Re: Oil Futures

[Mike Simmons <gmi267@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I was pleased to see Martin Jakubowski's assessment of the role of 
biostratigraphy in the oil industry. Martin echoes many of the 
sentiments penned by Steve Lowe and myself in a recent article in 
"Geoscientist" magazine ("The future for palaeontology? An industrial 
perspective?", Geoscientist, 6/3 (1996), 14-16 (this issue also contains 
other discussions on the future of palaeontology)). 

Steve and I came to the same conclusion as Martin that biostratigraphy 
has a key role to play in exploration, production and development 
because of it helps reduce uncertainty through better understanding of 
the spatial and temporal relationships of sediments. 

Yet the perception of biostratigraphy can vary quite widely within the 
industry. One extreme is summed up by an exploration manager who 
once told me - "but surely biostratigraphy is all done now?" meaning 
all fossil taxa are described and their identity and stratigraphic and 
environmental ranges understood!  This is usually coupled with an 
equally misguided view that any biostratigrapher can look at any 
(micro)fossil group of any age from any basin. Carboniferous fusilinids 
- no problem! I'll work on them just as soon as I've finished these 
Miocene pollen......

But these are extreme views. I've almost always found that the 
contribution biostratigraphy can make is appreciated by exploration 
and production colleagues. Relatively recent developments such as 
sequence stratigraphy, "biosteering" of horizontal wells, pragmatic 
high resolution biostratigraphy applicable to intra-reservoir correlation 
and links to chemostratigraphy ensure the continued releavance of 
biostratigraphy to industry activity. A key is to bear in mind that there 
is no such thing as "routine biostratigraphy" - all biostratigraphic work 
is (or should be) undertaken for a specific purpose. For sure we still 
need to sell our subject but we're getting there. 

I'll end on a note of optimism for academics (having just joined 
academia I have to be positive!). Techniques like high resolution 
biostratigraphy rely on taxonomic precision. Most oil companies no 
longer have the in-house staff to carry out taxonomic research, and 
consultants rarely have the time. Therefore, hopefully, enlightened oil 
companies will support taxonomic research in academia, at least on 
certain microfossil groups from econmically important basins and time 
periods. But maybe I'm just being too optimistic now!

Mike

Dr. Mike Simmons
Department of Geology
University of Aberdeen
Meston Building
King's College
Abderdeen
AB9 2UE
United Kingdom

Tel: 44 - 1224 - 273438
Fax: 44 - 1224 - 272785
m.d.simmons@abdn.ac.uk