General DiscussionOver the coming decades, the world will
continue to rely heavily on large-scale supplies
of oil and gas. As the industry moves on to more
and more “difficult” oil and gas deposits, the pace
of technological progress will need to accelerate
significantly if past production trends are to be
maintained. So, decisions related to petroleum
exploration and production are becoming very
complex because of the high number of issues
involved in the process. However, concepts of
risk analysis applied to exploration, appraisal and
development phases are becoming more popular
as new hardware and software advances appear.
New methodologies are being developed to help
to mitigate risk, and the academic and industrial
sectors are substantially contributing to improve
the overall process.