@andrew_leach @JonathanDLamb Latest technology is DAS, this is using fibre optic cables where a laser is shone along the cable. Any disturbance in the ground is picked up by the backscattered light.
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Alan Foum
1.7K posts
Alan Foum
@AlanFoum
Geophysicist - working in energy sector and Volunteer Career Coach
Berkshire, UK Katılım Ekim 2020
817 Takip Edilen289 Takipçiler
@AlanFoum @JonathanDLamb I'm imagining dude lying on his side with a cup to his ear listening for gas.
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I have been blocked and I can't reply so a simplified explanation:
Resources: Geological concept, the amount of oil and gas is present
Reserves: Economic concept, what an oil company believes they can produce economically
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@afneil Natural gas prices at global hubs Feb 2026, net exporting countries have low prices, Gas importing countries TTF, JKM, CHN, GIXI etc tend to go towards the LNG price (from Greg Molnar - IEA)
video explaining gas contracts & prices - youtube.com/watch?v=EV3gdB…
YouTube
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There is no ‘global price for gas’. How can you be an energy expert and not know that?
Tara Singh@RenewableUKCEO
Why wind power isn't “woke”, my piece in today's @spectator. The North Sea matters but won’t cut bills - we pay the global price for gas. Fracking is unpopular and wouldn’t change that. SMRs are promising but distant. Wind is the practical, affordable option to build right now. spectator.com/article/wind-p…
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@andrew_leach @JonathanDLamb Oh the joys of passive seismic - not normally used in exploration but a useful reservoir monitoring tool
Listening for micro scale induced seismic activity using passive geophones which helps in history matching geological models - used a lot in shale / tight oil
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@JonathanDLamb But, are we able to find the gas by listening during earthquakes? I might use this in class today.
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@JonathanDLamb Reserves are both a geological and an economic concept, The HC volume has to be there and be technically recoverable, there is also the economic component in that the HC need to be economically recoverable using available technologies and costs
PRMS reserves definitions
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@KathrynPorter26 @Nico_Macdonald @JuliaHB1 Kathryn - do you know please, what are the profit margins on petrol retailing in Britain?
I have heard that they are very marginal and most petrol stations make their money on shop sales is this the case?
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@Nico_Macdonald @JuliaHB1 Not many people know this. It's pretty galling that the Government immediately started going on about profiteering with zero evidence when they're double taxing petrol and diesel themselves
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Kathryn Porter (@KathrynPorter26) @JuliaHB1 #TalkTV on the fuel bailout proposed for those on benefits after Iranian government threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz:
’The minute that prices started going up, they [government] started complaining about “price gouging” in the petrol sector.
‘If you look at the pump price of petrol, more than half of that is tax. Now you have fuel duty, which is a price per litre, and then what they do with that: they add the fuel duty on top of the cost of the petrol, and then they charge VAT, so we pay VAT on the fuel duty.
‘The government is raking it in tax on petrol, and then they have the gall to suggest that the petrol companies are price gouging. There’s absolutely zero evidence for that. The government is taking more than half of the price that you're paying!’
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That we did piss the money away on welfare is being used as proof that we'd not piss the money away on welfare. Interesting, as they say.....
Jon Burke 🌍@jonburkeUK
Right-wingers keep telling me we can’t be trusted with publicly-owned North Sea oil & gas because we’d ‘waste it on welfare’. Yet Norway has 100% universal health care, stronger welfare, AND the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. The truth is, they don’t believe in Britain.
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@worstall I would separate oil company ownership from how governments spend the oil revenue
In all cases significant revenue goes to govt , from taxes, royalties, possibly dividends from state companies
Govt can invest the money or urinate it away - depends on society
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@LoftusSteve If you really wanted to try to "break the link" then copy the French from the 1970's and build a fleet of nuclear power plants, reliable and low carbon
But building ANYTHING in Britain is long , costly and complicated. This needs to be fixed if we are serious, but won't be
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This is where everyone is mistaken.
Wind and solar do not "break the link" because you still need thermal dispatchable power to back them up. Wind and solar are only temporary displacement technology.
You are still tied to gas markets either way.
Liz Webster@LizWebsterSBF
🔴 Stella Creasy nails it 👏 You can’t say our energy system has left us vulnerable… and then oppose the only things that actually make us independent. Oil and gas tie us to global markets. Renewables break that link. It really is that simple.
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@latimeralder Lawrence Livermore energy flow chart for the UK, from 2017 - latest available, but things haven't changed that much since
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Wow. This simple accurate chart has caused a lot of upset
Let's unpick it
1. It shows ALL forms of energy that we use in Britain. Not just the 20% that comes to us via electricity.
The rest is mainly transport (oil) and heating (gas)
Just foucssing on electricity alone misses the Big Picture of our energy use
Latimer Alder@latimeralder
Where does Britain get its energy from? 39% from oil 32% from gas 10% from wind and a few odds and sods. This may come as a shock to renewables fans. Be gentle with them. It upsets their world view
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@RogerHelmerMEP Small infill oil & gas projects that keep existing infrastructure going (most of the identified resources) can be brought to production quickly - larger riskier projects with more potential reward will take longer
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Tonight on GB News, Barry Gardener said that North Sea Oil would take ten years to come on-stream. In 2010, my former MEP colleague Nick Clegg said “No nuclear — it would take 10 years”. We’d have had it by 2020. Oh, and the industry says it could start pumping new oil fields in 3 months.
Tom Harwood@tomhfh
We can’t possibly build new nuclear, it would take ten years to come on stream! So said Nick Clegg in 2010.
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This applies to the North Sea too.
Even if North Sea drilling has no impact on gas prices, domestic production still helps because of the impact on exports/sterling.
More gas exports mean a stronger pound and a stronger pound means that all the stuff we import gets cheaper.
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Gas is the primary heating fuel used in the UK. Oil is also widely used
The government plans to electrify heating through the installation of 600,000 heat pumps per year
At this rate it will take 47 years to upgrade all UK homes
So obviously oil and gas are not "obsolete" we're going to need them for decades just in domestic heating
(And we're no where near the target installation rate)
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@KathrynPorter26 @jonburkeUK 2. NSTA apart from awarding licences in competitive rounds , also approve asset sales and purchases as well as farm ins and farm outs, the government maintains considerable oversight and control over the uk oil industry, as it should
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@KathrynPorter26 @jonburkeUK Also operations by the oil companies are heavily regulated by the NSTA & rightly so
All significant activities such as drilling wells are reviewed and permitted by the NSTA, who have very significant powers to approve or stop activity
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I’ve found another one pretending that Britain ‘owns’ its North Sea oil and gas.
This one even invokes the Petroleum Act 1998, which explicitly states that, upon extraction, 100% of North Sea oil and gas immediately passes into the ownership of private companies…😂
Kathryn Porter@KathrynPorter26
You are so wrong.. Under the Petroleum Act 1998 the state owns all the oil and gas. It's produced by private companies under licence 100% of the gas comes onto the GB grid because that's where the pipes go. It's not optional 😂 Most of the oil goes to overseas refineries because we only have four refineries left. Our refineries have to pay carbon taxes. Imported refined products do not and are not included in the CBAM, so are at a huge structural disadvantage Amazing how green lobbyists are putting out all this misi all of a sudden 🙄
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@thinkdefence @KathrynPorter26 @jonburkeUK The alternative to T&R is a production sharing contract or PSC - as descrbed in the flow chart - In practice the total state revenue which is what we really care about - varies with the terms of the PSC, which do also have drawbacks - most western Countries are T&R
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@AlanFoum @KathrynPorter26 @jonburkeUK The broader point is that national government's obtain revenue from resource extraction or use.
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@thinkdefence @KathrynPorter26 @jonburkeUK Basically Yes - a a lot of revenue it has been too
Chart from the NSTA
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@thinkdefence @KathrynPorter26 @jonburkeUK Not quite - petroleum licensing explained , both UK and Norway have a Tax & Royalty system
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@KathrynPorter26 @jonburkeUK Its like spectrum for broadcast and mobile phones, the government licences it, its fresh air, but not free
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@LizWebsterSBF Both countries licensed extraction - that is what a Tax & royalty system is. the Governments excercise much control as anyone who has dealt with both the NSTA-UK & the NPD will tell you, Norway had more state company involvement but it was never a state monopoly
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@AlanFoum True in theory but the outcomes are completely different.
The UK licensed extraction and took short-term tax.
Norway kept ownership, control and built a sovereign wealth fund.
That’s why one has lasting national wealth and the other doesn’t.
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🧵 THREAD: How Britain gave away the North Sea
In 1970s Britain 🇬🇧 discovered one of largest oil windfalls in modern history.
Harold Wilson initially saw it for what it was, a once-in-a-generation chance to build national wealth. The idea was simple: Use North Sea oil to create a sovereign wealth fund
👉 Like Norway later did
👉 To invest for future generations
A long-term national asset.
🧵
Robert Jenrick@RobertJenrick
Britain has paid Norway over £100 billion for gas since 2021. For gas they’re drilling in the North Sea, the same sea Ed Miliband has banned new drilling in on the British side. Madness.
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@LizWebsterSBF Under tax & royalty systems such as both UK & Norway, the state owns the hydrocarbon resources, licensing companies to extract them , the companies pay taxes , including extra oil taxes to the treasury
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🇳🇴 Norway did the opposite:
💪 Built a state oil company
💪 Retained ownership
💪 Created sovereign wealth fund
💰 Today worth $1.5 trillion+
🇬🇧 Britain?
No sovereign wealth fund.
No long-term national asset.
Just declining production and exposure to global energy prices.
Liz Webster@LizWebsterSBF
🇳🇴 Norway took its oil wealth and built the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund — investing in pensions, healthcare, and the future. 🇬🇧 Britain sold ours off in the 1980s, handed control to private corporations, and spent the revenues on short-term tax cuts. 🔴 Today, Norway has one of the highest standards of living in the world — while the UK is stuck managing decline. 🔵 Thatcher’s Conservative govt was responsible for handing over control of North Sea oil to private corporations, dismantling public ownership, and prioritising free-market policies over long-term public wealth. Thatcher forfeited long-term public income from oil in favour of short-term privatisation proceeds and tax cuts. 🔴 Norway, by contrast, retained public control and built up the $1.6 trillion Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund from its oil wealth. The UK spent most of its oil revenues on general government spending during the 1980s, with little legacy investment.
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