Exploration Services

ARC Group staff has performed many successful exploration and basin analysis projects, as well as teaching in-house courses in basin and play analysis, for major oil companies. Our approach in exploration projects is to determine the sequence stratigraphic framework of the basin or play using all available seismic (2-D and 3-D), well log and core information. The stratigraphic framework thus determined is combined with depositional systems analysis and with the structural overprint of the basin to determine optimum locations for exploration wells. Where 3-D data are available we also deploy STRATSLICE technology to validate and high-grade our targeted well locations. Our recent project in the Cooper Basin of Australia illustrates the approach of our staff in generating successful exploration wells. Using a high-resolution sequence stratigraphic analysis of the Toolachee-Nappacoongee-Murturee (TNM) block, Cooper Basin, Australia, for a consortium of companies, ARC staff generated several exploration play concepts including numerous exploration well locations. The regional sequence stratigraphy established in the analysis provided a reliable framework for mapping large-scale depositional systems and allowed confident prediction of the distribution of major fluvial axes that contain thick reservoir sandstones. Basin-scale structural analysis revealed regional trends in faulting and folding patterns associated with several episodes of deformation and identified the coincidence of trap and predicted-sandstone distribution. The regional analysis ran concurrently with a field reactivation of the Toolachee Complex and follow-up drilling of the regional and field exploration programs collectively, resulted in 100% success rate from 8 wells (5 exploration; 3 field infill and step-out). Initial potentials of all wells averaged 6MMCF/D with a high of 16 MMCF/D and 230 barrels of condensate per day. These flow rates are very lucrative for the drilling depths, which were on the order of 7,000 ft.

In addition to multiple projects in Australia, ARC staff has also provided exploration services in Southern Africa, China, Mexico, the western United States, and in Venezuela. On the basis of the application modern concepts in stratigraphic and depositional systems tract analysis, integrated with large 3-D data sets or regional 2-D seismic data, ARC staff have identified numerous exploration well locations and designed multi-year exploration programs for our clients around the world. ARC Group offers in-house training courses in basin and play analysis for petroleum geologists. These courses are typically 5 days in duration and blend lectures with hands-on exercises based from successful exploration case histories. Topics covered in the courses include 1) fundamental concepts in stratigraphic, sedimentological, and structural analysis in a broad range of basin types, 2) hydrocarbon generation and migration, 3) structural and stratigraphic trapping mechanisms, and 4) advanced exploration methodologies including 3-D seismic interpretation, attribute analysis, and STRATSLICE techniques. These courses have been popular with major international oil companies including PEMEX, Mexico and PDVSA, Venezuela.