The Petroleum Exploration Of Ireland S Offshore Basins

This text covers a wide range of exploration topics from the regional to the field scale. It provides new information on Neogene to recent stratigraphy and sedimentation in the North Atlantic. A significant amount of exploration has taken place since the publication of Geological Society special publication no. 93 in 1995.

This guide covers a wide range of exploration topics from the regional to the field scale. It provides new information on Neogene to recent stratigraphy and sedimentation in the North Atlantic.

During the past few years, a number of factors have combined to create renewed petroleum exploration interest in the sedimentary basins that virtually surround Ireland. This volume presents a comprehensive review of the results of recent exploration and production data, and points to possible future trends in exploration activity in the area. it includes contributions from most of the major oil companies active in the region, and covers the full geographical and stratigraphical spectrum of the Irish offshore basins, together with some adjacent and geologically related regions.

Petroleum Geology of Ireland provides a comprehensive review of the petroleum geology of Ireland and its very extensive continental shelf. The authors chart the fifty-year history of petroleum exploration in Ireland, from early drilling onshore to the present frontier exploration in the deep water Atlantic basins. The structural framework and regional geological setting of the sedimentary basins is described in two chapters, and this is followed by a review of the history of Irish onshore and offshore exploration, together with an outline of the licensing framework. The onshore basins, largely Carboniferous and older, are then considered as they guided the initial understanding of the younger offshore geological framework. Pre-Permian to Cenozoic stratigraphy of the region is explained in five chapters, each illustrated by palaeogeographic maps that are based both on onshore geology and on the results of offshore drilling. The major regional groups of basins are then considered and for each there is analysis of basin development and petroleum systems, together with a review of their exploration history, plays and prospects. The Celtic Sea basins, south of Ireland, contain a thick Mesozoic succession and host a number of producing petroleum fields and sub-commercial discoveries. The Atlantic margin basins, with thick successions of Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments, are the largest and least well explored of the Irish basin groups but offer a number of promising oil and gas discoveries and frontier prospects. Finally, the Northern Ireland and Irish Sea basins, onshore or in shallow waters, contain a thick Upper Palaeozoic to early Mesozoic succession which provides important insights into the regional geological evolution and also the challenges of trying to understand the petroleum habitat of Ireland. Future and potential petroleum prospects in the Irish offshore region are reviewed in the final chapter, which also examines briefly the gas storage potential of onshore and offshore reservoirs. The book, which contains comprehensive reference lists with each chapter, will be of value to oil industry geoscientists seeking to understanding Irish onshore and offshore geology and to academic researchers with an interest in marine and petroleum geology.

2) contain introductory material regarding ge Historical Background ology and petroleum exploration techniques Only a few decades ago knowledge of the off which we trust will help the non-specialist, in shore geology west of Britain and Ireland was conjunction with some of the more general ref limited to a scattering of seabed samples. Dur follow the main erences cited in the text, to ing the last twenty five years, however, the parts of the chapters and the text figures. This tempo of geological investigation has gradu first chapter also contains a small amount of ally increased. The framework and outline ge introductory material concerning the opening ology of the western seaboard is now known, of the North Atlantic Ocean which should help although a great deal, some of it fundamental to lead into the more detailed account which in nature, still remains to be elucidated. Sev follows, and also help in the understanding of eral commercial and sub-commercial hydrocar some of the points made in later chapters. bon discoveries have been made and are being Credit must go to university departments, produced, . developed or investigated. A sus and later the Institute of Geological Sciences, tained phase of exploration drilling is antici for their parts in initially establishing the pated in the next five years in the Western existence of, and geological outlines for, the Approaches - Celtic Sea area and to the west offshore basins along the western seaboard of Britain and Ireland."

2) contain introductory material regarding ge Historical Background ology and petroleum exploration techniques Only a few decades ago knowledge of the off which we trust will help the non-specialist, in shore geology west of Britain and Ireland was conjunction with some of the more general ref limited to a scattering of seabed samples. Dur follow the main erences cited in the text, to ing the last twenty five years, however, the parts of the chapters and the text figures. This tempo of geological investigation has gradu first chapter also contains a small amount of ally increased. The framework and outline ge introductory material concerning the opening ology of the western seaboard is now known, of the North Atlantic Ocean which should help although a great deal, some of it fundamental to lead into the more detailed account which in nature, still remains to be elucidated. Sev follows, and also help in the understanding of eral commercial and sub-commercial hydrocar some of the points made in later chapters. bon discoveries have been made and are being Credit must go to university departments, produced, . developed or investigated. A sus and later the Institute of Geological Sciences, tained phase of exploration drilling is antici for their parts in initially establishing the pated in the next five years in the Western existence of, and geological outlines for, the Approaches - Celtic Sea area and to the west offshore basins along the western seaboard of Britain and Ireland.

2) contain introductory material regarding ge Historical Background ology and petroleum exploration techniques Only a few decades ago knowledge of the off which we trust will help the non-specialist, in shore geology west of Britain and Ireland was conjunction with some of the more general ref limited to a scattering of seabed samples. Dur follow the main erences cited in the text, to ing the last twenty five years, however, the parts of the chapters and the text figures. This tempo of geological investigation has gradu first chapter also contains a small amount of ally increased. The framework and outline ge introductory material concerning the opening ology of the western seaboard is now known, of the North Atlantic Ocean which should help although a great deal, some of it fundamental to lead into the more detailed account which in nature, still remains to be elucidated. Sev follows, and also help in the understanding of eral commercial and sub-commercial hydrocar some of the points made in later chapters. bon discoveries have been made and are being Credit must go to university departments, produced, . developed or investigated. A sus and later the Institute of Geological Sciences, tained phase of exploration drilling is antici for their parts in initially establishing the pated in the next five years in the Western existence of, and geological outlines for, the Approaches - Celtic Sea area and to the west offshore basins along the western seaboard of Britain and Ireland.

This text provides a snap-shot of current understanding on the petroleum geology of the East Irish Sea and adjacent areas.