MTEM Chosen for Distinguished Lecturer Program

One of the pioneers of the Scottish-developed system for mapping oil and gas deposits, which allows expensive drilling operations to be highly targeted, has been chosen by the European Association of Geophysicists and Engineers (EAGE) for its 2007 Distinguished Lecturer Program.

MTEM Research Director Dr Bruce Hobbs will deliver 'Delineating and Monitoring Hydrocarbons using the Multi-Transient Electromagnetic Method' to EAGE branches across the continent.

Dr Hobbs is Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and is co-founder, with Anton Ziolkowski, David Wright and Leon Walker, of the company MTEM Ltd. He is currently on secondment to the company.

His lecture will focus on the commercial application of the company’s technology.

Dr Hobbs said: "Reservoir rocks contain water, hydrocarbons or a mixture of both. The resistivity of those rocks is a sensitive indicator of hydrocarbon saturation levels and may be determined remotely by electromagnetic (EM) methods.

The multi-transient electromagnetic method (MTEM) is a new technology with sufficient resolving power to delineate potential reservoirs and to monitor hydrocarbon movements in a commercial context.

The objective of this lecture is to provide an understanding and appreciation of the new technology and its capabilities so that geoscientists will feel confident in incorporating the method into their appraisal and decision-making workflows."

Dr Hobbs graduated from Exeter University with B.Sc (1965) and Ph.D (1968) in mathematics and his 41 years of research have mainly involved electromagnetic induction studies, inversion theory and near surface geophysics.

Academic positions include faculty positions at Laurentian University, Ontario and The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, a research fellowship at Cambridge University and sabbaticals at Scripps Institute of Oceanography as a Green Scholar, the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona (twice) as Adjunct Professor and the University of Paris (twice) as Visiting Professor.

He has held posts as Geophysical Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Astronomical Society, London; Chairman, Joint Association for Geophysics, UK; Chairman, Working Group 3, Division 1 of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy and has organised and run many workshops on electromagnetic induction and resistivity.

The lecture will suit professional geoscientists and key decision makers who wish to gain an understanding of a new technology that can both de-risk and maximise returns from drilling programs and can potentially revolutionize reservoir monitoring. The lecture contains very minimal mathematics and the concepts will be easily understandable to seismic and non-seismic geoscientists, petroleum geologists and reservoir engineers.

MTEM believes its technology will radically reduce drilling risk and potentially save the oil industry billions of dollars per year. Industry experts estimate the potential market for MTEM at around £500 million annually and the rapidly expanding Edinburgh-headquartered company established its first regional office in Houston in 2006 to meet the demand for its services in North and South America.

Electromagnetic surveys are designed to provide a measure of changes in subsurface resistivity with depth below ground. This information can be useful in locating recoverable oil and gas since hydrocarbons are more resistive to electrical current than the water typically found at similar depths.

The potential to use electromagnetic surveying has been known by industry for some time but limited in application. The advent of modern receiving instruments, computing power and analysis methods combined with techniques developed in recent years has lead to the development of Multi-Transient electromagnetic surveying applications for reservoirs both onshore and in shallow marine