Review by Harriet Christie, ERC EQUIPOISE

Last month, the YPs benefited from the expertise of Duncan Macgregor, consultant petroleum geologist and honorary lecturer at Royal Holloway University, when he shared his knowledge of some of the technical aspects of traps and seals during a workshop-style lecture.

In the state of the art Schlumberger offices, Duncan kicked off by discussing some physical principals of seals, explaining different sealing mechanisms and factors that may lead to seal failure, before expanding to global trends in seal characteristics such as age, thickness and dip magnitude. Duncan then focused on the risking of seals, reminding us how; generally, seals can only be ranked by their relative risk.

In the second part of the seminar, Duncan used case studies from his extensive experience in the Far East and Africa to demonstrate that trap structures aren’t limited to the conventional anticlines and fault blocks. Post brain revitalising pizza, the audience was invited to share examples of different trap geometries from their own work. Examples offered ranged from buried hills in Lancaster to fault-guided igneous bodies in Nigeria and sand injectite reservoirs in Israel. Duncan proved a very engaging speaker and the audience were keen to engage in the free training. Thanks to Duncan on behalf of all attendees for a very informative evening!