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Approximately 70% of the continental margins contain significant volcanic flows, created when continents broke apart. Because large quantities of hydrocarbons may be trapped in sediments beneath the lava flows the ability to image through the basalt layers is of tremendous commercial value. However, these lava flows impede conventional seismic imaging by scattering energy, thus blocking the view of what lies beneath. Professor White and his team developed a technique, based on work in the 1990's, for imaging through the lava flows which differs radically from the conventional commercial approach. Professor White's technique has been widely adopted by the oil industry and has had a dramatic global impact, particularly for companies expanding exploration into deeper waters, including the north-west margin of Europe, the South American coast, particularly off Brazil and the continental margins of India. This approach has now become the norm having been adopted by oil companies globally.
Geological storage of CO2 requires prediction of the fate of stored CO2 for ~ 10,000 years after injection, a period much longer than can be observed in injection experiments or modelled. The only way to directly observe the behaviour of CO2 in crustal reservoirs over such time periods is to study accumulations of natural CO2. This case study developed from research undertaken in the Department of Earth Sciences by Bickle between 2006 and 2011 on one such natural accumulation at Green River, Utah, USA. As a result of this research, Shell Global Solutions International BV, identified Green River as a location where they could evaluate the long-term response of caprocks to CO2accumulations. In 2011 they commenced a major drilling and research program to recover and study caprock, reservoir rocks and fluids. The data we have generated from this work is being used to evaluate large-scale CCS projects including the proposed Goldeneye project in the UK North Sea.
Research focussed on understanding volcanic degassing and developing monitoring methods to forecast volcanic activity forms the basis of this impact case; this work was carried out by a group of academic staff and early-career researchers based in Cambridge. The arrival of large fluxes of sulphur-rich gases at the surface can be used to assess magma movement and forecast volcanic activity. This assessment feeds into local governmental decisions regarding risk mitigation and development planning, and the viability of commercial enterprises requiring access to volcanic areas. The development of automatic spectrometer networks for monitoring sulphur dioxide emissions was pioneered by this group. The prototype system was developed at Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat and since then, the design has been patented and adopted at 20 volcano observatories worldwide.
Our research has had a global impact on understanding the tectonic development and fill of rift basins, providing a predictable spatial and temporal template for the distribution of hydrocarbon reservoir rocks. The models are embedded in exploration workflows of global oil companies and have influenced recent exploration success (North and East Africa, Atlantic conjugate margins). Translational research on 3-D rift basin outcrop data capture and resulting software licencing has improved reservoir modelling, optimising positioning of $100m wells. Field-based training for several hundred oil industry staff since 2005 has ensured in-depth knowledge transfer.
Resistivity anomalies resulting from hydrocarbon reservoirs can be located and measured using controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) techniques. The University of Southampton played a pivotal role in the first full-scale marine CSEM survey over a hydrocarbon target in late 2000. This survey and subsequent work spawned one of the greatest technological advances in the field of oil exploration since the development of 3D seismic techniques. By the end of 2012 over 650 commercial CSEM surveys had been completed worldwide, with annual survey revenues in excess of US$200 million. The University continues to develop impact through consultancy and industry-funded research projects.
Thermally sensitive polymers are injected into oil reservoirs to increase the recovery of oil. Experimental and theoretical modeling carried out at the BP Institute, University of Cambridge, has led to a new understanding of the behaviour of such polymers and increased their effectiveness in recovering oil, through improved design of the injection, and led to the discovery of a new reservoir monitoring technique to detect their effect on production. Optimising injection of polymer increases well production by over 1000 bbl/day and has generated annual revenues of over $US 300 million. This technology is also being applied to thermal energy storage systems.
This case study describes the economic impact to sections of the hydrocarbons industry resulting from research into deep water sediment transport and depositional processes. turbidites.org is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary research platform based at University of Aberdeen, which takes a multi-scale approach to understanding deep-water depositional systems and their significance as a stratigraphic record of long-term environmental change. The resulting research outputs have been applied to deep-water hydrocarbon reservoir prediction.
CASTEP is a parameter-free and predictive quantum mechanical atomistic simulation code developed by Professor Payne in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge. CASTEP has been sold commercially by Accelrys since 1995, with more than 800 industrial customers using the package. As part of Accelrys' Materials Studio, it can be used by non-experts to determine a wide range of physical and chemical properties of materials. Companies can thus perform `virtual experiments' using CASTEP. As quantum mechanical simulations can be cheaper and more flexible than experiments, CASTEP invariably reduces costs and accelerates product development.
Bradford's pioneering research into geophysical prospecting has significantly changed the approach to heritage management in the UK and internationally. Our research has influenced the development of commercial survey instruments in this field as well as changing industry guidance/practice. The changes include increased use of more sustainable, non-invasive methods for archaeological investigation and the gathering of richer data about the buried past. Our guidelines for legacy archaeological data have created standards in the archiving of this valuable information resource for public re-use. The group's involvement with Time Team has enhanced public awareness of geophysical prospecting which is demonstrated in the increased use of these techniques by community groups.
A new company, Geomerics, was created as a spin-out from the Cavendish Laboratory. Geomerics now employs 22 full time staff, with offices in Cambridge, UK and Vancouver, Canada. Geomerics has pioneered a new business sector in selling lighting middleware technology, based on Cambridge research, to games developers. Customers include Electronic Arts, Square Enix and Take 2 (three of the five largest publishers) and licenses have been sold in Europe, North America, Japan and Korea. In 2011 the first game released using Geomerics software, Battlefield 3, became the fastest selling game in Electronic Arts' history, having sold nearly 20M copies.