About us
The North Africa Research Group is a collaboration of researchers from the University of Manchester, Heriot Watt, Cardiff and Bremen. It was founded in 2000 to undertake petroleum related research in North Africa. The core of the group is based at the University of Manchester and comprises University research staff, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate research students. The group is sponsored by a group of leading international oil companies who are actively engaged in exploration and production in North Africa. We also have close links with government and national research institutes in North Africa, and with leading Universities in the region.
Our research focuses on Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, both onshore and offshore. We specialise in multidisciplinary research projects on a basin / regional scale, integrating Sedimentology, Sequence Stratigraphy, Biostraigraphy, Structural Geology, Geochemistry, Seismic Interpretation, Petrophysics and Reservoir Engineering.
The research group has access to leading research facilities in the collaborating universities, with particular focus on 3D Sesimic Interpretation (Manchester) Apatite Fission Analysis (Bremen), Petroleum Engineering laboratories (Herot Watt).
NARG has considerable field geology experience, having undertaken extensive campaigns in Morocco, Libya, Egypt and Algeria. We have an outcrop Gamma Ray logging tool, GPS mapping and the latest digital outcrop LiDaR hardware to allow rapid data capture in the field, in addition to conventional mapping and field logging. These tools allow us to create a virtual outcrop in the office, populated with sedimentological and petrological data for further analysis and data warehousing. We also have access to a 3D virtual reality suite at the University of Manchester, which allows us to visualise - via the use of goggles, seismic data, LiDaR cloud point data and digital elevation models.
NARG has access to a range of specialised software available at the University of Manchester, and the other collaborating Universities, including Schlumberger's Petrel and Geoframe seismic workflow suites, RISCAN and Polyworks software for LiDAR interpretation, Oasis Montaj for geophysical analysis and the GENEX and TEMISPAK 1/2D basin modeling software.
As well as undertaking research, NARG Consultancy also offers consultancy services to the wider oil industry, organising fieldcourses in Morocco, Libya and Canada, undertaking regional mapping and data collection projects in-house training workshops on North African Geology, regional / block evaluations and even regional geology videos.
Our research collaborators
The University of Manchester
Cardiff University
Heriott Watt University
The University of Bremen