Prospect Maturation

What this course will cover in 5 days:

This course describes the various aspects that need to be considered in the prospect maturation process, including:

• Play development in the context of a sound understanding of the regional geology
• Detailed prospect evaluation and understanding of the critical aspects of traps, reservoirs, seals and charge
• Examples from plays and prospects in different basin settings from around the globe
• Realistic and pragmatic risk and volume assessment, based on the geological understanding of plays and prospects
• An introduction to exploration economics

Examples of plays, oil and gas fields and prospects from basins from around the world, including the Far East, will be given.

This course is designed primarily for Geoscientists in exploration who would like to improve their expertise of the prospect maturation process and risk and volume assessment. The course has proven to be of value for explorers in the early phase of their career, seasoned explorers and team leaders.

It will also benefit staff from disciplines working closely with exploration staff including Prospect Portfolio Analysts, Petrophysicists, Geophysicists and Reservoir Engineers.

• Intermediate

At the end of the course, the participants will have a good understanding of the essentials for realistic risk and volume assessments of exploration prospects. The course should allow participants to produce well-considered and realistic assessments for prospects they may be working on, and to understand and constructively challenge risk and volume assessments of colleagues and/ or partners/ competitors. Each topic is introduced by a lecture, and learning is re-inforced by practical exercises and discussions. Hand-out materials in paper and/or electronic format will be provided. Time will be made available to discuss aspects of prospects that may be brought in by course participants.

Your expert course leader has a PhD in Geology from the University of Utrecht. He worked for 31 years (1979 -2010) with Shell as an exploration geologist in a variety of functions across the globe. As Principle Technical Expert, he was responsible for ensuring that Risk & Volume assessments were carried out consistently and correctly in all of Shell's exploration units.

In this capacity, he led and participated in countless prospect review sessions and developed and conducted a successful in-house course on Risks & Volume assessment. As manager of the Exploration Excellence Team, he performed in depth analysis of basins and plays and provided advice on exploration opportunities to senior management. Together with his team, he visited most of Shell's exploration offices, working hands-on with Shell's local exploration teams to generate new play and prospect ideas and to suggest evaluation techniques and technologies to apply.

In 2010, he was appointed as extraordinary professor Regional and Petroleum Geology at the VU university of Amsterdam and in 2012 also at the University of Utrecht. He was visiting professor at the University of Malaya (Malaysia).

Through his own consultancy, as of 2010, he provides advice on exploration activities to several companies and is regularly invited to carry out technical reviews. Activities cover all continents and include Portfolio Reviews, Prospect assessment, Play-based Exploration, and Geothermal activities.

He conducts courses on several topics including Risk & Volume Assessment, Prospect Maturation, Basin Analysis, Play-based Exploration, Trap & Seal Analysis, Petroleum Geology for Non-geologists.

Some of his recent publications include:

• De Jager, J. & van Winden, M. (2020): Play-Based Exploration of the petroleum potential of the Tremp-Graus, Aínsa and eastern Jaca Sub-basins in the southern Pyrenees. Invited contribution for Digital Geology, EAGE special publication (eds: Grötsch, J. & Pöppelreiter, M.)
• De Jager, J. (2020). Concepts of Conventional Petroleum Systems. Invited contribution for Regional Geology and Tectonics Volume 1: Global Concepts, Techniques and Methodology (eds: Adam, J., Chiarelly, D. & Scarselli, N.)
• De Jager, J. (2021): Handbook Risk & Volume Assessment. Self-published
• De Jager, J., Van Ojik, K & Smit, R. (2023 - in preparation): Geological Development of The Netherlands. In: Geology of The Netherlands (eds: Ten Veen, J., Vis, G-J., De Jager, J. @ Wong, T.)

To further optimise your learning experience from our courses, we also offer individualized 'One to One' coaching support for 2 hours post training. We can help improve your competence in your chosen area of interest, based on your learning needs and available hours. This is a great opportunity to improve your capability and confidence in a particular area of expertise. It will be delivered over a secure video conference call by one of our senior trainers. They will work with you to create a tailor-made coaching program that will help you achieve your goals faster.
Request for further information about post training coaching support and fees applicable for this.