The document provides instructions for an oil exploration simulation game. Players take on the role of an exploration team with $200 million to discover and develop oil fields. The goal is to maximize net value from oil sales while minimizing costs. Players must locate promising sedimentary basins, acquire oil exploration licenses, conduct seismic surveys, drill exploratory wells, develop any oil discoveries, and carry out corporate social responsibility projects to earn credibility points to improve their chances of winning new licenses. Farming in and farming out partnerships allow players to share risks and costs with other teams.

2.  You are an exploration
team in charge of a new
petroleum province.
 Multidisciplinary challenge: Enhance your
overall understanding of petroleum
exploration and field development.
 Create a Return on Investment

3.  You start with $200 million
 Create value
Net value of the oil and gas discovered MINUS
all costs involved
Credibility points awarded
Sensible decisions and correct answers
CPs are a measure of ability and
credibility
Considered when bidding for blocks
Used when applying for funds

4.  Where and how to find hydrocarbons
 Corporate Social Responsibility
 Licensing rounds
 Farm-in and Partnerships – negotiations
 Drilling rigs
 Sub-contractors
 Environmental issues
 Economically viable volumes
 Team work, Critical decision making

5. Oil
Gas

6.  www.oilsim.com

7.  www.oilsim.com

9. Columns e.g C1 to C112
Rowse.g.R1toR144
Block
Blocks are
divided into 64
smaller cells
e g. R52C110

10.  Challenge: Find three sedimentary basins
 Procedure:
 Buy and study magnetic and gravimetric surveys
 Submit the coordinates for each centre
 Column and row number for each basin centre

11.  Gravimetric surveys indicate
changes in the gravitational
pull of the Earth in different
areas of the sub-surface.
 Lower gravitational fields
indicates likelihood of low
density rocks –Sedimentary
rocks, porous and hopefully
containing hydrocarbons

12. Survey
shop
Gravimetric
survey of
North-west
area

13.  Magnetic surveys show
anomalies in in the expected
magnetic field of the Earth in
particular areas.
 Sedimentary rocks in the basins
have a lower concentration of
magnetic materials and lower
magnetic field than the
surrounding crystalline rocks.

14.  Magnetic
survey:
North-west
quadrant

15.  All four quadrant
surveys in map
context

17.  Locate edges of
the continous
basin structure
 Locate the
diagonals and
thus basin centre

18.  Example:
Top basin on both
maps
 Calculate the
midpoint
between the
gravimetric and
magnetic centres
found
 = C55 and R105
C50
R100
C60
R110

19.  3 centres – one Centre
midpoint for each basin
 Example: C55, R105
 Solve before deadline. All
submissions are evaluated
after the deadline (and not
before).
 You may get 0-100 CPs. All
three centres must be located
to get full knowledge points.

20. Message in Inbox:
 Shows results
 Answers
submitted
 CPs awarded

21.  The government has decided
to put the blocks in one of
the basins on offer.
 Challenge
 Determine 3 best blocks to
bid for
 Initiate Corporate Social
Responsibility projects
 Commit to Exploration
drilling programme
Licensing
area

22.  Any restrictions involved? - Spawning grounds
 What are we looking for? - Prospects
 Where do we find prospects?
 In basins, where hydrocarbons have been
 1) are produced and 2) trapped
 How do I find them? - Geoscientific analysis
 Common Risk Segment maps, 2D seismic

23. 1. SOURCE ROCK
where organic
material is put under
sufficient pressure
2. MIGRATION ROCK
where hydrocarbons
are driven through
3. CAP ROCK
Impermeable
rock that stops
migration of
hydrocarbons 4. PROSPECT

24. (c) OLF
Anticline trap
Fault trap
Stratigraphic
trap
Salt dome trap
 Geological “pockets”, that might contain hydrocarbons.

25. Red areas
You will not be awarded
blocks that contain any
red spots (spawning
grounds)
Blue areas
Blocks in area may be
awarded

26. Layer 3 Eocene
1500m below the seabed
Layer 2 Paleocene
2500m below the seabed
Layer 1 Cretaceous
3500m below the seabed
CRS. Common Risk Segment
surveys tell you about the
probability of a structure in
the block/cell containing oil
or gas
Surface

27.  Traps can be found with
seismic surveys and
sound waves bouncing
off structures
 2D seismic survey is a
vertical cross section of
the geological layers
along either a column or
a row

29. Unprocessed Processed
Interpreted Red is top of the
sealing rock
Green is top of
the reservoir rock

30. What type of data do you want?
 Columns or Rows
 Unprocessed or processed data
 Interpreted or not
Only buy maximum
of 1 block of data
at a time to speed
up processing

31.  It takes time to process your request
 Created to order
 Moves to surveys once processed

32.  Red circles – navigate
through the 2D seismic
 Yellow square – Row 1
from Column 1-56

34. Leakage?

35. Leakage?

36. Column
Row
Prospect, ReservoirBasin,Source

38.  Corporate Social Responsibility
 Affects a company’s reputation and their credibility
 Increase Credibility by initiating CSR projects
 CSR points considered when bidding for a block
 Commit to work programme, as part of licensing
programme
 State how many exploration wells you promise to
drill.
 Bids are evaluated based on work programme and
team credibility

39. CSR
summary

40.  Sport sponsorship
 Geoscience Institute
 Bribery
 Orphanage
 Business development
 Wind mill
 University exchange
programme
 Safety training center
 Fact finding mission
 Procurement training
 Park
 Environmental
assessment
 Primary school
computers
 Wave energy plant
 Advertisements
 Social welfare study
 TV documentary
 Airline frequency
 Business simulation
 Support singer

41. • Max Round spend:
$30M on CSR projects
• Each project:
Financial cost and CPs
• Projects in grey:
not enough cash or
CPs to do
• Outcome:
Positive/negative CPs
earnt on completion

42. Teams can increase their competitive position
by initiatingCSR projects

44. Completed
projects
Credibility Point
page

45.  Choose 3 blocks with good prospects
 Commit to a number of exploration wells
 Bids evaluated using the following formula:
Each well is worth 100 Credibility Points
Bidding points = CP + 100 * No. of wells committed
 If 2 teams choose the same block and same no.
Of wells – the team with the highest CPs will
be awarded the block
 Government awards one block per team

46.  Select number of exploration
wells that are to be drilled
 1-4 wells
 Team’s first choice block = block
with most committed wells
Penalties:
 Bid disregarded if overcommit no
of exploration wells
 Minus 10 credibility points for
each bid where the number of
committed wells is higher than
the number of prospects

48. Leakage?

49.  Environmentally sensitive
areas – blocks to avoid
 Common Risk Segment
surveys – areas of higher
probability of prospects
 2D seismic – blocks with
most structures
 Final tip - Check water depth
- shallow water blocks

50.  Message sent to all
Results and CPs
 One license per
team

52.  The headquarters of your company has
evaluated the license that you were awarded.
 Although the possibility of finding oil is fair,
the costs involved are large.Thus the
headquarters want you to spread the risk.
 Challenge:You shall farm-out minimum 20%
from your license – and farm-in as much as
you can in other good licenses.

53.  Acquire 3D Seismic interpretations for the
block you operate, and study the results from
the licensing round
 Farm-out: Get others to invest 20% or more
in your license – you can send them surveys
 Farm-in: Send offers to other teams to buy
shares in their viable licenses. Submit an offer
for each viable license, with amount offered
and share wanted in whole %.

54.  Shows the subsurface structure in a cube.

55. Layer 1 Cretaceous
Layer 2 Paleocene
Layer 3 Eocene
Prospects
are no
guarantee of
oil or gas

56.  Spread the risk: e.g Investing in other blocks
divides the risks amongst all partners, much
more preferable than keeping 100% of one
field and all the risk.
 Increase probability of profit: investment in
only 1 field which could be a dry prospect is
possible, whereas the likelihood of investing
in 5 fields which are all dry is unlikely.

58. Either accept the
amount or % the
license owner
requests, or amend
the amounts to your
own offer
Add a message to
the seller
Press “Send offer”
Minimum of
$100000 per %

59. When a team receives a Farm-In offer to appears under Financing.
This is where a team can receive finance or money for a % of their
own blocks

60.  license OWNER
decides whether to
ACCEPT or REJECT the
offer
 Partnerships
established every time
a license owner
accepts an offer.
 Overview: On the main
page, you can see all
licenses. 1) licenses
you operate, 2)
licenses you have
invested in, and other
licenses.

61. All your farm-in offers to other teams are shown under “Investing”
on the right-hand side of the homepage .
This is where a team offers investments to other teams for a % of
their blocks

64.  Partners pay a proportional share of all future
costs
 Partners receive a proportional share of the
net proceeds from oil and gas
 The operator team makes all decisions
regarding drilling
 Teams can farm-out up to 70% of licence
 Operators must keep 30% of licence

65. •Before choosing a
rig, you need to
check your water
depth
Find this at the
bottom of the
BLOCK page

66.  Choose the right rigs for your water depths
 Jack-up rigs for shallow waters
 Semi-submersible rigs for middle waters
 Drillships for the deepest waters
 Rig cost = drilling days * day rate

67.  Few: limited number of rigs available.
 If you get one: start using it within 20
minutes.
 If you don’t: wait in a queue, if another team
is using the rig.
 Price can change: rig day rates are dynamic.

68. Upto 9 Star quality-
 Good: normally
costs more
 Bad: cheaper,
but reliability is
low, so you risk
extra drilling time
and extra costs

69.  EIA:
enviromental
impact analysis
shows where
not to drill.
 Place your
mouse where
to drill

70.  Certain problems can occur if Service
Provider Selection is poor quality
 Other penalties can occur if you drill in areas
indicated as problematic in the
Environmental ImpactAssessment
 As in real life, problems can occur randomly
and these are also applied with fines levied
accordingly.

71. Layer 1 Cretaceous
Layer 2 Paleocene
Layer 3 Eocene

73. Earn extra CPs by calculating the estimated drilling
cost
Oil Spill
control/
Gas Blow
out

75.  Proven volume (MBOE) counts
 Test may increase proven volume
 Remember to tick the boxes!

76.  Only if you discover a field – find Oil or Gas
 You decide whether you want more
information about that field
 More information by doing a production test
(and other tests)
 Tests costs:Tests take 10 days per field.Tests
have the same day-rate as the drilling if you
use the same providers.

79. 25% of 8 MBOE @ $50
12% $39.9M
Expected costs if
you developed the
field (capex) and
produced
the oil (opex)
If total expenses are
higher than the sales
value, the value of the
license is zero

80.  From Probable volume to proven reserves

82. Exploration well:
 0 to 1572 MBOE (after drilling)
 11 to 1266 MBOE (after testing)
First appraisal well:
 25 to 1033 MBOE (after drilling)
 34 to 910 MBOE (after testing)
Second appraisal well:
 65 to 850 MBOE (after drilling)
 101 to 752 MBOE (after testing)
Only proven MBOE counts

83. Cash :
Initial $200million investment
Funds from partnerships
Funds from the bank
Value:
Valuation of licences
(operators and partners) based
on oil and gas found less
expected costs if these
licences were to be developed

84.  Click on Apply for More FundsTab.
 1 CP for each $100,000 applied for.
 Answer the questions: All correct gives cash
and you can keep CPs. One wrong gives cash
and you keep ½ of your CPs.Two wrong gives
½ cash and you lose all CPs. All wrong, you
get no cash and lose all CPs.
 Expensive money if less than 10 credibility
points: Apply for cash and be fined $5million
for each $20million requested.

85.  Narrow uncertainty: Drill appraisal wells to
get proven volumes
 Drill into other prospects to find more proven
volumes.
 Farm-in and -out: Get into other good blocks.
 Two additional licensing rounds: Repeat the
processes.
 Money: Apply for more money, if you run out
of cash.