DIRT Talk Featuring Bill Richards
Title: Four Subsurface Energy Transition Projects and Three EAGE Student Competitions: Emerging Net-Zero Commercial Opportunities in Nova Scotia
Summary: Energy transition projects at Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia DNRR (Department of Natural Resources and Renewables) have benefited from collaborations between industry, academia, government, and professional associat ions. Regional studies and screening studies by ExxonMobil, GSC, DNRR, CNSOPB and OERA provided foundations for recent EAGE student competitions that have added innovation and multiple full-cycle realizations (geoscience-engineering-economics-HSE). Since 2021 ~60 multi-disciplinary teams have participated in three Minus CO2 Challenges tackling complex offshore and onshore Nova Scotia projects. The 2021 competition (First Break, April 2022) provided the first published quantitative assessment of carbon storage in deep saline aquifers on the Mesozoic Scotian Shelf demonstrating volumes similar to the North Sea. The 2022 competition (First Break, June 2023) focused on risking and success-case carbon-neutral development of undrilled light-oil prospects at Penobscot near Sable Island. In 2023, teams were charged with developing 300 MW of renewable energy, balancing load with Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) or hydrogen storage in Carboniferous salt caverns in the onshore Cumberland Basin. Modelling of geothermal energy at the DNRR in the Cumberland Basin reflects the 2023 Laurie Dake Challenge (geothermal evaluation in the Vienna Basin, courtesy OMV).
Bio: Frank William (Bill) Richards grew up in Cwmbran (valley of the raven for GOT fans) in the Monmouthshire valleys, South Wales, at a time when the coal industry in the UK was gradually shutting down. He gr aduated in Geology from Bristol University in 1973, just as oil and gas exploration was taking off in the Northern North Sea – his first energy transition. Through sheer luck, he sat some of the first discovery wells off the Shetland Islands within months of of graduation, and continued in this role for two years, subsequently in the Niger Delta and Zagros Mountains. In 1976 he completed an M.Sc. in Geophysics at Imperial College in London and got a real job with British Petroleum: a year at head office and 3 years in the Hague, Holland – where he played rugby for the Shell Research Lab. in Rijswijk.
Attracted by the skiing (and the opportunity to learn seismic / sequence stratigraphy from gurus like Peter Vail), he and his wife, Sheila, emigrated to Calgary, joining Imperial Oil in 1980 which lasted for 34 years, with 20 years on worldwide assignments with ExxonMobil. These included 10 years in Halifaxworking Newfoundland and Nova Scotia projects and where the family permanently settled and returned to after 5 years working the Asia-Pacific region out of Melbourne.
Like many oil and gas professionals, he gradually expanded his technical repertoire, and this continued post-retirement in 2014, mentoring M.Sc., and PhD students in Professor Wach, Professor Maselli and Professor Nedimovi ch’s groups at Dalhousie and coaching teams for the AAPG IBA and EAGE Laurie Dake and Minus CO2 competitions. This activity transitioned into joining, and later co-chairing, the Student Affairs Committee at the EAGE, and stimulated an interest in net-zero subsurface technologies (his second energy transition) - ultimately setting up three competitions on Nova Scotia data sets. Inaddition, he consults with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, teaching Petrel geocellular modeling and advising on offshore exploration and renewable energy.
Bill claims to have geology in his blood, with roots in three major coal basins: South Wales, the USA (relatives emigrated to Ohio in the Great Depression) and Nova Scotia. According to ancestry.com, his DNA maps to Nova Scotia - through his Scottish mother, and grandfather, who prospected for silver in Ontario before WWI.
Highlights of Bill’s career at XOM include the Sable Gas Project in Nova Scotia; discovery of Hibernia South & development of Terra Nova field in Newfoundland; field extensions and discoveries in fold-and-thrust belts in Alberta and Papua New Guinea; mapping carbonates and dry-hole analysis in the Makassar Strait; exploring Cretaceous channels and Devonian reefs in Alberta among many plays; and, probably the most fun, 5 years in Kuala Lumpur (with one, then two, young children) leading a team that drilled a development well a week in the Malay Basin based on seismic DHIs (pre-internet & corporate micro-management).
His main hobby in retirement has been cycle-touring long-distance tracks that line the major rivers and canals in Europe: a fascinating way to watch geology and history unfold – not to mention the great wineries. He has just got back from a trip to France, cycling and attending his 4th Rugby World Cup - as a spectator. As a player his proudest moment was winning the British Universities Championship in 1972 while at Bristol. His biggest diasppointment (while at Imperial College) was losing the “Bottle Match” between the Camborne School of Mines and the Royal School of Mines. The 3-ft tall bottle of Cornish tin was liberated by students from a brewery wagon in 1926.
Time
Location
Milligan Room - 8007 LSC