MAERSK Oil has embarked on a five-year joint research project with the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Geography and Geology (DGG) that involves an unprecedented level of collaboration and data sharing to deepen its understanding of chalk reservoirs in the Danish sector of the North Sea.
As part of the project, Maersk will also mentor several PhD students for up to half a year at a time and have a direct data-sharing link to the DGG to help understand the large-scale processes that dictated where chalk was laid down and how oil and gas reservoir characteristics came to be formed.
It and its Danish Underground Consortium (DUC) partners, Shell and Chevron, are ploughing $2.36million into the programme.
“The collaboration between Maersk Oil and the University of Copenhagen will be closer than ever,” said Henrik Tirsgaard, chief geologist at Maersk Oil.
“It will also be linked to new course modules at the university for which we will supply some of the expertise and support. We hope our joint collaboration will not only increase our knowledge of the North Sea chalk fields, enhancing our understanding of the surrounding climate, ecology and oceanography, but also encourage students to look with fresh eyes at our industry and its potential as an employer.”
The research will switch focus from large-scale, easily identifiable features of the subsea geology to subtle and difficult-to-spot inter-chalk variations that might point to previously unseen hydrocarbon traps.
“Research at DGG has shown that the original process of rock formation, as deposits were buried and compacted over millions of years, had an impact on the porosity and small-scale variations of chalk,” said Helle Krabbe, lead geologist and team lead in Danish nearfield exploration.
“However, no geological models can yet predict these variations very well because of a lack of knowledge about the physical behaviour of the original sediment. This long-term study hopes to address that.”
Denmark sits on a chalk platform that extends across most of its part of the North Sea. Chalk also characterises other parts of the North Sea, notably the southern portion of the Norwegian North Sea where the giant Ekofisk field and its satellites were found.
A nanotechnology research project between Copenhagen and Maersk is currently investigating a completely new way of recovering oil from chalk reservoirs through creating an understanding of how oil, water, and rock fabric interact and can potentially unlock some of the trapped oil.
Anders Damgaard, a VP at Maersk Oil, said: “Nanotechnological understanding of chalk is a new technology area for us and for the world at large.
“No one has tried this before, and we therefore have no real chance of knowing if what works on microscopic scale will also function when we are standing on a drilling platform offshore.
“We have an expectation that a better knowledge of chalk properties could result in new methods to increase production. Nanotechnology could be a potential industry game changer. However, there is, of course, the risk that it is not feasible.
“Maersk Oil wants to be the best operator of depleting fields so we have to be on the forefront with new technology. Our goal is to produce more of the oil that we know is in the ground by combining our strong technical capabilities with new innovation.”
While the core focus of the research is the Danish North Sea, Maersk has already suggested that the work could be expanded to cover other carbonate reservoirs and other geographical areas.