John R. Underhill

John R. Underhill
University of Aberdeen | ABDN · Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology

Doctor of Philosophy

About

215
Publications
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Publications

Publications (215)
Article
The Southern North Sea (SNS) gas basin is a key area for CO 2 storage projects in the UK. Many of the now-depleted Permian (Rotliegend) Leman Sandstone Formation fields are being re-evaluated as carbon stores. However, the reservoir is known to be highly faulted, often leading to field compartmentalization. This has historically impacted field deve...
Poster
Full-text available
Poster presented at the EAGE Annual Conference 2024 in Oslo, Norway. The poster showcases my research on the rheological controls affecting structures observed in the Cleveland Basin in North-East England and its implications for potential low-carbon energy opportunities such as geothermal.
Article
The Lower Triassic Bunter Sandstone Formation is a major prospective reservoir for carbon capture, utilisation and storage in the UK Southern North Sea, and is likely to play a pivotal role in the UK reaching mid-century Net Zero targets. A knowledge gap in reservoir quality exists between previous detailed, but highly focused front-end engineering...
Article
Full-text available
Hydrogen is envisaged to be an important element in the drive to replace hydrocarbons in the energy mix and its geological storage in man-made salt caverns or porous subsurface reservoirs onshore in the United Kingdom is being actively investigated. It has recently been suggested that porous Carboniferous sandstone reservoirs of the partially deple...
Article
Full-text available
The influence of the Mid North Sea High and Seaway on the distribution of salts in the Northern and Southern North Seas during the Zechstein.
Article
Previous basin modelling of the Faroe-Shetland Basin (FSB, offshore UK) has suggested mid-Cretaceous petroleum generation, which predates the deposition of the working Paleogene reservoirs and traps. To justify the time discrepancy between generation, reservoir and trap formation, factors such as intermediary accumulations and overpressure have bee...
Article
The Anglo-Polish Super Basin forms an important petroleum province that stretches across northwestern Europe. It contains many giant gas fields, primarily located beneath a thick upper Permian (Zechstein Group) evaporite canopy and a smaller amount of oil and gas in Mesozoic reservoirs in the suprasalt section. Although exploration activity continu...
Article
The Upper Permian Zechstein Supergroup has the potential to play an important role in the UK's future energy production and energy transition. However the Supergroup is comparatively poorly understood in the UK, particularly the link between the onshore and offshore geology. In this paper we re-evaluate available data in order to present a consiste...
Article
As the United Kingdom reduces its CO2 emissions in order to meet its 2050 net zero greenhouse gas targets, there will be a significant evolution of the UK's energy mix. The reliance on hydrocarbons will decrease while there is predicted to be an increase in low carbon energy sources such as renewables and nuclear. In order to decarbonise and achiev...
Article
Like many rift basins worldwide, the Inner Moray Firth Basin (IMFB) is bounded by major reactivated fault zones including the Helmsdale and Great Glen faults (HF, GGF). The Jurassic successions exposed onshore close to these faults at Helmsdale and Shandwick preserve folding, calcite veining and minor faulting consistent with sinistral (HF) and dex...
Article
Full-text available
Constraining the age of formation and repeated movements along fault arrays in superimposed rift basins helps us to better unravel the kinematic history as well as the role of inherited structures in basin evolution. The Inner Moray Firth Basin (IMFB, western North Sea) overlies rocks of the Caledonian basement, the pre-existing Devonian-Carbonifer...
Article
Full-text available
Opportunities exist to re-purpose depleted gas fields in the Southern North Sea as CO 2 storage sites if, where and when they meet the right set of geological, engineering, and non-technical criteria. Fields positioned on the western edge of the basin are attractive as they lie close to the major industrial emitters of East England which need to de...
Article
The separation and characterisation of different deformation events in superimposed basins can be challenging due to the effects of overprinting and/or fault reactivation, combined with a lack of detailed geological or geophysical data. This paper shows how an onshore study can be enhanced using a targeted interpretation of contiguous structures of...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The pre-salt reservoirs in the Santos Basin, Brazil, are below a salt section varying from few meters to more than two kilometers thick. As many other salt bodies in the world, this layer is not fully composed of halite. According to earlier publications, the halite content is about 70-90% in the thicker portions, and something about 50-70% in the...
Article
In this study, we investigate the tectonic and stratigraphic evolution of the northern Tanzania margin (western Indian Ocean) to provide new insights on the structural drivers governing the formation of Zanzibar and Pemba islands. Using 2D seismic reflection profiles and exploration wells, we have reconstructed the evolution of the submarine draina...
Article
Full-text available
The Inner Moray Firth Basin (IMFB) forms the western arm of the North Sea trilete rift system that initiated mainly during the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous with the widespread development of major NE-SW-trending dip-slip growth faults. The IMFB is superimposed over the southern part of the older Devonian Orcadian Basin. The potential influence of...
Article
The thick and heterogeneous salt section in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil, imposes great challenges in accessing the pre-salt hydrocarbon reservoirs, especially in relation to seismic imaging, signal quality and depth positioning. Some problems arise from the current velocity models for the salt section, which, for the majority, assume that the...
Article
Human emissions of greenhouse gases have caused a predictable rise of 1.2°C in global temperatures. Over the last 70 years, the rise has occurred at a geologically unprecedented speed and scale. To avoid a worsening situation, most developed nations are turning to renewable sources of power to meet their climate commitments, including UK, Norway, D...
Article
Full-text available
The energy transition has started. While traditional petroleum exploration and production will become increasingly difficult, the offshore region around the UK, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands offers many opportunities for companies prepared to embrace low-carbon energy and related activities. We present 19 ideas for new sustainable business. I...
Article
We welcome the constructive comments of Manning et al. (2021) that our paper on the Palaeogeographical Evolution of the Rattray Volcanic Province (RVP) provides a very valuable synthesis of this suite of rocks. Our paper presented a new evaluation of the stratigraphy and palaeogeographical setting of the RVP before, during and after the eruptions....
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The offshore region around UK, Norway, Denmark and Netherlands offers many new opportunities for companies prepared to embrace low-carbon energy and related activities. If climate commitments are to be met, the scale of the transformation needed is immense. Assuming the economics of floating technologies improve, we envisage the majority of the Nor...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract: The paucity of ammonite recovery from North Sea wells has meant that offshore correlations are largely dependent upon microfossil assemblages. While rare, ammonites have been found in a few boreholes during the course of oil exploration activities. The occurrence of ammonites in ten wells in the UK sector of the Viking Graben and the Mora...
Article
Full-text available
Detailed interpretation of a 3D seismic data volume reveals the detrimental effect that post-depositional tectonic deformation has had on buried Lower Carboniferous (Dinantian–Namurian) shales and its consequences for shale gas exploration in the SW part (Fylde area) of the Craven Basin in NW England. The structural styles primarily result from Dev...
Article
Full-text available
The UK Rockall, located to the west of Scotland and the Hebrides, is a frontier petroleum-bearing basin. Exploratory drilling in the basin took place over a quarter of a century (1980–2006), during which time a total of 12 wells were drilled, leading to the discovery of a single, subcommercial gas accumulation. We argue that the basin, which has se...
Article
The Rattray Volcanics Member, at the triple junction of the North Sea rift, is here subdivided into two informal sub-members based on analysis of core, wireline and seismic data. The Lower and Upper Rattray Volcanics were emplaced during two distinct phases of volcanism separated by a sustained volcanic hiatus. The presence of hyaloclastite and abu...
Article
Exploration success at Breagh demonstrates that western parts of the Mid North Sea High area are prospective despite the absence of an Upper Permian (Rotliegend Group) Leman Sandstone Formation reservoir and source rocks belonging to the Upper Carboniferous Westphalian Coal Measures Group. Detailed seismic and well interpretation shows that the Bre...
Article
Full-text available
Interpretation of newly acquired seismic and legacy well data has led to a greater understanding of the Upper Paleozoic–Recent geological evolution of the Mid North Sea High (MNSH), an under-explored region of the North Sea. The position of granite-cored blocks controlled the distribution of Devono-Carboniferous highs and basins before Variscan upl...
Article
Interpretation of a 3D seismic survey located on the western margin of the Northern North Sea Basin demonstrates how the propagation, overlap and linkage of two north–south-striking, en echelon normal fault segments exerted a powerful influence over prospective subtle stratigraphic traps. The relay ramp that formed between the segments appears to h...
Article
Full-text available
Discovery of the Breagh gas field in the Southern North Sea has demonstrated the potential that the Lower Carboniferous (Visean, 330.9-346.7 Ma) Farne Group reservoirs have to contribute to the UK’s future energy mix. New biostratigraphic correlations provide a basis to compare Asbian and Brigantian sedimentary cores from the Breagh Field and age-e...
Article
Extensional tectonics and incipient rifting, on the north side of the Iapetus suture were associated with eruption of (mainly) mildly alkaline olivine basalts. Initially in the Tournaisian (Southern Uplands Terrane), magmatic activity migrated northwards producing the Garleton Hills Volcanic Formation (GHVF) across an anomalous sector of the Southe...
Article
Upper Permian (Zechstein Supergroup) evaporites have a major control on structural styles and prospectivity in the UK Southern North Sea (SNS). They form the regional super-seal for the main Rotliegend Group (Leman Sandstone Formation) reservoir play fairway immediately beneath. The evaporites have highly variable thicknesses due to the syndepositi...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Devonian continental sandstones that underlie the Inner Moray Firth Basin (IMFB) provide petroleum reservoirs locally in the North Sea (e.g. Claymore, Buchan, Stirling fields). The development of reservoir-quality sandstones and local Devonian source rocks provide encouragement that the play could be more extensive, but uncertainties exist concerni...
Article
The Weaklaw vent in SE Scotland (East Lothian coast), inferred to be Namurian, produced lava spatter and volcanic bombs. The latter commonly contained ultramafic xenoliths. All were metasomatised by carbonic fluids rich in incompatible elements. The lavas and xenoliths are inferred to have been basanites and lherzolites prior to metasomatism. The a...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This work forms part of a study addressing the multi-scale heterogeneous and anisotropic rock properties of the Mississippian Bowland Shale Formation; the UK’s most prospective shale-gas play. The specific focus of this work is to determine the stratigraphic and spatial geomechanical variability near the Preese Hall exploration well and to consider...
Article
Archibald Geikie played a fundamental, but largely unrecognized, role in the establishment of the Scottish oil shale industry by providing James ‘Paraffin’ Young with the critical information about the location, thickness and probable geographical extent of organic-rich shales during their field visit in 1858. Young subsequently used the observatio...
Article
Full-text available
Despite successful production from Carboniferous and Permian reservoirs in the Southern North Sea and onshore Netherlands and Germany, Paleozoic hydrocarbon plays across parts of NW Europe remain relatively under-explored onshore and offshore. This volume brings together new and previously unpublished knowledge about the Paleozoic plays of NW Europ...
Poster
Full-text available
Deepwater sedimentology has been a focus of the geoscience community for several decades, with progress driven largely by the needs of the oil and gas industry. In recent years, the focus has moved towards bedforms that have previously gone unrecognised and poorly understood. Sediment waves are an example of this. Sediment waves are large-scale und...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Exploration success in nearshore waters off the Yorkshire Coast has led to gas discoveries in Early Carboniferous reservoirs at Crosgan, the development of the Breagh gas field (Figure 1) and has reignited interest in prospectivity along the southern margin of the Mid North Sea High (MNSH). The Breagh gas field contains sandstone reservoirs belongi...
Article
The Middle Jurassic Rattray Volcanic Province is located at the triple junction of the North Sea continental rift system. It has previously been thought to be sourced from three large central volcanoes: the Glenn, Fisher Bank and Ivanhoe volcanic centres. Re-interpretation using 3D seismic and well data shows that no volcanic centres are present an...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The Southern North Sea (SNS) is a highly prospective gas province containing Triassic, Zechstein, Rotliegend and Upper Carboniferous reservoirs (Fig. 1). The discovery and development of the Breagh gas field in UKCS Quadrant 42 demonstrates that a working petroleum system extends to include Lower Carboniferous sandstone reservoirs of the Mid North...
Article
Seismic interpretation, geological mapping and depth conversion of the Zechstein Supergroup (Z2 cycle), using high-quality well-calibrated three-dimensional (3-D) seismic, has revealed the complex palaeomorphology of a deeply-buried ancient carbonate shelf-margin on the southwestern margin of the Southern Permian Basin. The new mapping shows that t...
Conference Paper
Despite early interest in the initial stages of North Sea hydrocarbon exploration, the Mid North Sea High (MNSH) has exhibited limited prospectivity relative to the neighbouring basins of the North Sea Rift System (Central Graben and Outer Moray Firth) and Southern Permian Basin. Recently, a rejuvenation in interest has been driven by: a) the disco...
Article
Full-text available
Sedimentary basins affected by hotspots often contain records of uplift and subsidence within coeval stratigraphic successions. The subsidence history can contain measurable perturbations in ancient palaeogeographies that can help constrain the duration of dynamic support. At c. 56 Ma the NE Atlantic experienced uplift related to the Iceland mantle...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The discovery of, and subsequent production from, the Breagh gas field in Quadrant 42 of the Southern North Sea challenges the long-held view that the Lower Carboniferous has limited prospectivity and lends encouragement to exploration efforts in the basin. We have conducted a sedimentological appraisal of over 200 metres of cored material from the...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The discovery of, and subsequent production from, the Breagh gas field in Quadrant 42 of the Southern North Sea challenges long-held views concerning the limited prospectivity of the Mid North Sea High. The occurrence of the field attests to a petroleum system having been active in the area, something that lends encouragement to further exploration...
Article
Interpretation and depth conversion of an extensive, well-calibrated seismic database provides the basis upon which to map the limits and evaluate the geological risks of using a saline aquifer target for carbon dioxide (CO2) storage in the Moray Firth Basin of the North Sea. The seismic interpretation demonstrates that the Lower Cretaceous (Albian...
Article
The classic angular unconformity at Siccar Point became a landmark location in the history of geology after a boat trip to the site by James Hutton and his colleagues Professor John Playfair and Sir James Hall in 1788. Hutton successfully used the unconformity to support his view that the Earth’s landforms and geological record resulted from unifor...
Article
The UK Rockall Basin is one of the most underexplored areas of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) with only 12 exploration wells drilled since 1980. With only one discovery made in 2000 (Benbecula (154/1-1) Gas discovery), the general view of the basin from an exploration viewpoint is not positive. However, over the last 15 years, our knowledge of the...
Conference Paper
The East African margin has been historically thought to be a passive margin since the rifting of Madagascar from East Africa in the Middle Jurassic. However, the presence of anticlinal folds that create large offshore islands of Pemba and Zanzibar is peculiar suggesting that the evolution of the East African continental margin is more complex. New...
Article
The results of well-constrained seismic interpretation and new mapping of three-dimensional (3D) seismic data volumes demonstrates that the North Falkland Basin consists of two superimposed failed rift basins: a Late Jurassic NW–SE striking Southern Rift Basin (SRB); and an Early Cretaceous north–south-striking Northern Rift Basin (NRB). The SRB is...
Conference Paper
The coastal margin of Tanzania is classically thought to be an exemplar of passive margin that underwent passive (thermal) post-rift subsidence since the rifting of Madagascar from East Africa in the Middle Jurassic. However, the presence of three major anticlinal folds that create the large offshore islands of Pemba, Zanzibar and Mafia is curious...
Conference Paper
The Eratosthenes ‘Sea-Mount’ [ESM] is a bathymetric high located in the SE Mediterranean Sea ~100 km South of Cyprus. Although originally interpreted to represent a volcanic seamount, more recent analysis suggests it is a continental fragment capped by a drowned carbonate platform. The bathymetric high is bordered on three of its sides by a depress...
Article
Full-text available
Salt sequences form an integral part of many sedimentary basins worldwide. Many of these basins have experienced igneous activity either syn- or post-deposition of the salt sequences. Despite this, little work has so far been undertaken to understand magma-salt interactions within the subsurface, and how aspects such as salt halokinesis may be infl...
Article
The Mesozoic-Cenozoic basins located between the Faroe, Orkney and Shetland Islands along the NE Atlantic Margin are actively explored oil and gas provinces whose subsidence histories are complicated by multiple tectonic factors, including magmatism, inversion and regional-scale uplift and tilting, that have resulted in spatially variable exhumatio...
Article
Full-text available
The Middle Jurassic Brent Group of the northern North Sea presents a mature and highly productive reservoir play fairway where a combination of effective facies analysis and depositional sequence stratigraphy offers real potential to optimize exploitation. The north of the Brent province differs from classically studied southern areas in being domi...
Article
Full-text available
While Davis et al. provide convincing evidence for dynamic support of modern topography in NW Scotland, we take issue with their claims that the spatial distribution of Cenozoic denudation correlates poorly with the pattern of upper crustal shortening, and that the magnitude of shortening is insufficient to cause the observed denudation. We disagre...
Conference Paper
The East Shetland Basin of the Northern North Sea is the perfect natural laboratory in which to study the effects of multiple phase rift transection and interaction since it has undergone at least two major (Permo-Triassic and Upper Jurassic) rifting events. The superimposition of, and interaction between, the two rift phases strongly relates to th...
Conference Paper
It has long been recognised that the complex overburden affects the propagation of the seismic signal and hence, the imaging of prospective sub-salt Carboniferous reservoirs in the Southern North Sea (SNS). The complexity has consequent impact for structural mapping and depth conversion through a combination of factors, including the presence of a...
Article
Despite being the ninth largest country in the world by area, Kazakhstan is still relatively unknown to many western Europeans. That seems likely to change as more and more discover this fascinating country and extraction of its plentiful petroleum and varied mineral resource base takes place. The three papers on aspects of Kazakhstan’s geology in...
Article
Investigating the development of the Thinia valley is a demanding geophysical and geological challenge and the project research team has been fortunate to secure sponsorship for its investigation. The key to understanding this valley is to penetrate below the surface, because surface-based observations are inadequate as a basis for understanding it...
Conference Paper
Werrahalit pods are unusual salt accumulations that occur encased within a Werraanhydrit Formation host, which is the first of the cyclic Zechstein Supergroup carbonate-evaporite seal, in the Southern Permian Basin of the North Sea. Their significance for exploration, especially their effect on accurate depth conversion, has been largely unapprecia...
Article
Salt-sediment interplay in the Santos Basin is investigated integrating seismic interpretation, kinematic restoration and analogue modelling. Deformation within the post-salt sequence results from thin-skinned gravitational gliding and spreading, driven primarily by halokinesis, greatly affected by massive sediment inflows. The impressive landward-...
Article
Full-text available
Extensional rifts and their overlying sag basins host prolific hydrocarbon provinces in many parts of the world. This chapter reviews the development of rifts and the controls of tectonics on sedimentation patterns and hydrocarbon prospectivity. Rift tectonics exert the most important control on sedimentation and trap formation, and subsidence rate...
Article
A detailed seismic stratigraphic interpretation of a previously unpublished, well-calibrated 3D seismic volume and regional 2D seismic lines in the Northern Porcupine Basin, west of Ireland has provided significant insights into the basin development, sedimentary fill and petroleum prospectivity within this area of the Irish Atlantic continental ma...
Conference Paper
Siccar Point is one of over 4000 Sites of Special Scientific Interests (SSSIs) in Britain. It is also an area of land which Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) considers to be unique for its geology. It is a well-known site for amateurs and professional geologists who come to visit this geologically famous location from all over the world. This localit...
Conference Paper
Very generally speaking, foliation describes a pervasive planar feature within a rock mass (e.g. caused by preferred orientation of minerals). Borehole image log data comprise the only way to see such sub-seismic features. The data can be used for the determination of foliation and to analyze its orientation and characteristics. The appearance of f...
Article
Full-text available
Exploration well 50/26b-6 in the UK Southern North Sea discovered a trap containing a gas-bearing Rotliegend Group (Leman Sandstone Formation) reservoir which was a major surprise at the time of drilling in that its gas composition was approximately 50% CO2 (with 9% N-2 and the remainder methane). Christened the 'Fizzy Discovery', the accumulation...
Article
There is growing recognition that many passive margins have undergone compressional deformation subsequent to continental breakup, including the southern Australian margin. This deformation commonly results in formation of domal anticlines with four-way dip closures that are attractive targets for hydrocarbon exploration, and many such structures h...
Conference Paper
An opportunity to discuss and publically debate three critical issues of concern to oil company geologists was introduced into the Petroleum Geology Conference (PGC) programme for the first time in 2009. The debates selected focused on whether "peak oil" was already upon us; the relative role of National Oil Companies (NOCs) versus that of Internat...
Chapter
The simplest models of passive margins would suggest that they are characterized by tectonic quiescence as they experienced gentle thermal subsidence following the extensional events that originally formed them. Analysis of newly acquired and pre-existing 2D seismic data from the Rockall Plateau to the Faroe Shelf, however, has confirmed that the N...
Article
Interpretation of a large, well-calibrated 3D seismic volume, electrical welt-log data and core samples from the Quadrant 53 area of the Southern North Sea provides a new-found basis for understanding the controls on gas production in the Wissey Field, a successful test of the Upper Permian (Zechstein Group; Z3 Cycle) Plattendolomit Formation carbo...
Article
Full-text available
The post-Caledonian exhumation history of NW Scotland is a controversial issue, with some studies advocating largely continual emergence whereas others suggest dominantly early Palaeogene plume-driven exhumation. Apatite fission-track analysis (AFTA) data for samples of Precambrian basement and Permian-Cretaceous sediments from onshore and offshore...
Conference Paper
Zechstein Supergroup carbonates have formed a highly disappointing exploration target beneath UK waters. The Wissey gasfield, situated in the UK Southern North Sea is the first gas field in that region to produce solely from Zechstein Supergroup Carbonates and specifically the Z3 Plattendolomit Formation. Investigation, integrating seismic interpre...