...

This study presents the log analysis results of a log suite comprising gamma ray (GR), resistivity (LLD), neutron (PHIN), density (RHOB) logs and a 3D seismic interpretation of TIM field located in the southwestern offshore of Niger Delta, Nigeria. This study focuses essentially on reserves evaluation of hydrocarbon-bearing sands. Well data were used in the identification of reservoirs as well as hydrocarbon presence and determination of petrophysical parameters. Three horizons that corresponded to selected sands tops (sand D, sand E, and sand F) were mapped after well-to-seismic tie. The three horizons marked the tops of reservoir sands and provide the structures for hydrocarbon accumulation. Structural depth maps were created from the mapped horizons. The structural style is dominated by widely spaced simple rollover anticline bounded by growth faults, and this includes down-to-basin faults, antithetic faults and synthetic faults. The petrophysical values – the porosity, net-to-gross, water saturation, hydrocarbon saturation that were calculated yielded an average porosity value of 0.23, water saturation value of 0.32 and an average net-to-gross value of 0.62. Hydrocarbon in-place was evaluated. The total hydrocarbon proven reserves for the mapped horizons (sand D, sand E, and sand F) were evaluated to be 39.04MMBO of oil, and 166.13BCF of gas for sand E. Keywords: Niger Delta, Petrophysics, Reserve estimation, Hydrocarbon saturation

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forms the core of China's foreign policy and future foreign cooperation, and energy cooperation is an important component of the BRI. Energy security is closely related to the interdependent relations between countries. The present paper investigates energy interdependent relations between China and the countries along the Belt and Road using data collected in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, between 2000 and 2015. The main results are as follows: (1) Abundant proven reserves of energy resources exist in these countries, which were equivalent to 758.73 billion tons of standard coal in 2015, accounting for 52.27% of the world. The distribution of these resources presents a pattern with two centers—one in Russia, and one in West Asia and the Middle East. (2) Established interdependence relations exist between China and the countries along the Belt and Road in terms of energy cooperation. China has imported 437.21 million tons of standard coal from these countries and their guarantee degree to China's energy security is 58.42%, of which 13.56% refers to coal, 73.37% to oil, and 13.06% to gas. Meanwhile, their dependence degree in energy exports to China was 13.56%, or 11.15% for coal, 14.92% for oil, and 10.55% for gas. An interdependence relation thus exists between China and these countries, and the degree of mutual dependence between them was 0.23 (0.22 for coal, 0.13 for oil, and 0.38 for gas), locating China in a relatively passive position with respect to the countries along the Belt and Road as a whole, but a relatively active position in relation to individual countries (with the exception of Russia). Our findings are useful to the tasks of identifying the spatial distribution pattern of energy in countries along the Belt and Road, assisting in the promotion of energy cooperation between China and these countries, and the future construction of the BRI.

SPE Trinidad and Tobago Section Energy Resources Conference 2021, TTCE 2021 -- 28 June 2021 through 30 June 2021 -- -- 171347, Oil Industry is going green and there is no solid and comprehensive publication that outlines the use of green energies and methods in oil recovery. Thus, this paper is going to close that gap. As there are more environmental restrictions especially in developed countries, inclusion of green energy methods in petroleum recovery processes is very important for the future of these reserves. We will focus on extra/heavy oil as conventional oil is simpler to produce and doesn't need EOR processes that may come with environmental footprints. The objective of this study is to investigate and outline the ‘green’ production and recovery processes of heavy oil recovery in environmentally-sensitive locations where greenhouse gas emissions, type of energy used to extract oil and gas (e.g., generation of steam using natural gas vs solar), environmental impact of surface facilities, transportation of produced oil and gas and other associated materials/chemica ls required for recovery (e.g. solvents for steam injection process) are critical for the operations as well as economics. Copyright 2021, Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Summary Proven reserves of «traditional» oil are on a declining trend. Therefore, it is necessary for producing companies to consider hard-to-recover reserves as a resource base in the future. Currently, the term «hard-to-recover reserves» is not defined enough. Some categories of the hard-to-recover reserves may be deleted from this list due to the development of technology, making the production of hydrocarbons much easier. However, an exploration of subsurface using modern technology makes it possible to produce these hydrocarbon reserves. That was impossible previously. The examples are the production of Permian petroleum bitumen and the development of domanic formations.

Low-permeability oil reservoirs account for more than two-thirds of China’s proven reserves, and most of them are multilayered; the traditional sweet spots focus on single-layered reservoirs. The sweet spots of low-permeability reservoirs have two meanings: the geologically superior reservoir and the beneficial development of the reservoir. In this study, a concept of reservoir stratification coefficient is proposed to evaluate the characteristics of multilayered reservoirs, and three indicators are proposed, namely, reservoir stratification coefficient, energy storage coefficient, and stratigraphic coefficient, as the indicators of sweet spots of multilayered reservoirs. The three indicators are combined into a single indicator using a weighted approach, and the sweet spots can be identified based on the combined indicator. The Xiliu A area of the North China oilfield was selected for a case study. According to the structural, sedimentary, and reservoir characteristics of the block, combined with the development and production conditions, the Sha 3 Member I oil group was selected as the study object of sweet spots of the low-permeability reservoir. The results show that the reservoir stratification coefficient, energy storage coefficient, and stratigraphic coefficient proposed in this study are effective indicators for the preferential selection of sweet spots, which can reflect the longitudinal heterogeneity, energy storage size, and flow capacity of multilayered reservoirs. After a comparative analysis with actual blocks, it was found that the results obtained using the method are consistent with the actual capacity of the reservoir. The production capacity is high. The evaluation effect is ideal, and the applicability is good. Thus, this study provides a new technical method for the evaluation of similar multilayered reservoirs. The findings of this study can help for a better understanding of the development and production conditions and optimization basis of low-permeability reservoirs.

We assess the informativeness for stock markets of proven reserves of oil and gas, and embedded CO2 in those reserves. Based on a two-step regression approach, we attempt to test the relationship between proven reserves, CO2 embedded in those reserves and stock market value controlling for the selection bias (i.e. the decision of managers to disclose voluntary environmental information about embedded CO2). Results, based on a sample of U.S. and Canadian firms are the following. Proven reserves increase the firm’s value, while embedded CO2 reduces stock market value substantially. Furthermore, the decision of managers to disclose information about embedded CO2 is positively related to analyst following, share price volatility, firm size, and institutional ownership.The current study assesses the long-term incidence of embedded CO2 (in oil and gas proven reserves) on firms’ stock market value, while most studies are focusing on yearly CO2 emissions.

Carbonate oil and gas reserves account for more than 50% of the world’s proven reserves and more than 60% of the world’s production. The marine sedimentary rocks, mainly concentrated in Tarim, Ordos and Sichuan basins, are widely distributed in China covering an area of 4.5 million km2. The amount of oil and gas resources is abundant, and the proved reserves are still increasing as exploration extends. However, China has found such reservoirs difficult to produce: deep burial, poor matrix permeability, significant reservoir heterogeneity and weak oil and water regularity are typical reservoir characteristics. At present, the standard primary recovery factor is only 16.4%. The authors first reviewed the classification and characteristics of the marine carbonate rocks in China. We then took Tarim Oilfield as the main analysis target, reviewed its exploration and production history in the past 20 years and the current situation. We summarized the major production problems and the technical countermeasures that has proved effective in improving the oil recovery in the fractured-cavernous carbonate reservoir. These technologies include fine geological modeling, unit division, connectivity evaluation, dynamic reserve evaluation, numerical simulation, unit displacement by water and gas injection, etc. This work summarizes the field experience, breakthroughs and key technologies from Tarim Field. The understandings help engineers in designing of technological processes for fractured-cavernous reservoir and improve oil recovery in similar carbonate reservoirs.

Summary Proven reserves of «traditional» oil are on a declining trend. Therefore, it is necessary for producing companies to consider hard-to-recover reserves as a resource base in the future. Currently, the term «hard-to-recover reserves» is not defined enough. Some categories of the hard-to-recover reserves may be deleted from this list due to the development of technology, making the production of hydrocarbons much easier. However, an exploration of subsurface using modern technology makes it possible to produce these hydrocarbon reserves. That was impossible previously. The examples are the production of Permian petroleum bitumen and the development of domanic formations.

How will global economic and political cycles and inequality, still existing restrictive gender norms (UNDP, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Human Development Report. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York (2019). Available at http://www.hdr.undp.org/), and value change affect the future of the region, which had combined proven reserves of 497 billion barrels of crude oil, which represents approximately 34% of the world’s estimated proven crude reserves, and which is the EU’s sixth-largest export market (€78.1 bn of exports in 2019, +5% over 2018)? In this chapter, we present the starting points of our analysis: the global world political and economic environment which the Gulf will most probably face in the near future and the foreseeable emergent real vacuum in world affairs and global leadership; and the multivariate analysis of civil society in the countries of Gulf by international comparison. Here, in the introduction, we present an outline of the social scientific scenery in which this book is located, all characterized by the quest for evidence-driven debates about the realities of the Gulf region by international comparison. The chapter briefly introduces the decisive factors, discussed at length in this book with a wealth of new original, global time series analyses and opinion-survey-co-driven evidence. We highlight, among others, the necessity of the multivariate analyses of opinions on religion, gender, and the desire for democracy, based on World Values Survey data, underlining the general approach of this book in the framework of the recent United Nations Human Development Report, 2019 with its emphasis on inequality and still existing restrictive gender norms.

Density functional theory is used to study the adsorption of natural gas components in calcite (10.4) cylindrical nanopores with 1–4 nm diameters. The change of adsorption energy with the diameter of the nanopores is studied for CH4 and CO2 gases. The results of the simulation calculations showed that as the nanopore diameter decreases, the adsorption energy increases exponentially due to the geometry of the smallest pore that increases the affinity of the molecules to the surface. Compared to the flat surface, for both molecules, CH4 and CO2, the interaction energy of the molecule with the nanopore could increase to more than five times depending on pore radius and molecule type. Additionally, in all cases, CO2 has a greater affinity to the surface than CH4; thus, it is more affected by the surface curvature and energy. For methane, adsorption energy on the flat surface is 0.0025 eV/Å2, while on the smallest nanopore, it increases to 0.0139 eV/Å2. On the other hand, the adsorption energy of carbon dioxide has increased from 0.0046 eV/Å2 on the flat surface to 0.0263 eV/Å2 on the smallest nanopore. To estimate the nanopore saturation of the gas, the capacity of the gases’ adsorption was calculated. The nanopores absorbed up to 28 and 24 molecules of CH4 and CO2, respectively, and the adsorption energy decreased to −0.0062 and −0.0075 eV/Å2 for each. Although the nanopore was filled spatially by the molecules, its surface still has an affinity to absorb more gas molecules energetically. These findings could be useful for estimating the adsorbed gas on carbonate rocks. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation) through Grant # NPRP11S-1228-170138. The findings achieved herein are solely the responsibility of the authors. Also, the authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the computational resources provided by Texas A&M University in Qatar. Open Access funding is provided by the Qatar National Library. Scopus

The determination of the control area of a single well is the prerequisite for the evaluation of the reserves of a single well. The current calculation methods of the control area of a single well are mainly divided into: experience formula, area balancing method, and the physical model, in order to solve the different limitations of the existing single-well control area splitting method and the problem of large error in use, this paper puts forward a kind of based on gas reservoir physical property and the growth of single well productivity difference algorithm for single well control area is split, according to the results of the split combining static reservoir parameters, using volumetric method for single well and the calculation of reserves of gas reservoir evaluation, further clarify the original and the remaining gas distribution of gas reservoir, for the subsequent reasonable development of the gas reservoir and enhance oil recovery. In this paper, block S of Sulige gas field is taken as an example, and the geological reserve of block is calculated as 354.75×108m3, compared with the basic proven reserves of Block S, 364.84×108m3, the error is 2.61% and the reliability is strong

A key factor in the development of the Arctic is the projects aimed at the development of oil and gas-bearing offshore and onshore fields, whose reserves are estimated at 13% of the world’s proven reserves and 43% of the undiscovered reserves. Arctic oil production and oil and gas engineering projects in the coming years will become drivers of oil and gas industry development in the world due to the huge mineral resource base. Efficient development of new fields under conditions of low temperatures, harsh climate and lack of necessary infrastructure is impossible without innovative technological solutions capable of ensuring hydrocarbon recovery and competitive energy prices on the market. The oil and gas industry is gradually becoming more progressive in terms of digital transformation, which makes it possible to state the fact that a large customer is emerging in the market of innovative technological solutions, capable of becoming in the near future a locomotive in the field of digital technologies. The program of technological transformations requires a forecast of digital technologies application in oil and gas projects in the Arctic. Technological forecasts for the development of oil production and oil and gas mechanical engineering for the development of Arctic hydrocarbons have revealed the need to prioritize digital transformation with an emphasis on the development of remote drilling and production control systems, technologies for monitoring production facilities with the help of drones and machine vision, the creation of corporate data processing and analysis centers, the use of artificial intelligence in the construction of effective logistics routes and identification of hydrocarbon accumulation sites.

Several cases of the need for continuous utilization of gas turbines for power production and why gas turbines will be relevant in the next 50 years in the Nigerian power sector are presented in this paper. Using 7 criteria; the cost of installation, operation and maintenance costs, levelized cost of electricity, capacity factor, the efficiency of energy conversion, power to size ratio/area coverage and environmental pollution, gas turbine operation was compared with wind and solar energy technologies. Gas turbine for power production appears to be more favourable in 5 out of the 7 criteria including lower installation cost which is a very important factor for poor and developing nations like Nigeria. The quantity of fuel for producing different quantities of power using gas turbines was estimated. Nigeria has huge proven reserves of natural gas which is the fuel for gas turbines. If we go for combined cycle power plants which have low specific fuel consumption (SFC), 50% of the natural gas reserves are enough to produce some 35 GW of electricity for over 50 years. The current rate of natural gas production can produce 27.06 GW of electricity at 0.06kg/s.MW sfc. It was also observed that the current installed power from gas turbines is too low compared to the power demand; hence, further installations are required. Pollution should not be an issue in installing more gas turbine plants because the gas turbine is a clean-burning engine and the present installed capacity is insignificant compared to what is obtainable in some advanced nations. The results in this work will guide gas turbine operators in planning for further installation of gas turbine power plants. The study does not rule out the need to exploit solar photovoltaic system and wind turbines in areas with high sunshine and high wind speeds respectively, for off-grid power production.

The global 2030 agenda for promoting clean energy development explicitly calls for the implementation of official policy related to sustainable development. China pledged to formulate an energy structure that focuses on non-fossil energy and natural gas towards 2030. Natural gas is therefore entering a new critical and potentially advantageous development stage. Optimizing the utilization structure in a scientific manner can be regarded as the significant means to increase natural gas consumption in order to achieve the targets upon 2020 and 2030. In this study, what ultimately matters from a sustainable lens is not whether the future natural gas consumption increases but rather whether the restricted and limited proven reserves should be arranged and utilized to reach the best effectiveness on economy-energy-environment system to further ensure sustainable development. Herein, with aims to offering operationally actionable-related insights on the optimal natural gas consumption pathways for policy governors, this paper examined the multiple effectiveness of a spectrum of representing indicators selected from the economy-energy-environment system in China under natural gas consumption structure constraint policy scenarios using a dynamic CGE approach and Markov Chains forecasting technique. Consequently, this study recommends one optimal natural gas consumption structure scenario to policy governors given its comprehensive effectiveness in promoting sustainable development in China according to horizontal and vertical comparative analyses.

The main aspects of regional development of the mineral base of Ukraine are defined. The structure of regional development of the mineral base of Ukraine was investigated by grouping administrative and territorial units by the activity of subsoil work, by the degree of industrial development of available proven reserves of minerals, by quantity and type, by the presence of strategically important minerals. It is established that balanced development of the mineral base of individual regions is complicated by the uneven distribution of studied and forecast mineral resources within the limits of separate territories, as well as the peculiarities of distribution of consumers of mineral raw materials. The main disadvantages in the regional structure of the mineral base were identified and the main directions of their optimization were determined in order to achieve balanced development indicators. The state of national programs development of mineral base of Ukraine for period to 2010 and 2030 was adopted for the balanced development of Ukraine’s mineral base. But this program does not include the issue of the regional nature of the development of a mineral base in the conditions of decentralization, which is provided for by the Concept of reforming local self-government and territorial organization of power in Ukraine. The study of official sites of regions, cities and united communities showed a systematic absence of official regional development programs for the mineral resource base.

The Darlot-Centenary gold deposit is one of the larger known mineralised systems in the southern end of the West Australian Yandal Greenstone Belt, with an estimated 2.7 Moz having been extracted from the Darlot Centenary Mine since 1988. The area is well explored near surface but given the proven endowment there is potential for significant additional mineralisation at depth. With current proven reserves dwindling, Gold Fields recognised the need to identify a technology to fast-track target generation in order to more rapidly evaluate the nearby rock volume. In August 2016 Gold Fields began investigating the potential for 3D reflection seismic to accelerate evaluation of the rock volume accessible via existing workings. In November 2016 a seismic crew was on ground acquiring approximately 150km3 of 3D seismic data (25km2 surface area x 6km depth). The survey coverage was designed to image the local steeply dipping geology and structures. Processing of the seismic dataset was completed in Q1 2017 and Gold Fields has completed preliminary interpretation of the 3D cube. The seismic data has provided a rich 3D picture of the Darlot structural framework to depth, which could not be obtained by any other geophysical method. It has highlighted a number of features with similar characteristics to known mineralisation and has provided a better defined structural framework that has greatly assisted the fundamental geological understanding and further aided ranking of these targets in terms of prospectivity.

Surface geophysical measurements of resistivity, magnetic and gravity were evaluated in combination along same traverses to detect and quantify ore reserves in order to enable the design of effective and sustainable mining strategy for some remote barite fields in the Abakaliki basin, southeastern Nigeria. In addition to the surface geophysical measurements, geological field mapping of ores bodies and host rocks were undertaken to calibrate geophysical models. Numerical modeling and geological interpretation of the geophysical data indicate and delineate zones of ore occurrences and provide ore tonnage estimates for the studied fields. However, tonnage estimates in some regions were severely flawed as demonstrated by some consequent futile surface excavations. The failure recorded by the open excavated pits is linked to the pitfalls in some ore quantity estimates that bear largely on survey layout design and significant errors emanating from data interpretation due to complex structural and stratigraphic setting of ore incidence, all of which contributed to constrain the reliability on the geophysical data alone as a mine design tool. Best practice necessitates that excavation designs are to be preceded by exploratory drilling to ascertain proven reserves.

Although shale gas resources are abundant in China, commercial discoveries have not been made before the discovery of Fuling Shale Gas Field. SINOPEC has done lots of theoretical and technological studies on marine shale gas development in China. Research shows shale gas has dynamic accumulations with early preservation and late reconstruction and proposes high-quality shale developed in deep-water shelf as the base and good preservation conditions as the key factor for shale gas accumulation. Key technologies and facilities were developed for geophysical survey of shale gas, design and optimization of shale gas development, drilling and completion of horizontal wells, and fracturing stimulation. As the first and largest shale gas field in China, the discovery and successful development of Fuling Shale Gas Filed has made China the first country to achieve large-scale development of shale gas after North America. By August 2017, Fuling Shale Gas Field had declared 6008.14 × 108 m3 proven reserves, 76.8 × 108 m3 production capacity and 133.9 × 108 m3 cumulative production. The construction of Fuling Shale Gas Field with high level, high speed and high quality has been a good example of shale gas development in China. Its successful experiences can be used to other fields and play an important role in optimizing energy structure and improving environment. Keywords: Shale gas, Exploration, Well drilling and completion, Staged fracturing, Environmental protection, Commercial development, Fuling area

The Shuangjianzishan deposit in Inner Mongolia is a typical Ag-Pb-Zn deposit of the southern Great Xing’an Range. Proven reserves of Ag, Pb, and Zn in this deposit have reached the scale of super-large deposits, with favorable metallogenic conditions, strong prospecting signs, and high metallogenic potential. This paper reports a study involving integrated geophysical methods, including controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric, gravity, magnetic, and shallow-seismic-reflection methods, to determine the spatial distribution of ore-controlling structures and subsurface intrusive rock for a depth range of

Since the “Tenth Five-Year Plan”, lithologic and stratigraphic reservoirs have been the main contribution of both the discovery as well as reserve and production increase in China; there were about 80% of proven reserves. The typical reservoirs in six major basins in the eastern, central, and western China were adopted as reservoir forming models. The reservoir forming models in three types of slopes, three types of depressions, and three types of lithologic reservoir assemblages have been built on the basis of application of new technologies, physical modeling of reservoir forming mechanism, and investigation to the formation and distribution of the reservoirs. The evaluation methods for large lithologic reservoirs provinces were established based on the forming mechanism and main controlling factors mentioned above. In addition, the study reveals the main controlling factors and the laws of enrichment of two types of stratigraphic reservoirs (pinch-out and weathered karst reservoirs) based on the evaluation methods for large stratigraphic reservoir provinces that have been established. By comprehensively understanding the laws of enrichment of lithologic-stratigraphic reservoirs in four types of basins, specific evaluation methods and fine exploration techniques have been developed. The findings led to an exploration direction in the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” period. The study supported the exploration and selection of oil and gas plays, as well as promoted the exploration of lithologic and stratigraphic reservoirs. Keywords: Lithologic trap, Stratigraphic trap, Lithostratigraphic reservoir, Large oil and gas field, Large oil and gas province, Formation and distribution, Exploration potential

The North Peixian mining area of China has rich coal resources, with total proven reserves of 2.37 billion tons. However, the underground coal mining activities have resulted in ground collapse, which has caused serious harm to the environment and threatened the lives and properties of local residents. In this study, 12 Sentinel-1A terrain observation by progressive scans (TOPS) mode acquisitions between 30 July 2015 and 13 May 2016 over the abandoned mining area in North Peixian were analyzed using the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) time series method to detect the ground subsidence, with the maximum ground subsidence reaching 83 mm/a and an average value of about 12.7 mm/a. The subsidence results derived from the Sentinel-1A TOPS mode dataset were proven to be effective in investigating and monitoring the ground subsidence in the North Peixian mining area. Compared to the rapid deformation during the ongoing period of mining excavation, the ground subsides slowly in abandoned mining areas and shows a linear relationship with time over a relatively long period of time. Spatial correlation between the subsidence distribution and land cover was found, in that the magnitude of the subsidence in urban areas was smaller than that in rural areas, which is associated with the controlled coal mining activities under buildings, railways, and water bodies. The results demonstrate that Sentinel-1A TOPS SAR images can be used to effectively and accurately detect and monitor ground subsidence in a mining area, which is critically important when investigating land subsidence in a large-scale mining area.

Nicaragua is an underdeveloped Central American country of 130, 373 km2 with a population of 6.2 million inhabitants, 90% electricity access and 672 MW of peak demand. Currently, the electricity mix is nearly 50% renewable but the entire energy system is highly dependent on fossil fuels and biomass. This work aims to show potential for a renewable transformation of the Nicaraguan energy system. With a substantial renewable energy potential (geothermal, wind, solar, etc.) and no proven reserves of oil, coal and gas, neither in Nicaragua nor in Central America, an Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) for the electric sector was developed. The potential renewable transformation of the entire electric sector would create positive technical and economic conditions to the penetration of electric mobility. The results of this work indicate that optimal integrated renewable expansion mix will require prioritize the development of geothermal (high capacity factor to meet the base load with the lowest cost), wind, hydro and biomass sources and energy-efficiency programs. Although the potential use of electrical vehicles brings positive environmental impacts, from consumers' perspective electric vehicles are not cost-effective with current oil prices and relative high prices of electric vehicles. Thus, it will be necessary national and regional public policies in order to trigger the energy mix transformation and the introduction of electric mobility. This seminal work is the base for a further detailed research and proposing a regional energy transition initiative to be extended for Central American countries with similar characteristics and interconnected by a regional network; gaining scale for regional electric mobility.

Tahe oil field is the first marine origin oil field in China, with proven reserves of 500 million tons. Given the important role of the paleogeomorphology in controlling the formation and distribution of karst reservoirs, this paper restored the pre-Carboniferous paleokarst landform in the major blocks of the Tahe oil field, via the paleogeomorphic genesis assembly method. First, four types of secondary landform units (karst platform, karst gentle slope, karst steep slope, and karst intermountain basin) were defined. Next, landform identification factors were added to these four types, to further divide the paleokarst landform into ten tertiary landform units. This enabled a more precise identification of the paleogeomorphic landforms. The karst development and the properties of hydrocarbon reservoirs in micro-geomorphic units were assessed. In addition, the relationship between petroleum production and geomorphology was analysed to robustly predict karst reservoirs in the Tahe oil field. The results show that karst develops differently according to the ancient landform units it developed from and that the current karst function is highly dependent on the precursor ancient landform. In addition, the morphology of the ancient landform significantly controls hydrocarbon accumulation, with oil and gas production being highly associated with the degree of karst development in each landscape unit. The research results indicate that the position of the slope in the karst hill and residual peak is favorable for future oil and gas exploration.

Empirical studies on FDI location determinants have neglected the role of natural resources. Panel data estimations for 125 host countries over the period between 1995 and 2012 show that a country's endowment of Non-Renewable Energy Resources (NRERs) matters for FDI attraction, when measured by the share of oil, coal and gas exports in total exports but not when measured by oil, coal and gas ‘proven reserves’. Thus, although to possess a vast amount of proven NRERs is not a sufficient condition for FDI inflows, countries with low export diversification, highly dependent on the exports of mineral fuel, tend to succeed in attracting FDI. This evidence supports the content that resource seeking FDI targets mainly economically feeble countries. Moreover, our results firmly indicate that regardless NRERs endowments, FDI attraction is fostered when countries make convincing efforts to open up their economies to international trade and devote resources to the enhancement of their human capital, control of corruption, and have more beneficial tax rates.

Due to usage of fossil fuels, the depletion of world crude oil reserves and increased deteriorating climate conditions have reached a high level. These circumstances have led researches to search for alternative and efficient fuels. The main biofuels considered are bioethanol and biodiesel. In this study, ethanol and biodiesel production from cotton stalk and seed were aimed using liquid hot water (LHW) along with consecutive processes, where separate saccharification and fermentation (SHF) process was carried out. The maximum ethanol concentrations of 0.348 g/L and 0.721 g/L were achieved at 24 h and 72 h, respectively. For biodiesel conversion, cottonseed oil was subjected to transesterification, where the main interest was to utilize the by-product, glycerol. Three different glycerol concentrations were investigated in terms of ethanol fermentation using Escherichia coli K1 active culture. The maximum ethanol concentration of 0.415 g/L was achieved at 20 mL glycerol concentration for 48 h. Overall, cotton stalk and seed have the potential to be utilized on an industrial scale. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

At present, tight oil reservoirs account for more than 60% of the remaining un-used reserves in Daqing Oilfield. The development mode is mainly vertical well large-scale fracturing or horizontal well volume fracturing, which is affected by low oil price and has poor economic benefits. In order to reduce the decision-making risk of Oilfield productivity capacity investment, a practical and effective economic evaluation method is needed. Through the analysis of development indexes of large-scale fracturing in vertical wells and volume fracturing in horizontal wells, the changing rules of development indexes are clarified, and the calculation methods of some economic parameters of development effect evaluation are optimized. The economic evaluation methods of productivity projects in tight reservoirs are formed, and the calculation program is compiled. The program is used to evaluate the production investment limits of compact oil blocks under different daily production of single well for large-scale vertical well fracturing and volume fracturing under multi-oil price conditions. Based on the evaluation results, the investment limits of single well and single well daily production under different oil prices are plotted, and the sensitivity of investment limits is analyzed. Under the condition of low oil price, the result of benefit evaluation can be improved by reducing investment, and under the condition of high oil price, the effect of increasing daily production of single well on improving economic benefit of block is greater. This method can effectively predict the risk of capacity investment decision-making, ensure the smooth implementation of tight oil production projects, and release more development potential. The research results can be applied in the submission of proven reserves, the evaluation of unused reserves and the planning and deployment of oilfields.

A clear understanding of the world's energy resources along with their economics and politics is necessary before selecting which CBM utilization best fits the project at hand. Global fossil fuel tables showing proven reserves are included for comparison. Fossil fuels thermal value table is also included along with their relationship and allows for easy comparability. US energy consumption and distribution are detailed in a graphic display. Also included is the “best use” for America's new-found source of abundant, over-produced natural gas (i.e., shale gas). Thermal dynamic efficiency is important and is critical to the decision making process of CBM utilization; keeping in mind that nothing beats direct heat for natural gas with thermal dynamic efficiencies of 90%–95%. A CBM utilization diagram is included to help guide decision making. In closing, a US energy source diagram is given with advice on its use based on science, not politics, as well as a look into the future.

The Russian Far East possesses significant reserves of minerals. Mineral resources are rich in species diversity. The development of resources is faced with several problems, such as the depletion of active proven reserves in the exploited fields; high costs of transporting raw materials and finished products to processing sites or end-user markets; lack of availability of deposits; significant financial investments in the construction of new transport routes, etc. This means a transition from the extraction of raw materials to obtaining a product with a high stage of processing and the construction of transport routes. In this article, the authors examined the structure of investments in fixed assets by type of economic activity in the subjects of the Far Eastern Federal District. The values of the volumes of reserves and production of major minerals (for 2018) are presented, and resources are allocated based on which it is necessary to develop processing industries in the region. A comparison is made of the transport accessibility of options for locating a metallurgical plant in the Far East. The conclusion about the need for state support of resource projects and the development of measures to improve the conditions for investment has been substantiated.

Remarkable proven reserves of approximately 1200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with an unprecedented growth in global demand, have led Iranian policymakers to look for optimal natural gas export programs. This paper attempts to provide a novel conceptual framework to evaluate the natural gas export portfolio. In this regard, the present study develops the concept of non-systematic risk based on both the natural gas dependency risk index and the geopolitical risk index. Furthermore, it presents an aggregated quantitative index using entropy-based index aggregate method by providing appropriate sub-indicators toward natural gas transmission via pipeline and LNG. By introducing the non-linear mathematical programming model of Iran's optimal gas export portfolio and proposing four export scenarios, the efficient frontier is obtained for each scenario. Finally, the results show that the minimum risk level can be attained when the gas export portfolio constitutes a significant share of LNG transmission method. Keywords: Optimal portfolio, Iran's gas exports, Non-systematic risk, Entropy-based aggregate method

Various types of deposits such as carbonate-replacement Pb-Zn-Ag-Au, porphyry Cu-Mo-Au, stratiform volcano-sedimentary, isolated magmatic-hydrothermal and skarns compose the Serbomacedonian-Rhodope Metallogenic Belt (SRMB), which intersects with a NNW-SSE trend the Balkan Peninsula. This arcuate belt is about 500 km long and 130-180 km wide. Sb-Bi alloys and Ag-Cu-Pb-Sb-Bi sulfosalts have been discovered in some metal assemblages in the SRMB. The European Union (EU) is highly dependent on critical and rare metals, such as Sb and Bi, which are very important for a sustainable development. Greece is one of the EU countries with the most potential for supplying the strategic metal Sb in the future, since it hosts a significant ore deposit at Rizana/Lachanas (central Macedonia). Here, the stibnite reserves are 5,000 t (proven) and 50,000-100,000 t (indicated). Both have average Sb=0.3 wt%. In addition, at the same district, there are 1000 t (proven) of wolframite. Another promising Sb-bearing mineral assemblage exists at Alshar (North Macedonia). Here, the stibnite reserves are >20,000 t (indicated) with average Sb=0.5 wt%. At both mineralization districts further investigations are needed to determine the grade and the proven reserves of the critical metal Sb. Until today none encouraging site has been located in the SRMB for remarkable Bi-bearing ore.

Several prominent institutional investors concerned about climate change have announced their intention or have divested from fossil fuel shares, to limit their exposure to the industry. The act of fossil fuel divestment may directly depress share prices or stigmatize the industry&rsquo, s reputation, resulting in lower share value. While there has been considerable research conducted on the performance of the fossil fuel industry, there is not yet any empirical evidence that divestment announcements influence share prices. Adopting an event study methodology, this study measures abnormal deviations in stock prices of the top 200 global oil, gas, and coal companies by proven reserves, on days of prominent divestment announcements. Events are analyzed independently and in aggregate. The results make several notable contributions. While many events experienced short-term negative abnormal returns around the event day, the effects of events were more pronounced over longer event windows following the New York Climate March, suggesting a shift in investor perception. The results also find that divestment announcements related to campaigns, pledges, and endorsements all have a significant effect over the short-term event window. Finally, the results control for the general underperformance of the industry over the estimation window, attesting that the price change is caused by divestment announcements. Several robustness tests using alternate expected returns models and statistical tests were conducted to ensure the accuracy of the result. Overall, this study finds that divestment announcements decrease the share price of the fossil fuel companies, and thus, we conclude that &lsquo, divestors&rsquo, can influence the share price of their target companies. Theoretically, the result adds new knowledge regarding the efficacy of the efficient market hypothesis in relation to divestment.

Energy resources; natural resources including minerals and water; and population, the environment, and food are the issues attracting the common interest of the world. China is one of only a few countries with rich proven reserves and a good variety of minerals. Coal is distributed in every province except Shanghai city, but large-scale coal fields of national significance concentrate in the areas north of the Yangtze River and in western Guizhou, eastern Yunnan, and southern Sichuan. Beginning as an oil-poor country, China has become one of the main oil-producing nations in the world. Many metals used in China, they are iron, copper, lead and zinc, bauxite, tungsten, antimony, tin, molybdenum, mercury, gold, phosphate ore, sulphur, magnesite and flourite. Exploration will become more difficult in the future, and the investment of finances and skills required will continue to increase.

The main objectives of this research are to estimate the oil reserves and set a development plan for Hakim Field in Libya, using three methods for calculating OOIP which are Volumetric (Monte Carlo), Decline curve analysis (DCA), Material Balance Equation, and establish the optimum development plan for Hakim field. Results showed that the OOIP of Hakim Field, calculated by volumetric method done through Monte Carlo tool given 90.2 MM STBO for Proven Reserves (1P) , 115.5 MM STBO for Probable reserves (2P) and 147.0 MM STBO for Possible reserves (3P). While OOIP estimated by Decline curve analysis given 82.4MM STBO for Proven Reserves (1P) , 102.8MM STBO for Probable reserves (2P) and 114.9MM STBO for Possible reserves (3P), and 112.18 MM STBO for Probable reserves (2P) by Material Balance. In addition, 14 prediction scenarios have been applied on the Material Balance Model to establish the optimum Field development Plan, results showed that from simulation model the optimal scenario is 8 Producing Wells, 4 Water Injector Wells and 8000 BWPD.

The investment problem of oilfield development is to trade off the investment exploration investment and development investment. With low return on investment got by using the existing method to solve this problem, we construct an optimal model to improve it based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and the relations about investment and proven reserves, investment and output as well as production cost. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method is used to present a method to determine the optimal scale of productivity construction investment in unit production. The relation between total cumulated proven reserves and cumulative exploration investment is denoted as an exponential model. The relation among productions and remaining recoverable reserves as well as production cost may be described as an exponential operational cost function. Based on above two relation models and investment effectiveness coefficients of every block, we establish an optimal model whose objective function is net present value (NPV) profit maximum, whose constrain conditions include investment, reserve/production ratio, production and some equality constraints under the mode of sustainable development. It can be solved by genetic algorithms. The result of case study shows that this optimal investment of oilfield development has multi-stage investment structure under given conditions; the model can provide scientific basic theory for oil companies to make a long-term strategic program and investment plan in oil exploration and development, may decrease the subjective blindness in the investment and bring about a reasonable and orderly exploration and development of oil resources.

With the increasing demand for energy around the globe, hydrocarbon explorations move towards the Arctic region that holds a majority of unexploited oil reserves. The harsh environmental conditions with sub-zero ambient temperatures and high winds demand winterization techniques for pipes, instruments and equipment to carry out uninterrupted plant operations. The natural phenomenon: hydrate formation, is considered to be a major flow assurance problem starting from the wellhead through the final point in the delivery system which could be addressed through winterization. Developing winterization strategies for arctic conditions is a challenging task demanding rigorous and robust approaches. Risk-based winterization is a novel approach, adapted for vessels operating in arctic environments. In this paper a new model is proposed to calculate the probability of hydrate formation and its associated risk for a given loading scenario. The winterization requirement is determined based on the estimated risk. Two case studies presented here demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model and compare several winterization methods to find an optimal solution.