 Department of Earth Sciences Funded PhD studentship at Royal Holloway Department of Earth SciencesReconstruction of the provenance of Devonian-Carboniferous Reservoir Sandstones of the Clair Oil Field, West of ShetlandSupervisors: Gary Nichols, Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Andy Morton, HM Research Associates Ltd/CASP, Andy Whitham and Stephen Andrews, CASP Project outline The Clair oil field, west of Shetland, is one of the UK’s largest oilfields, but despite being discovered in 1977, production has only recently commenced. The development is likely to continue for at least another 10 years with a second phase of development being planned. The oilfield is therefore of significant economic importance for the UK. The Clair oil field reservoir comprises fluvio-lacustrine sandstones of the Clair Group (Devonian-Carboniferous). Initial appraisal of the succession suggested that the sediments were deposited in a small closed basin with internal drainage (Allen and Mange-Rajetzky, 1992; Nichols, 2005), but it is also possible that the Clair area was located at the margin of the larger Orcadian Basin. The PhD project will evaluate the relationships between the successions in the Clair Field and adjacent areas, including the Orcadian Basin of Orkney, Caithness and Shetland, East Greenland and the Inner Moray Firth. The main focus will be on the heavy mineral characteristics of the Clair Group, involving new data collection and integration with published data (Allen and Mange-Rajetzky, 1992), compared with data to be collected from the adjacent successions. An integrated approach (cf. Morton et al., 2005), involving conventional (petrographic) heavy mineral data, mineral chemical data (collected by electron microprobe analysis and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry), and detrital zircon age data (collected by sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe), will generate a detailed reconstruction of sediment source areas and reveal the relationships between the Clair succession and those in the adjacent sedimentary basins. Transport directions will be evaluated using paleocurrent data acquired during field work and subsurface data from the Clair Field. The project will train the student in a variety of laboratory analytical techniques, field work and use of computer programs for data analysis. Some fieldwork collecting material from onshore Devonian basins in Scotland (Orkneys, Shetland, Caithness, Moray Firth) will be involved. Further materials will be obtained from collections from the Hornelen basin (Norway) and East Greenland (where some fieldwork may also be undertaken). It is anticipated that the student will spend some time working in the Clair team in the BP office, and have a chance to use his/her expertise offshore during Clair Field development drilling. References Allen, P.A., and Mange-Rajetzky, M.A., 1992. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 9, 29-52. Morton, A.C., Whitham, A.G. and Fanning, C.M., 2005. Sedimentary Geology, 182, 3-28. Nichols, G.J., 2005. In: Doré, A.G. and Vining, B. (eds), Petroleum Geology: North-West Europe and Global perspectives. Proceedings of the 6th Petroleum Geology Conference: Geological Society, London, 957-967. Project time span: September 2009 to September 2012 Applications: For online applications go to: http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Registry/Admissions/applyonline.html In addition to making the online application please also send a copy of your c.v. to Gary Nichols (g.nichols@es.rhul.ac.uk) who can also be contacted if you have any queries. Deadlines: Please apply by 31st July 2009. Interviews will be held in week beginning 10th August 2009. |
