Diagenesis occurs in short, sharp episodes which may last only a few million years or less. This was deemed heresy when first we proposed the mechanisms in the late 1980s. Conventional and now proven erroneous wisdom indicted that diagenesis was geologically slow, perhaps taking 10s or even 100s of millions of years. Our once controversial ideas have been tested many times and have stood up to scrutiny. This work was carried out while working for BP Research.
A major piece of my oil industry career was dedicated to the redevelopment of abandoned oilfields. This required detailed research and investigation of those fields and decisions on which could be profitably redeveloped. A highlight from this research was the redevelopment of the Argyll Field in the North Sea. Abandoned at 6000 barrels of oil per day and 14,000 barrels of associated water from four production wells. We redeveloped the field and it flowed at 20,000 barrels of dry oil per day.
A return to research at Durham University in 2009 has allowed me to develop dormant research ideas, the first of which are now delivering outcomes and impact.
