Computer generated models of geological features used in gas and oil exploration.

Creating realistic geological models for use in oil and gas exploration.

IPETS Consortium: reducing uncertainty in oil and gas exploration

An industry funded consortium whose objective is to reduce exploration risks associated with ‘seals’ and ‘traps’.

  • 23 January 2006 | Updated 14 October 2011

The IPETS Consortium

The IPETS consortium (Integrated Predictive Evaluation of Traps and Seals) is an industry funded research consortium managed by CSIRO.

Sponsored by seven Australian and international oil companies, the consortium includes:

  • the University of Adelaide
  • the University of South Australia
  • the Australian School of Petroleum
  • Petroleum Geo-Services
  • CSIRO Divisions of Exploration & Mining, Land & Water, Manufacturing & Materials Technology.

The four year research program began in February 2005 and operates equity to the value of A$5.6 million.

Sponsorship opportunities are still available.

Objectives

The research performed by the IPETS consortium is geared towards assessing the exploration risks associated with ‘seals’ and ‘traps’.

Oil and gas are generated in the deep earth from the maturation of source rocks rich in organic matter. These hydrocarbons are buoyant and so rise up through the Earth’s crust unless blocked by low permeability rocks or features - called seals - and become trapped in the subsurface.

The research performed by the IPETS consortium attempts to assess the exploration risks associated with such traps by integrating results from:

  • field studies
  • laboratory experiments
  • modelling.

It will focus on developing predictive relationships between:

  • intact and breached hydrocarbon column distributions
  • leakage indicators
  • structural evolution
  • fault geometry
  • rock properties.

Outcomes will have generic applications and we will seek to evaluate predictive methodologies on the Australian margin as well as in other selected areas worldwide.

The multi-disciplinary nature of the consortium will also provide spin-offs into other areas of interest to companies, such as stability of drill-holes and actual recovery of oil from reservoirs in the sub-surface.

Benefits of participation

Given the average cost of a well is about A$15 million on the Australian Northwest Shelf, development of workflows to help rank prospects and optimise well placement and drilling through the work of the IPETS consortium has the potential to significantly impact on company bottom lines.

The four year research program began in February 2005 and operates equity to the value of A$5.6 million.

The IPETS consortium offers an extremely diverse range of skills, dedicated to resolving seals related issues from sub-particle to regional tectonic scales.

The consortium combines laboratory-based research with applied trap-integrity analysis - expertise which is not available in such an integrated format anywhere else in the world.

IPETS will impact on regional prospectivity through optimising well placement and aiding in decision-making regarding block leasing and equity divestment.

A number of research modules are cross-disciplinary and stand to impact on wellbore stability and oil recovery, as well as in seal evaluation.

Contact information

Terms and conditions of the offer can be obtained by contacting Dr Dave Dewhurst at CSIRO Petroleum.

Read more about CSIRO's work in Energy from Oil & Gas.