Professor Stephen Flint and Dr David Hodgson from the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences will be leading an eight-person team to conduct the three-year project studying ancient channel systems in the Karoo area of South Africa, which are now exposed above sea level. Flint said the university is not allowed to disclose the identities of these companies but said they are the “world’s big companies” and are from the U.K., France, U.S., the Netherlands, Brazil and Australia.
“The rocks in South Africa are very similar to the oil fields and they are like an analogy really,” said Flint in an interview. “These oil companies would like to understand what’s down there and its geological shape and size.”
As the cost of drilling a well to extract new reserves in slope channel reservoirs can cost over $50 million and so it is crucial that exactly the right position is targeted, Flint said. Only sand filled channels can produce oil and so scientists at his team will work on predicting which channels contain sand and which are filled with mud and silt, based on analysis on the characteristics and setting of the Karoo systems.
Flint said his team will embark on a three-month trip of field work to South Africa starting April.
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