RSDD-H Performance

Scotforth has completed more than 40 commercial RSDD-H exploration surveys around the world during the past ten years. These have covered more than 250,000km2 of prospective exploration lands that range from virgin, unexplored territories to highly explored, local E&P licence areas. In addition, Scotforth has screened parts of numerous sedimentary basins and petroleum provinces in all continents.

Track Record

The overall pattern of results has been very positive with substantial evidence that RSDD-H is a valuable exploration prospecting technology. Evidence of this successful track record is provided by:

  • RSDD-H Recognition of Numerous Oil and Gasfields
  • High Bias of Industry Drilling on Scotforth high-ranking PI and IEFA areas
  • High Success of Industry Successes on Scotforth PI and IEFA areas
  • Low Frequency of Industry Drilling on Scotforth??s non-prospective and poorly /high risk prospective mapped areas
  • Poor Success ratio of exploration drilling results on Scotforth??s non-prospective and poorly /high risk prospective mapped areas
  • Successful Acreage Selection and Licence Acquisitions on Scotforth PI and IEFA areas

 

Some specific examples of these are:

  • RSDD-H Recognition of Numerous Oil and Gasfields

    Many existing oil and gasfields ??small and large- are clearly recognised by RSDD-H imaging. They occur across a wide range of landscapes and ecosystems. By example our ??Country Inventories? show some RSDD-H processed image examples with short supporting captions and exploration commentaries.

    In one surveyed area of the Llanos Basin in Colombia one of Scotforth??s clients has responded that their scrutiny of Scotforth??s PI showed that out of 10 identified Prospects four have been drilled and all four are new discoveries. In the other direction, twenty of twenty nine existing fields had RSDD-H anomalies (70%) while the remaining nine (30%) did not display adequately to map as RSDD-H anomalies. No dry holes had been drilled on the anomalies in the post survey period.

 

  • High Bias of Industry Drilling on Scotforth PI and IEFA areas

    Scotforth has mapped much of the North Slope of Alaska, following more than two years of front-end internal R&D of this tundra terrain. In addition to the clear Super-IEFA status of the Prudhoe Bay High and the Kuparuk Oilfield / Colville High with their multi-billion barrel accumulations, it is interesting that the exploration and subsequent delineation drilling by Conoco/Phillips in the NE NPRA district has centred on a large IEFA district identified quite separately by some of the semi-regional RSDD-H play fairway mapping. This drilling programme has successfully extended the Greater Alpine oilfield discovery area westwards such that a new production development programme has been established in the ??Mooses Tooth Unit? as placed with the Federal Oil and Gas authorities.

 

  • High Success of Industry Successes on Scotforth PI and IEFA areas

    In addition to the North Slope example there has also been success by industry in one of Scotforth??s Southern Russian RSDD-H map areas ??the Temruk District of Krasnodar. There, in the Kuban Trough of the Western Caucasus Foredeep, RSDD-H maps were used in conjunction with conventional play data of a local geological enterprise to high grade possible new licence areas. Licences were subsequently awarded and three oil discoveries were made in Years 2005-2006 on two of the PI's key prospects. This is in a totally different ecosystem of agricultural lands and coastal wetlands.

    In the mature play provinces of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (??WCSB?) some of Scotforth??s earliest regional surveys have proved highly successful. By example, in the Deep Basin play district of Alberta, close to the Rocky Mountains Deformed Belt, one of Scotforth??s IEFAs, (called HPZ VI) as mapped in 2000, has been progressively drilled by industry with more than 200 gas wells drilled on it post-survey, by mid 2007. This ??Wild River? district is now a core gas production area for companies such as Talisman Energy Inc. The number and productivity of industry wells in off-IEFA surrounding areas in the equivalent period is much lower.

 

  • Low Frequency of Industry Drilling on Scotforth??s non-prospective and poorly prospective mapped areas

Across the population of Scotforth's surveys world-wide the ratio of exploration wells drilled in off-anomaly versus on-anomaly terrains is approximately 1:5, that is 20%

 

  • Poor Success ratio of exploration drilling results on Scotforth??s non-prospective and poorly /high risk prospective mapped areas

The success ratio of off-anomaly wells is approximately 1 in 10 versus 5 to 8 in 10 for on-anomaly wells

 

  • Successful Acreage Selection and Licence Acquisitions on Scotforth PI and IEFA areas:

    Client success in purchasing extensive land positions in Alaska based in part on pre-bid round RSDD-H survey data. Client thereafter drilled prospects on these lands that had been further defined with 3-D seismic and encountered oil.

    Successful use of RSDD-H prospectivity in frontier lands of the Mackenzie Valley of Canada enabled Scotforth??s Canadian associate Pine Petroleum to secure joint venture engagement and subsequent acreage award with larger independent oil companies.

 

Successful use of RSDD-H identified and secured a dominant play fairway position in a NE British Columbia, Canada, gas play for Scotforth in joint venture with its partner, Purcell Energy Ltd. This led to a full 3-D seismic and drilling exploration programme that discovered a new gas field trend with initial production of more than 22MCFD from 3 wells. Purcell subsequently sold these properties for more than C$80million.


Scotforth recognises that some landscape terrains are proving more responsive to RSDD-H surveying than others, but few are proving impossible to survey, given adequate processing endeavour - unless the satellite imagery itself is very poor quality or unavailable for the appropriate seasons.

RSDD-H processing and interpretation (the "Know How") have advanced substantially over the past ten years for each of the primary global eco-regions. This progress, combined with a number of technological advances in Scotforth??s proprietary hardware and software, has increased the capabilities of Scotforth to identify appealing hydrocarbon targets in most petroleum habitat arenas. Moreover, the increasing availability of newer, higher resolution and hyper-spectral satellite data adds to the potential of RSDD-H to retain and increase its ??exploration edge?.