Exploration histories and future potential : overview

The ‘exploration histories and future potential’ section of the Proceedings is designed to provide new insights for future exploration through leveraging learnings from past experiences. In this regard, the exploration histories of selected plays and fields from the Tertiary through the Palaeozoic of NW Europe are used to illustrate these learnings and to provide a guide to determining future potential. It is well recognized that, from a global perspective, NW Europe possesses world class petroleum systems. However, it is commonly perceived as a mature province for exploration and its future potential depends largely on our ability to understand better the known plays and our creativity to generate new plays. The North Sea region, in this context, benefits from the presence of two super source rocks, in the Kimmeridgian and Westphalian, and a diverse stratigraphy resulting in more than twenty plays from the Tertiary to the Palaeozoic. Historically, on a world-wide basis, the majority of stratigraphic traps have been discovered by serendipity. The wealth of high quality datasets in the North Sea and NW Europe, in combination with new advances in technology, provide an excellent natural laboratory to determine if untested plays and trapping concepts still remain