ANNUAL REPORT 2002
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Energy resources |
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Year of the atlases
2002 was the year in which several large atlas works were published – all with contributions from GEUS. A petroleum geology heavyweight in a class by itself was introduced in November in the form of the comprehensive work: The Millennium Atlas – Petroleum Geology of the Central and Northern North Sea.The work gathers together all the knowledge about petroleum geology from the oil-producing region of the North Sea. Over a hundred authors and contributors from the oil industry, research institutions, and the governments of Great Britain, Denmark and Norway have worked since 1997 to produce this work, based on information from thousands of drillings and millions of kilometres of seismic data collected for over 30 years.The Millennium Atlas has been produced with financial support from 48 companies in the oil industry. GEUS has also contributed to the atlas: The Neogene Stratigraphy of the Glaciated European Margin from Lofoten to Porcupine, which presents a regional survey of the geological successions formed over the last 25 million years along the Northern European continent from Northern Norway to Ireland.This work has been produced with financial support from the EU and several oil companies. Finally, GEUS has contributed to the Atlas of Geothermal Resources in Europe, which together with a similar atlas from 1988, compiles and assesses the geothermal resources in the entire European region from Portugal to Russia. The last two atlases have been published under the auspices of the European Commission. |
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Delimiting the continental shelf north of Greenland
The UN Law of the Sea Convention, or 'the constitution for the oceans' as it is also called, opens up the possibility that coastal countries can make claims to extend their continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. It is necessary, however, that the depth and geology of the ocean floor fulfil a number of conditions, described in section 76 of the Convention. Denmark expects to ratify the Law of the Sea Convention during 2003. In this connection, a pilot project was carried out in 2002 for a region in the Polar Sea north of Greenland, with the aim of assessing the existing data and working out a proposal for collecting the supplementary data necessary to put forward a claim for extension of the continental shelf in this extremely inaccessible region. Contact has also been made with several institutions in a number of countries to explore the possibilities for cooperation. The section 76 activities in the region north of Greenland are being conducted by the Royal Danish Administration of Navigation and Hydrography, the National Survey and Cadastre Denmark and the Danish Polar Center, with GEUS as the project leader and funding from the Danish government. |
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Licensing round and new exploration models,West Greenland
This year has been the year of the licensing round. In July, the licensing round for offshore areas in West Greenland closed, and in October, an exploration and exploitation licence was issued to the Canadian oil and gas company, EnCana. Prior to the round, GEUS had been busy presenting exploration possibilities in West Greenland at numerous meetings, and on CD-ROMs and websites. A large number of oil companies have also been visited by GEUS, or have visited GEUS themselves. GEUS then also participated in processing applications and in the negotiations. Parallel with these activities, GEUS has continued to work on developing and marketing new exploration models in Greenland.This work involves comparisons of oil and source rock types from Canada and West Greenland, and the development of geological models for possible source and reservoir rock types, incorporating Canadian data. Finally, a large amount of petroleum geology and geophysical data was compiled for the offshore regions in West Greenland in: Geophysical Atlas of the West Greenland Basins, prepared by TGS-NOPEC and Volcanic Basin Petroleum Research in cooperation with GEUS. |
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Oil and gas exploration on the Faeroe Islands
In 2002, three research projects were started with the goal of increasing the geological knowledge of the Faeroe Islands region in connection with future exploration for oil and gas. All three projects belong to the SINDRI programme, financed by the oil companies active on the Faeroe Islands shelf. Two of the projects are working to analyse the origin and structure of the offshore sedimentary basins.The third project is investigating how seismic signals propagate in the basalts covering the major part of the Faeroe Islands sediments like an interfering blanket. As part of the project, GEUS had the primary responsibility for drilling a 700-metre deep bore, Glyvursnes-1, at Thorshavn, to investigate the acoustic properties of the basalts. Similar investigations were carried out in the existing 660-metre deep bore,Vestmanna-1.The work is taking place in cooperation with Danish and foreign universities, Ødegaard A/S, and the Faeroe Islands Geological Survey. |
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Knowledge to help increase oil production
The desire to exploit a greater volume of the oil contained in the North Sea has motivated the five-year research project, PRIORITY, which was completed in 2002. The interdisciplinary project involving participation by researchers from GEO, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), and GEUS, has worked on improving our knowledge about the Lower Cretaceous carbonates, which form the reservoir for the Valdemar Field. Large quantities of oil are contained here, but they are difficult to recover, as the limestone is very fine-grained and fragile. GEUS has particularly worked on understanding how the geological layers have been built up, what the structure is, and where one could expect to find the oil and gas. GEUS has also contributed with knowledge of production characteristics and the stability of recovery wells in extremely fragmented limestone. More than 25 GEUS reports have resulted from the project, which received financial support from the Danish Energy Authority's Energy Research Programme and Mærsk Olie og Gas AS. |
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Hot water for the people of Copenhagen
A trial on Amager succeeded in pumping up 70 degrees hot water from a sandstone layer deep under Copenhagen through a more than 2,600-metre deep bore. Prior to the successful drilling, GEUS had carried out assessments of six possible geothermal drilling sites and prepared the geological foundation for the Margretheholm-1 drilling on East Amager, using DONG as the operator. Geologists from GEUS participated in the work both during and after the drilling, analysing the drilling results. The project was organised by the Metropolitan Geothermal Cooperation (HGS), which has planned another drilling operation in 2003. |
