Partners
The Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University
The Institute of Petroleum Engineering (IPE) is a world-class centre with particular expertise in subsurface science and engineering: reservoir description and simulation, reservoir geophysics, rock physics, gas condensates, reservoir fluids properties, recovery mechanisms, gas hydrates, drilling and production optimisation, rock mechanics and geomechanics, techno-economics and visualisation. The Institute has achieved ten years of 5* RAE rating – an accomplishment that has been achieved through the development of high-quality staff and a commitment to establish and operate well-equipped and comprehensive laboratories and high-level computational facilities. Additional elements of this success can be attributed to the excellent relationship that exists between the Institute and the international petroleum industry. Click here for an overview of the research activities in the Institute of Petroleum Engineering.
The School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh
The School of Geosciences is one of the UK's leading centres for the earth and environmental sciences, recently re-organised to bring together 5/5* strengths in geology and geophysics, geography, ecology and resource management, environmental chemistry, meteorology and policy. It has a very strong international reputation in: seismic data acquisition, processing and imaging of the subsurface, diagenesis and reservoir quality, reservoir description and architecture, basin evolution and modelling, basin fluid chemistry, rock mineralogy and fluid-rock interaction, materials micro-analysis, fault dynamics and fracture generation, coupled reactive fluid flow and rock deformation, seismology and seismic stratigraphy, experimental rock physics, geochemistry and experimental simulation of rock-water interaction, contaminant transport in rocks, wire-line tool remote sensing processing and interpretation, and statistical manipulation of small to very large datasets. Click here for an overview of the research activities in the School of Geosciences.
Earth and Planetary Science Research Group
Edinburgh Seismic Research
Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage
The British Geological Survey (BGS)
The BGS has long had a large research facility in Edinburgh from where research is undertaken in conjunction with universities, industry and governments on a world-wide basis. Subsurface science is focussed on resources and environmental research. BGS leads research into petroleum exploration through a series of joint research projects with industry and NERC support, based on analysis of the structure and resource potential of the Atlantic margin through collection and interpretation of borehole and seismic data, and integration with commercial data, supported by 3D potential field modelling. Research includes new techniques in areas covered by thick volcanic sequences, where seismic resolution is poor. BGS has a 15-year expertise in developing seismic techniques to enhance reservoir definition in collaboration with UoE, supported by industry.
The Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC)
Located in East Kilbride, SUERC is a multidisciplinary scientific research facility jointly funded by Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities, which provides geochemical and isotopic analytical expertise equal to any in Europe. Its mass spectrometry laboratories are amongst the most comprehensively-equipped world-wide for the application of isotopic techniques to problems in the earth and environmental sciences. This has proved a highly cost-effective way of adding value to their research, training and teaching activities. The main areas of strength are in isotope geochemistry, radiochemistry and isotope biogeosciences and the Centre houses the most comprehensive suite of dating techniques in the UK. There is particular expertise in environmental geochemistry, waste disposal, pollution and health, isotope geology, and the geochronology of rocks and subsurface fluids. SUERC and the School of GeoSciences (UoE) host eight out of thirty NERC national (UK) research facilities supporting research related to the Earth’s subsurface.