How is
creativity related to petroleum exploration? Finding significant
oil and gas accumulations involves creating new ideas.
Parke Dickey
put it best when he said, “We usually find oil in a new place with an
old idea, sometimes we find oil with an old
place wit
h a new idea, but
we seldom find much oil in an o
ld
place with an old idea. Several
times in the past we thought we
were running out of oil whereas actually
we were only running out of ideas.”
Essentially, the North American Prospect Exposition (NAPE) is
all
about ideas. As you wander through the prospect booths you
will see
Dickey’s statement illustrated by the prospects that are for sale. Look
for the creative new ideas and when you find them
try not to be too
critical at first.
Most of the time, the best and most creative new play concepts are
the hardest to recognize. They can be in areas that have few
wells
and no production. Sometimes they are created by applying new
technology to an old area
–
horizontally drilling an old
field,
for example.
Also, it
hey might involve a new target in an old, heavily drilled
area. One recent example is the source
-
rock
oil play.
It helps when reviewing a prospect to be careful not to judge too
quickly. As conservatively trained scientists, it is important to
realize
that we have a tendency to overly discount what remains unknown to
us. When the Barnett Shale play began, I thought
that shales would
never make effective reservoirs.
What is the next big play? Give yourself a chance to find it by keeping
your mind open to
new ideas. That new idea that
launches you could
be at a NAPE booth this year.