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About this Training Course 

The prospect maturation process, from a lead to a drillable prospect, is at the heart of the exploration business. This 5 full day course will cover all aspects of the prospect maturation process: play understanding in the context of regional geological understanding, detailed prospect evaluation; realistic risk & volume assessment consistent with the play understanding and prospect details, and an introduction to exploration economics.

Throughout the course, there is a strong focus on pragmatic (geo)logical approach for assessing those aspects that are input parameters for a meaningful assessment of prospect risks and volumes, with emphasis on a balanced integration of contributions from different sub-surface disciplines. Many examples from basins from around the world are used to illustrate how traps, reservoirs, seals and charge occur in different basin settings.

Specifics topics that will be discussed include the following:

1. The statistical fundamentals for risk and volume assessment will be presented, with practical exercises for understanding the results of a risk & volume assessment as they are displayed in expectation curves.
2. The difference between risk and uncertainty.
3. A full discussion of the essential requirements for a working petroleum system: Trap, reservoir, seal and charge.
4. Examples of how traps, reservoirs, seals and charge work in different basin types around the globe and in Australian basins.
5. Exercises and guidelines for estimating uncertainties for prospect parameters, including advice for deciding which distribution type to use, and how to constrain those distributions for meaningful uncertainty ranges (setting minimum most likely and maximum values). Particular emphasis will be given to estimating hydrocarbon column lengths with their associated uncertainties in undrilled prospects.
6. Prospects and plays: The value of play maps and how these should be used for assessment of prospect risks and for ranking of prospects within a play.
7. Calculating volume ranges for prospects.
8. Calculating volumes for groups of prospects; how to add risked prospect volumes for a statistically correct representation of the volume promise of a portfolio of prospects.
9. Geophysical evidence: Incorporating geophysical evidence (DHIs) consistently and realistically in a risk assessment. An understandable and geology-based workflow, consistent with Bayes theorem, will be presented.
10. Exploration economics.