Moses Magoba
Affiliated researcher
Moses Magoba was a PhD student at the University of Western Cape, in Cape town, South Africa. He is working on fluid flow systems in Bredasdorp Basin in South Africa with a strong interest in Oil and Gas exploration. He has conducted his MSc and PhD research on the clastic sediments in the offshore basins of South Africa. His expertise includes seismic interpretation and petrophysics. Moses visited PetroLab as part of an exchange fellowship allowing distinguished PhD student to visit a peer laboratory for a year. Moses hols a lecturer position at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa.
Research
Fluid flow systems in the central Bredasdorp Basin, offshore South Africa
In the exploration of oil and gas challenges encountered by geophysicists, reservoir and production engineers are solved by the understanding of the geology. In solving the research problem the approach adopted was, building understanding of the geology of the basin, calculation of petrophysical properties from only well logs, analyses of these logs and applying the science of rock physics to the log outputs. Geology as the base was used to understand the subsurface structure, depositional environment and facies distinction. The approach used in this research into resolving the stated problem was to apply the sciences of rock physics and the engineering description of fluid behavior in justifying the bases for pressure drop from a well. The aim was to present a holistic approach to solving production problems in the oil and gas industry.
Describing the behavior of fluid using the science of fluid mechanics enabled the proper understanding of the forces controlling the flow of fluid in that section. Fluid flow is controlled by differential in pressure when the fluid is not in motion pressure is hydrostatic and hydrodynamic pressure is when the fluid is in motion. It is important to understand that it has a unique application in geology the knowledge of the behaviour of fluid within various types of rocks will enable us to know the diverse origin of various fluid potentials and to predict the probable effects of a given flow system upon the accumulation of petroleum (Levorsen, 2004).
This research adopted only Well Log data for the investigation, interactive petrophysics (IP) was used for computational analysis due to the robust and vast statistical modules available. Interactive petrophysics is software for the petrophysicists were you can do saturation calculation, volume of clay/shale and advance interpretation like rock physics.