Introduction
Peter Haile (Peter.Haile@dti.gsi.gov.uk) is deputy director of DTI’s ERDU-LED with responsibility for exploration, promotion and knowledge.
Introduction
Welcome to the February 2007 issue of IOR Views.
Since the last edition in August 2006, DTI announced on 1 February 2007 the award of the 24th Seaward Licence Round. Offers of 150 oil and gas exploration and production licences were issued to 104 companies covering 246 blocks - continuing the record numbers of licences issued in 2006. A significant number of the innovative ‘Promote Licences’ issued in the 22nd Round will continue into their third and fourth years. 23 such Licences from the 22nd Round awards (out of 58 originally issued) will continue, to include commitments of 13 firm wells and 10 new seismic and contingent wells.
The joint Government/Industry Task Force, established to determine whether there is a collective solution to the development of the resource base to the West of Shetland, has met 5 times since project launch in November. The project is already analysing the options in detail and aims to deliver a report to Ministers in the spring.
Since the last issue both PETEX and the Prospect Fair 2006 have successfully taken place.
In this issue there are articles on the monitoring of CO2 during EOR and storage operations, the possibilities for implementing microbial EOR in Danish chalk reservoirs, new developments to enable downhole gas compression, industry application of results from the ocean margins LINK programme, and the latest news on CO2 EOR and storage in the North Sea. There is also news of the latest initiatives at ITF, EPSRC and NERC. The ‘Talking Point’ considers the need for accurate production forecasts as we move to an era in which the UK will no longer be self sufficient in oil. We do encourage readers to submit articles for publication in future issues. If you have an idea for an article please contact the editor David Hughes (david.hughes@senergyltd.com).
There is a short report on my attendance at the workshop and symposium of the IEA collaborative project on EOR, the abstracts of the UK papers presented at the workshop are downloadable.
Later this month (February 2007) DTI will announce its annual call for suggestions to be considered by its ACHARR for funding Joint Industry Projects, details will be circulated shortly and will appear on the DTI Oil & Gas website.
Lastly I would once again like to thank David Hughes and the IOR Views team at Senergy for their untiring efforts in keeping in touch with the IOR community and the industry at large, soliciting all these quality articles.