Carnarvon Energy : Introducing Claudia Valenti – Geoscientist

Working in frontier basins can be quite challenging - but for Carnarvon geoscientist Claudia Valenti, they are the most exciting part of her job.

Claudia is currently working on mapping the Bedout sub-basin, concentrating on new opportunities around Dorado, Phoenix and Roc discoveries and assessing existing prospects to help drive management decisions.

"Exploring the basins, analysing well data and interpreting paleogeographic maps gives me a sense of challenge that I thrive on," she explains.

Claudia, who hails from a village in Italy's Piedmont region, an hour from Milan, moved to Australia nine years ago in search of job opportunities in oil and gas exploration.

Her passion for geology has taken her from Italy to Amsterdam and then to Perth.

"I moved to Australia in 2013 and came straight to Perth as I knew job opportunities for geologists were more abundant here, compared with other Australian cities," Claudia explains.

Claudia has been with Carnarvon since 2014, starting her career as a junior geoscientist, looking for new venture opportunities in the Browse Basin, Vulcan sub-basin and Roebuck Basin.

"I spent most of my time on the Roebuck Basin, starting with regional mapping and burial history modelling. This integrates temperature data of an area with the type and depth of rocks that can generate hydrocarbons. The resulting model gives an indication of where these source rocks are able to generate hydrocarbons, at what depth, the age they started generating, what type of fluid is generated and where oil and gas migrate and accumulate in the subsurface."

"We then recognised the potential for a new play to the north, in the Rowley sub-basin - a Late Triassic mixed carbonate and clastic petroleum system which has been proven in Timor, West Papua and Seram, but not on the North West Shelf so far."

"Through the interpretation of newly reprocessed surveys, it has been possible to recognise prospectivity across all four blocks within the Bedout sub-basin. We have also identified a wide range of stratigraphic intervals - rocks of different ages - including Permian, Early, Middle, Late Triassic and Early Jurassic sequences, which are potentially able to either generate or trap oil and gas.

"With the new data we have better understanding of the traps and more confidence in the presence of multiple reservoirs and seals that could host and trap hydrocarbons at Apus and Pavo," she explains.

"It allows us to better understand where oil and gas charging the Dorado field tends to migrate elsewhere in the basin. It has also revealed new opportunities for other targets mapped near the two future wells. There is still a lot of potential for other discoveries in the Bedout."

With regional mapping, Claudia is also focusing on prospect scale seismic interpretation and volumetrics evaluation - estimating volumes of oil and gas present in the identified traps.

"Over the past couple of years, I have really enjoyed exposure to static reservoir modelling and studying the distribution of reservoir properties and will chase more opportunities to expand my knowledge on this in the future."

Claudia has a master's degree in geology from the University of Pavia, Italy and completed her master's thesis at Vrije University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Earlier in her career, Claudia found herself working through the Flinders Ranges in outback South Australia as a field assistant for the University of Adelaide.

"Outside of work I am studying data analytics as I believe such skills can enhance my abilities as a geoscientist," she explains.

She also has a love for the outdoors, enjoying beach volleyball, swimming and hiking, as well as learning new languages.

"Last year I learned basic Spanish with a friend, for fun. I'm also interested in old Brazilian samba/bossa nova music and am planning to start a course in Portuguese soon."

"I think our brains need some extra challenge from time to time."