THE CLIENT: Shell
THE BACKGROUND: The greatest financial risks borne by Oil & Gas companies occur during “frontier” exploration when crucial licensing/development decisions have to be made on the basis of limited and often unreliable data. This puts a premium on survey methods that can cover very large areas rapidly and identify promising leads.
THE SOLUTION: LightTouch is a low-cost oil and gas prospecting method invented by Shell and developed in an extended cooperation with scientists from the Optics Group at the University of Glasgow. LightTouch measures the atmospheric concentrations of trace gases that leak from hydrocarbon systems and disperse into the atmosphere. These concentration data are combined with meteorological data and an understanding of the gas dispersion process to produce maps of gas emission rates from the ground’s surface. Early surveys were ground-based from 4-WD vehicles but now the technique is deployed from specialist aircraft carrying ultra-sensitive gas detectors and meteorological sensors.
THE KEY CLIENT BENEFITS: The method detects exactly what is being sought: hydrocarbon molecules. This provides valuable constraints for those integrating all the data available to produce subsurface geological models of the concession. These models represent the total integrated geological understanding of the region and guide decisions on where to acquire seismic data, which is orders of magnitude more expensive per unit area than LightTouch. Seismic data provides dramatic localised refinements to the subsurface model over the regions of special interest, this in turn guides decisions on whether to drill and where.
SUPA EXPERTISE: The Glasgow Optics Group has developed ultra-sensitive gas detection systems and established a data processing algorithm that allows the gas concentration and wind-field data to be combined to infer the seepage locations and emission flux rates.
THE COLLABORATION MECHANISM: The collaboration has been supported by Shell through a number of mechanisms including multiple CASE studentships, Industrial Contracts, Consultancy, and TSB/EPSRC research programme as well as equipment donations and donation of rights to exploit background IP for medical applications.