Publications

The international journal of geoenergy and applied earth science

A co-owned journal of the Geological Society of London and the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE)

Petroleum Geoscience transcends disciplinary boundaries and publishes a balanced mix of articles covering exploration, exploitation, appraisal, development and enhancement of sub-surface hydrocarbon resources and carbon repositories. The integration of disciplines in an applied context, whether for fluid production, carbon storage or related geoenergy applications, is a particular strength of the journal. Articles on enhancing exploration efficiency, lowering technological and environmental risk, and improving hydrocarbon recovery communicate the latest developments in sub-surface geoscience to a wide readership.

Published by both The Geological Society of London and EAGE, Petroleum Geoscience is a peer-reviewed journal providing a multidisciplinary forum for those engaged in the science and technology of the rock-related sub-surface disciplines. The journal reaches some 8000 individual subscribers, and a further 1100 institutional subscriptions provide global access to readers including geologists, geophysicists, petroleum and reservoir engineers, petrophysicists and geochemists in both academia and industry. The journal aims to share knowledge of reservoir geoscience and to reflect the international nature of its development.

Chief editor

Phil Christie, Schlumberger Gould Research, Cambridge, UK

Online in the Lyell Collection

The journal is in the Lyell Collection and papers appear Online First soon after they have been accepted for publication and ahead of the printed issue. The journal is easily accessible on mobile devices.

Print journal

Petroleum Geoscience is published in print in February, May, August and November.

The journal is abstracted and/or indexed in:

• Current Contents
• GeoArchive
• Geobase
• Geological Abstracts
• GeoRef
• Mineralogical Abstracts
• Petroleum Abstracts
• Science Citation Index

Recent Petroleum Geoscience Highlights

Principles of sustainability and physics as a basis for the low-carbon energy transition

By Philip Ringrose

Human society needs to achieve a low-carbon energy mix this century. To achieve this, we need: (a) an appreciation of the value of Earth's atmosphere; and (b) a sustainable approach for low-carbon energy. For sustainable developments, three pillars need to work together: the environment, social equity and economics. To address the societal aspects of the low-carbon energy transition, we need to appreciate that our future depends on protecting the Earth's atmosphere. By reviewing the discovery of the greenhouse gas effect over the last 200 years, we establish the essential motivation for changing human behaviour with regard to energy use. From this basis, we consider the challenge of how to achieve this energy transition or, more specifically, how to overcome the dissonances related to societal acceptance, economic hurdles and lack of progress with deployment of low-carbon energy options. The last decade has seen a significant growth in the renewable energy and natural gas sectors: however, CCS has made limited progress. This has to change if the human population is to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In order to accelerate reductions in global CO2 emissions, all low-carbon energy options must be deployed at an increasing rate in the coming decades. 

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Introduction to the thematic set: Fault and top seals

The 4th EAGE Conference on Fault and Top Seals was held in Almeria in SE Spain from 20 to 24 September 2015. A total of 118 delegates attended (78 from industry, 21 from academia and 19 students). The conference provided the opportunity to learn about the latest advances in seal evaluation and the increased scientific rigour behind the technologies employed as we begin to understand more about the basin- to pore-scale processes that trap hydrocarbons. The same workflows are also readily adapted to studies for geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nuclear waste.

Overall, the conference was dominated by research on fault seals ranging from micro to macro scale, with close attention on the role of microfabrics, flow properties and capillary properties. In addition, fault-zone architecture was discussed at length, with numerous presentations from both outcrop and 3D seismic scales. Predominantly, the presentations focused on faults in siliciclastic systems, with just a handful addressing the volumetrically important carbonate reservoirs. Top-seal evaluation included contributions from the Clay Club, and more integrated industry workflows on overall seal analysis, with a couple of presentations on laboratory testing of mechanical and flow properties. The application area of the majority of the conference presentations was to petroleum systems, but a number also related to geological storage of carbon dioxide and the nuclear waste industry. Following the 3 day conference of talks and posters, there was a whole-day field trip to the well-exposed and extensively studied Carboneras Fault Zone, led by Dan Faulkner and Ernie Rutter. The fault gouges here are probably the best exposures in the world and reach thicknesses of 20 – 30 m in places. The trip was extremely instructive for understanding fault gouge development and its variation in petroleum systems.

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Compressed air energy storage in porous formations: a feasibility and deliverability study

By Bo Wang and Sebastian Bauer

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) in porous formations is considered as one option for large-scale energy storage to compensate for fluctuations from renewable energy production. To analyse the feasibility of such a CAES application and the deliverability of an underground porous formation, a hypothetical CAES scenario using an anticline structure is investigated. Two daily extraction cycles of 6 h each are assumed, complementing high solar energy production around noon. A gas turbine producing 321 MW of power with a minimum inlet pressure of 43 bar at 417 kg s−1 air is assumed. Simulation results show that using six wells the 20 m-thick storage formation with a permeability of 1000 mD can support the required 6 h continuous power output of 321 MW, even reaching 8 h maximally. For the first 30 min, maximum power output is higher, at 458 MW, continuously dropping afterwards. A sensitivity analysis shows that the number of wells required does not linearly decrease with increasing permeability of the storage formation due to well inference during air extraction. For each additional well, the continuous power output increases by 4.8 h and the maximum power output within the first 30 min by 76 MW.

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