IS THE END OF EXPLORATION IN SIGHT?

By- Animesh Choudhary

The history of exploration of oil and gas is not very old. The knowledge of oil and gas has an older
history as evident from the records of ancient civilizations than that of its exploration and exploitation.
The accidental discovery followed by systematic search through hunting has progressed over wider space
and time recording interesting anecdotes and patterns of its occurrences. A great knowledge based
industry then began to develop around oil and gas finds within the bosom of mother earth. The
exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons from land to water, plains to hilly terrains, shallow to deep
waters, near surface to deep inside earth and in very complex tectonic setups kept enriching and extending
awareness, information and knowledge bank of scientists and engineers in the fray. The spate and trend of
discoveries over space and time has now raised the question Is the end of exploration in sight? If so,
what kind of exploration- classical or knowledge?

The worlds first oil well was drilled by Drake in 1859 at Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA. India
embarked on exploratory effort, specifically for oil, in 1889 at Digboi well No-1 in a remote corner of
north east India. This also happened out of an accidental observation. As we look back today over this one
hundred and twenty five years of exploration, we can recapitulate and record the highlights of our efforts
to fill the arterial veins of India with life sustaining liquid black gold and gaseous hydrocarbons so
essential to the health of a developing economy. The history of oil exploration in India in the pre-1959
period has been confined only to Oil India Limited. Thereafter, ONGC was curved out of GSI to address
energy security of India. The thinking mind had visionary political overtones of the global dynamics. This
was proved right later in the war times including the oil crisis of 1973. All said and done, the thinking that
oil could exist beyond Assam provided a great zing to exploration. The accelerated pace of exploration
then took off gradually filling up the blank canvas of exploratory history of India from east to west, north
to south. The ideas, concepts, methods and processes of exploring the transition from Analog to Digital
era, new tools and technologies, computerization, information technology, workstations and so on came
in serially. It assumed a structured form for both exploration and exploitation.

The geology of oil and gas has been understood to a reasonable level. The generation, migration,
entrapment and occurrences at places has been decoded from the imprints of Nature. And the concept of a
petroleum system has been developed to aid new finds. The basic laws and principles of Nature governing
oil and gas are attempted to be understood. This knowledge has been extended to develop science and
technology in exploiting oil and gas. Though mother Earth continues to show her mysterious
characteristics in both space and time, yet there is not much perceptible evolutionary change in the
geological setting. What have been changing are the interpretations and the perspectives of visualization
of subsurface settings. Seismic wiggle that carries the geological information is now holding the key to
the subsurface mystery. Seismic technology as it stands today has captured the finest nuances of oil and
gas geology. The elusive mysteries of the subsurface are now being decoded from the myriad forms of
attributes and mathematical functionalities. The information technology and computers are now in play to
deal with huge computations to bring out patterns and logical conclusions relevant to understand Nature.
But Nature follows, not a straight forward one plus one equals two kind of intellectual exercise but a deep
rooted fuzzy logic to be decoded thoughtfully . It cant be caught in the traditional nets except in the
realms of fractals.
 Therefore, when we tend to say that the end of exploration is in sight, it is more likely to mean
that geological contribution (in terms of geological understanding of oil and gas in Nature) to geophysics
seems to have been captured in almost full measures over time. The voluminous mathematics that has
followed in the wake of Geological perceptions and understanding are now to yield results and illuminate
on the dark alleys of exploration targets. The computers and analytic minds are all that may be required to
search and/hunt for oil and gas in the foreseeable future. What is now waiting for is the embedded
knowledge to be extracted to move ahead in time. The beauty of geology lies in its definition. Every mind
can create a new geology and it can stand grounds. But the primary issue lies in the fact that geology is
never a local phenomenon. It is an event out of a global tectonic phenomenon. So it is mandatory to
visualize on a global scale to close on locally. This journey cant be undertaken solo. This demands
synergy and integration of thinking minds. The end of stereotypical thinking cum exploration has come to
an end. But the new era of thinking afresh and generating renewable knowledge and perspective has
arrived. This is possible through sharing minds freely and openly.