--> ABSTRACT: Exploration Strategy: Better the Odds, by Lee C. Gerhard; #91002 (1990).

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ABSTRACT: Exploration Strategy: Better the Odds

Lee C. Gerhard

Evaluation of economic, geological, and production constraints and consequent development of exploration strategy can improve management of exploration costs and enhance exploration success rates within overall corporate philosophic and budgetary constraints. Good exploration planning identifies corporate "culture," sets corporate budget, reserve addition objectives, and other constraints, and asks the question, "Where can we explore, meet these constraints, and still meet financial objectives?" The question is answered by examination of economic, geologic, and production factors in the various geologic provinces. Resulting quantitative and qualitative data are tabulated and ranked in a decision matrix.

In one scenario, based on a budget of $5 million per year for ten years, objectives of 25 million bbl reserves additions in five years, with exposure to at least one 50 million bbl field opportunity in ten years, and confinement to the "Lower 48 Onshore," analysis of 16 geologic, cost, and engineering factors suggests that the Rocky Mountains province ranks as most desirable. The method of analysis and decision-making is significant, rather than the specific geographic decision. Others may assign different weights to the various factors and arrive at different conclusions.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91002©1990 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Denver, Colorado, September 16-19, 1990