New Venture Services

'Reducing risk by providing technical and business decision support along the exploration process, from regional strategy, basin and play fairway analysis through to post project audit and planning.'

Why New Venture Services?
Any investment decision requires a range of technical resources from several different disciplines. The related tasks of basin analysis, play analysis, prospect generation, reserves estimation and value calculation (unrisked and risked) have to be interlinked, consistent and completed to the highest level possible.

The IHS approach - reducing risks and adding value to new ventures
The New Venture Services Practice within IHS Consulting provides technical and business decision support to reduce risk throughout the exploration process. This includes regional strategy, basin and play fairway analysis through to post project audit and planning. Value has to be the primary driver in decision-making.

As a result all exploration prospects, lease sales, farm-ins or other business opportunities must be evaluated on a consistent basis so that the results can be compared and ranked in order to correctly assign exploration funding. Rigorous, high quality technical analyses, at all necessary scales, of all the various aspects of the petroleum system are therefore critical. This requires a consistent and thorough exploration process to be in place.

• People
• Process
• Data
• Reports
• Exploration Strategy
• Development/Production Strategy

The group has access to numerous databases, software products, technical skills and experience to assist clients with a wide range of new venture projects. The group has the capability to screen a large number and variety of investment opportunities and can interpret significant volumes of seismic, geological and well data within limited time constraints.

The New Venture Services Practice can also identify and evaluate prospects and assist clients to formulate a successful valuation or bidding strategy via direct negotiation or during licensing rounds.

Specifically the New Ventures Practice has demonstrable experience in the following areas:

• Basin/Regional evaluation
  Compile available information, publications and proprietary database, and synthesize into a coherent story including structural history, stratigraphic framework, geochemical & geothermal regime, hydrocarbon occurrences, scout data and exploration history. Process includes standardization of previous frameworks and reports and their synthesizing into an overall comparative report, plus creation of a definitive database.
  
• Acreage evaluation
  Using all available information, assess the acreage with respect to the likelihood of hydrocarbon occurrence, probability of economic accumulations and likely trap size.
  
• Regional map construction
  Generation of report-size maps for the presentation of standard geological parameters, such as kerogen type, vitrinite reflectance, source rock maturity, migration pathways, isopachs of stratigraphic units, isopachs of reservoir units according to facies type or style, isoporosity and other reservoir parameters, structural trends and trap outlines at specific horizons.
  
• Play fairways
  Generation of typical "Play Fairway" maps delineating distinct areas of the principal reservoir/source/seal/trap elements across the acreage, define the areas of low and high prospectivity, areas of lowest risk, and the presence, nature and limits of stratigraphic traps.
  
• Risk analysis
  Assessment of all the available exploration data, with a view to providing an overall estimate of likelihood of exploration success, but also identifying any environmental or mechanical hazards, physical drilling risk and overall commercial risk with relevance to project development.
  
• Single well appraisal and evaluation
  Technical assessment of well results, including impact on initial prospectivity expectations, calculation of possible discovery volumetrics from client's prime data, potential upside and recommendations for further appraisal.
  
• Farm-out presentations
  Design and production of farm-out brochure and technical presentation, tailored to client's needs and delivered with a positive spin. To include full technical background of any prospective/drilled/undrilled/frontier or development/ production acreage as appropriate, and details of potential economic terms and outline farm-in deal.
  
• Field evaluation
  Technical assessment of multiple well results, log correlation, reservoir zonation and parameter mapping, hydrocarbon testing summary and generation of pay maps and cross sections as necessary to provide in-place hydrocarbon volumetrics, assist in additional well placement and recommendations for further data acquisition.
  
• Field development planning
  Assist as part of the multi-disciplinary technical team to produce a comprehensive Field Development Plan for purposes of submission to partners and national oil companies, and liase between G&G, Reservoir Engineering and Production Departments.
  
• Photo-geology and remote sensing interpretation
  Undertaking of basic photo-geological interpretations of onshore acreage from aerial photographs, satellite imagery (LANDSAT or SPOT), and other data, for the production of outline structural maps, pre-surveying lead maps and surface geological/environmental features.

For further information, please contact us.