Exploration of mature areas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf since 2000

The reactivation of the exploration of the Norwegian Continental Shelf since 2000 has been successful. This is the result of conceptual renewal by a diversity of organic growth companies. The process was initiated by the authorities and companies that believed in an unreleased resource potential. The preceding decade was characterized by acquisition and mergers that lead to more equal asset based companies. Such a focus resulted in exploration drilling around producing fields and underinvestment in drilling of breakthrough concepts. The result was a majority opinion that the time of large discoveries had come to an end. Between 2000-2006 1 billion boe was found and from 2007 6 billion boe. The behaviour reference curve for the discovery process in any area is nonlinear and demonstrates that the main growth phases are related breakthroughs created more by actions than predictions

Uncertainties that are accepted create a room of possibilities with the right philosophy, teams, data, tools and methods. Possibilities are created by seeing new relations between maximum diversity of differently scaled geological parameters at highest possible entropy level. Reliable subsurface models are based on basic geological principles formulated by Hutton, Walther and Wheeler. Models must be formulated deterministically and realize that the same data can support several equal likely scenarios. Modelling will always be tautological.

The tools and methods must adapt to reality not the opposite. Facts can never be substituted by indirect methods. The subsurface knowledging should focus on what the situation is and then why it can be such. This reflect Gödel's incompleteness theorem; “The truth cannot be described in a finite net” and David Bohm's implicit order: “Reality is unfolded by interactions” and holistic principle; “The details in the whole and the whole in the details”.

The first new important discoveries after 2000 were the Kneler and Boa oil discoveries that together with the earlier Kamel eon gas and oil discovery triggered the development of the 300 million bbl Alvheim oil field. These structures were prior to the drilling considered as gas satellites to the Heimdal Gas Field. The Kneler under saturated oil discovery demonstrated that new concepts of reality are created outside the 2-3 standard deviations. Expected value decisions repeat the past and do not create the future. Perceptions of the tacit domain are essential in the exploration decision.

The southern Utsira High had been unsuccessful explored by all the major companies from 1967 to 2007. The successful discovery of the significant Edvard Grieg by well 16/1-8 in 2007 triggered a wave of new discoveries culminating with the discovery of the supergiant Johan Sverdrup by well 16/2-6 in 2010.

The basic hypothesis for the renewed exploration in 2004 was based on all earlier wells and 3D seismic. The new model was that the Utsira High was an inverted high that could be one saturated oil system linked to a veneer of Volgian and older Jurassic sands above an OWC 1940-60 m MSL. The