Play Fairway Analysis
The work that Paras has done with Governments and leading oil companies has given them an unrivalled view of the hydrocarbon potential of most of the worlds basins, and this understanding of the Play Fairway has been invaluable in promoting new inward investment. This understanding is based both on our consultants’ experiences in working with major oil companies (BP, Shell, Mobil) and work on advising on exploration strategy.
The Paras Approach
Paras adopts a structured approach to Play Fairway Analysis, based on the petroleum systems analysis method, used in many of the leading oil companies. In any province it is vital to answer whether the current description fully describes the scale of the opportunity, and the work that an oil company would need to do to both describe the risks and undertake a programme of work to de-risk the opportunity.
Define
Most major oil companies will have undertaken this type of analysis. However most of the smaller more active exploration companies do not have the resources to do so. Therefore it is extremely valuable to have a complete story prepared that would demonstrate to individual companies the attractiveness of a given hydrocarbon province.
Develop
The Paras Approach considers the following issues:
• Data coverage, quality and availability
• Plate tectonic setting and overall model for the basin evolution
• Gross depositional environment leading to source reservoir and seal prediction
• Volumetric assessment of source rock generation potential
• Thermal modelling to understand the timing of source rock maturity and hydrocarbon generation
• Migration pathways
• Tectonic evolution to derive the timing of structures and trap formation
• Common Risk Segment mapping to understand the key risks of the province
• Analogue basin selection and analysis
• Yet to find estimation including prospect and field size distribution
• Current finding rates and individual play risks
Deliver
A good geoscience analysis will attract many different types of activity, from the smaller “promote” type independents to fully fledged majors. In our experience “activity breeds activity”.