GeoS4 profile
Built on the 40+ years combined experience of its co-founders, GeoS4 is a specialised service provider and consultancy to the upstream sector of the petroleum industry. We address exploration problems using cutting edge science, focussing on pre-drill pay definition. There is no hype; there are no black boxes. We bridge the research-service divide, working with our customers via on-site placement and/or on-line networking. We are proud that our client list includes some of the world's largest and smallest energy companies.
The composition of reservoired petroleum is controlled by the physical and chemical processes that have acted on the source-carrier-reservoir system over geological time and on the reservoir during its production history. We perform Petroleum Systems Modelling to quantify petroleum charge and type, both spatially and temporally at regional and prospect scales. The initial control on gas-oil ratio occurs in the source rock where the composition of the first-formed petroleum is dependent on both the type of organic matter and its thermal maturity. Because correct source rock behaviour is the all-important and often underestimated element in risk assessment, we also supervise the acquisition of data for defining yield, type and speed of generation, as well as performing the modelling itself, of course. Defining the early, main and late charge potential of source rocks, and modelling in-reservoir oil cracking are our specialities.
It is during migration from source to trap where gas-oil ratios and other bulk characteristics are usually most greatly modified. Under ever decreasing pressures and temperatures, and beginning at the bubble point, separate phases of gas-saturated oil and oil-saturated gas exsolve and are segregated from one another in carrier systems. Traps along a migration trend may therefore exhibit extreme variability in gas-oil ratios because of migration-induced changes. We employ the cutting edge PhaseKinetics approach to simulate these fractionations, and thereby predict gas-oil ratio, saturation pressure, and physical properties (e.g. viscosity) ahead of drilling. In a nutshell, we integrate organic matter structure and kinetics with Equations of State originally developed by petroleum engineers to predict petroleum composition ahead of drilling.
For the client, all of this translates into defining oil- versus gas-plays, identifying likely production problems and providing a prognosis of pipeline/transportation and refining costs.
Research programme
Our specialised service know-how and activities are coupled with an aggressive and state-of-the-art research programme at GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Germany. You can learn more about our IPP activities, including reservoir scale heterogeneities, biodegradation, phase prediction and shallow gas generation.