A review of the extensive advances made in the understanding the petroleum geology of the Atlantic margin of northwest Europe, of the North Sea and of adjacent areas since the;ast conference in 1992. In particular, the volume focuses on: the development of and application of 3D seismic, time-lapse ('4D') and other innovative seismic tools; the ongoing refinement of sequence and other stratigraphic approaches, including the integration of detailed biostratigraphic data; the development of modelling at both the reservoir and basin scale which can respond to new data acquisition and be used to assess uncertainties at the reservoir scale and scenarios at the basin scale.

An extensive review of the advances made in udnerstanding the petroleum geology of the Atlantic margin is provided in this report. It includes the development and application of innovative seismic tools and stratigraphic approaches.

Published by the Geological Society on behalf of PGC Ltd. (1 hardback volume in slipcase). The 8th Conference on the Petroleum Geology of NW Europe was held in September 2015 and marked the 50th anniversary of the first commercial discovery offshore in the North Sea (West Sole, in September 1965). Its focus was ‘50 Years of Learning – a Platform for Present Value and Future Success’ and its objective was to provide an update on discoveries, developments, technologies and geological concepts from the region. The 39 extensively illustrated technical papers cover the full width of recent activity and are divided into the following sections: Plays and fairways; Play assessment; Recent successes and learnings from failures; Infrastructure-led exploration and development; Late-life fields, re-development and the ‘next life’; Onshore exploration and development. The proceedings volume follows the format of many of the previous conferences since the first in 1974. Collectively these provide a unique documentation of the discovery and development of several NW European hydrocarbon provinces. The volume will be of interest to all geoscientists involved in exploration and development in NW Europe. It provides a fascinating overview of how creativity can continue to reveal hidden resources in an area that has been called ‘mature’ for at least the last 20 of its 50-year history.

North Sea and onshore Netherlands and Germany, Paleozoic hydrocarbon plays across parts of NW Europe remain relatively under-explored both onshore and offshore. This volume brings together new and previously unpublished knowledge about the Paleozoic plays of NW Europe to describe significant additional exploration opportunities outside and below existing plays. The volume contains papers on Paleozoic plays in the North Sea, Irish Sea, onshore UK, France and Switzerland. They highlight how improvements in seismic data quality and the availability of previously unpublished well datasets form the basis for improved understanding of local to regional interpretations that move forward from generalized basin development models. The improved structural trap and source rock basin definition feeds to better constrained, locally variable burial, uplift, maturation and migration models. Particularly notable are the significant mapped extents and thickness of Paleozoic source, reservoir and seal rocks in areas previously dismissed as regional highs and platforms.