Increasing economic leverage of geophysics

As the oil and gas supplies needed for the future become more difficult to find, the risks involved in the exploration and development of new reserves will increase - and so will the costs. The current environment of oil price uncertainty calls for reducing these risks and associated expenses. The exciting results obtained from recent technological advances, particularly three-dimensional seismic surveys, have extended the traditional role of geophysicists from the exploration or prediscovery phase to the field development or postdiscovery phase. Some benefits of close cooperation among geologists, engineers, and geophysicists are lower finding and development costs per unit produced, higher drilling success ratio, better return on investment, more accurate definition of reservoir location and size, optimal well location, and reduced risk in lease acquisition.