News

Daytrip "Geothermal Energy"

Sunday 8 January 2012

Registration for the fieldtrip on the 9th of March is now open, see information on the right!

PGK excursion to the Dolomites

Tuesday 18 October 2011

The picture on the right was taken during the most recent PGK-excursion to the Dolomites. John Reijmer (VU University) and Lorenz Keim (Amt für Geologie und Baustoffprüfung, Bolzano) showed the famous Triassic carbonate platforms in northern Italy. Particular attention was paid to the way of progradation of the platforms; clinoforms could be nicely observed in the spectacular outcrops.

Oil underneath Rijswijk

Wednesday 5 October 2011

An interesting article by W.J. Evert van de Graaff about the first oil find in The Netherlands can be found here.

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Upcoming Events

lecture
dinner
drinks
meeting

lecture · dinner · drinks · meeting

Wednesday 15 February 2012  16:00 - 20:00

“The Permian Rotliegend of the Netherlands” - Book Launch-Event

Lecturer: Rien Herber

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We kindly ask you to register for the presentations and dinner, since we need to know the number of participants for organizing the dinner. You do NOT need to register for the Annual General PGK meeting.

16.00-16.25                 Jürgen Grötsch: The Groningen Gas Field and the Rotliegend of the Netherlands

16.25-16.50                 Rick Donselaar: Thin-bedded fluvial sheet sandstone as secondary reservoir target: Ten Boer Member, Southern Permian Basin

16.50-17.20                 Break

17.20-17.55                 Jos Okkerman: Tight Gas reservoirs in the Rotliegend

17.55-18.20                 Reinhard Gaupp: Diagenesis in Rotliegend sandstones

18.20-18.30                 Chris Schaafsma and Fokko van Hulten: Close-out

18.30-19.30                 Buffet

19.30-20.00                 Annual General Meeting PGK

20.00     Close

For abstracts please follow Program PGK Meeting Wednesday February 15th.

Location

Kivi Building
Prinsessegracht 23
2514 AP
Den Haag
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excursion

excursion

Friday 9 March 2012  08:15 - Friday 9 March 2012  

Geothermal Energy in the Netherlands: a day trip to three “hot” sites

Organiser: Geert-Jan Vis

According to the Dutch Mining Law geothermal energy is heat extracted from depths below 500 m. In practice, groundwater with economically producible temperatures is found deeper than 1500 m. The use of geothermal energy in the Netherlands got on track since the successful exploration wells by Rik van den Bosch in 2007 to a Cretaceous aquifer in the West Netherlands Basin. Since then, some 106 license applications have been submitted and 9 wells have been drilled. This field trip will focus on several aspects of this new branch of energy production such as geology, technology, interference with hydrocarbons, spatial planning, applications and the state-of-art.

When: Friday 9 March 2012

Price: €30,-

Programme:

  • Departure from Den Haag Central Station: 08h15;
  • Morning: visit to currently drilling geothermal well-site Honselersdijk including presentations on geology and technical aspects of the project;
  • Mid day: visit to geothermal site Pijnacker with hydrocarbon complications, including presentations on geology and technical aspects of the project;
  • Field lunch (included);
  • Afternoon: visit to producing geothermal site Den Haag, including guided tour of the installation, presentations on the project and on geothermal energy in the Netherlands;
  • Drinks in Den Haag near Den Haag Central Station;
  • Estimated end of programme: 18h00

For registration please use the following link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFFVNk1WWUZGWnY5NF9CWWR2ZTlaUkE6MQ

lecture
drinks

lecture · drinks

Wednesday 21 March 2012  17:00 - 19:00

Prediction of Fault Sealing by Cataclasis: a calibrated quantitative geo-mechanical method

Lecturer: Dirk Nieuwland (NewTec International B.V.)

17:00 - 18:00 Social Hour

18:00 - 19:00 Lecture

Sealing faults form a major element in trapping hydrocarbons. They can form isolated compartments in reservoirs, alternatively faults can form leak zones and conduits for fluid flow. Prediction of fault seal potential is therefore essential for efficient hydrocarbon exploration, field development underground gas storage and CO2 storage.

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This presentation describes a geo-mechanical method to predict the sealing potential of faults in sandstone reservoirs. The method has been calibrated on the basis of a field case with core samples, rock-mechanical tests and numerical calculations. This data was used to quantify and predict the stress regime that is required to form sealing cataclastic gouges. In order to apply this, it is required to do an in-situ stress analysis. For present day situations the World Stress Map (WSM) can be used to estimate the orientation of sH. However, in many instances a palaeo stress analysis is required.

The method was successfully applied and tested in two field cases. The end result is an easy to apply tool with which it is possible to predict fault sealing and to estimate the expected seal quality in sandstone reservoirs.

An easy to use tool will be presented together with guidelines to apply the method. A algorithm that can be applied to calculate fault transmissibility is under development.

Location

Kivi Building
Prinsessegracht 23
2514 AP
Den Haag
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lecture
external event

lecture · external event

Thursday 29 March 2012 - Thursday 29 March 2012  

AAPG 2012 European Distinguished Lecture: My Source Rock is Now My Shale-Gas Reservoir - Geological and Petrophysical Characterization of Organic-Rich Rocks

Lecturer: Q. R. Passey (ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co.)

More information will follow soon!

Many currently producing shale-gas reservoirs are overmature oil-prone source rocks containing Type I or Type II kerogen.  Key characterization parameters are: total organic carbon (TOC), maturity level (vitrinite reflectance), mineralogy, thickness, and organic matter type (OMT).  Recent studies indicate that although organic-rich shale-gas formations may be hundreds of meters in gross thickness (and may appear largely homogeneous), the vertical variability in the organic richness and mineralogy can vary on relatively short vertical scales (e.g. 10’s cm - 1 meter). The vertical heterogeneity observed can be directly tied back to geologic and biotic conditions when deposited.  The accumulation of organic-rich rocks (ORRs) is a complex function of many interacting processes that can be summarized by three main control variables: rate of production, rate of destruction, and rate of dilution. The marine realm includes three physiographic settings that accumulate significant organic-matter-rich rocks: constructional shelf margin, platform/ramp, and continental slope/basin.  In general, the fundamental geologic building block of shale-gas reservoirs is the parasequence, or its equivalent, and commonly 10’s to 100’s of parasequences comprise the organic-rich formation whose lateral continuity can be estimated using techniques and models developed for source rocks.

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Many geochemical and petrophysical techniques developed to characterize organic-rich source rocks in the oil-generation window (Ro=0.5-1.0), can be applied, sometimes with modification, to shale-gas reservoirs that currently exhibit high thermal maturity (Ro=1.1 - 4.0).  Well logs can be used to calculate TOC, porosity, and hydrocarbon saturation, but in clay-rich mudstones, the fundamental definition of porosity is complicated by the high surface area of clay minerals (external and sometimes internal), the volume of surface water, and the presence of water held by capillary forces in very small pores between silt and clay size mineral grains. Moreover, SEM images of ion-beam-milled samples reveal a separate nano-porosity system contained within the organic matter, and the gas may be largely contained in these organic pores.

The use of high-vertical resolution standard logs and borehole image logs enhances the interpretation of vertically heterogenous shale-gas formations.  It is important to keep in mind that kerogen occupies a much larger volume percent (vol%) than is indicated by the TOC weight percent (wt%); this is because of the low grain density of the organic matter (typically 1.1-1.4 g/cc) compared to that of common rock-forming minerals (2.6-2.8 g/cc).  Well logs play a critical role in characterizing and quantifying shale-gas resources.

lecture
drinks

lecture · drinks

Wednesday 18 April 2012  17:00 - 19:00

Tremp Geology

Lecturer: Josep Anton

Location

Kivi Building
Prinsessegracht 23
2514 AP
Den Haag
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lecture
drinks

lecture · drinks

Wednesday 20 June 2012  17:00 - Wednesday 20 June 2012  

PGK-SPE-DPS event

Organiser: Bas van der Es

Coen Leo (Sorgenia): Sorgenia’s shale gas adventure in Poland

and

Henk Duyverman (Cuadrilla Resources) - shale gas: doing the job right