Study to investigate North Sea chalk formation process

Offshore staff

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Maersk Oil has started a five-year research program designed to improve knowledge of chalk reservoirs in the Danish North Sea.

This is a joint project with the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Geography and Geology (DGG).

Maersk and its DUC partners Shell and Chevron will provide funds of DKK 13.5 million ($2.5 million) over the period.

Maersk will mentor various PhD students for up to six months at a time and share data with the DGG. The aim is to clarify the large-scale processes that determined where chalk was laid down and how oil and gas reservoir characteristics were formed.

The research will switch the focus away from easily identifiable features to hard-to-detect inter-chalk variations that may indicate overlooked hydrocarbon traps.

“Research at DGG has shown that the original process of rock formation, as deposits were buried and compacted over millions of years, had an impact on the porosity and small-scale variations of chalk,” said Helle Krabbe, lead geologist and team leader in Danish near-field exploration.

“However, no geological models can yet predict these variations very well because of a lack of knowledge about the physical behavior of the original sediment. This long-term study hopes to address that.”

11/08/2011