Game Guide

THE QUEST FOR OIL

A computer game about gaining and applying detailed insights into the geographical underground and global oil industry.

Quest for Oil |A real-time strategy resource management game

How to win...
North Sea: Qatar:

Produce a pre-defined volume of oil faster than your opponent. The winning amount depends on the scenario:

Oil fields
Each location has a number of oil field licences available with various estimated potentials (see potential overview map).

1,000,000 barrels of oil 2,000,000 barrels of oil

Time
Basically, you never know how long you have to reach your target. Even if you see that your opponent has made fast progress early in the game, you still have the chance to win by locating the best reservoirs, combined with choosing the right technological set-up and production process. You will then overtake your opponent and reach victory. So apart from using all your knowledge about earth layers and high-tech equipment, you will also have to stay cool, and rely on your chosen strategy to reach your goal.

Get your name on the official Quest for Oil high-score list by beating the fastest so far.

What is your strategy?

The scarce resources are:
Oil fields Time Money

To get the best possible results, a number of strategic considerations require your sharp insight and decisions. There are a wide variety of combinations for how to make money in the various oil fields, and many, many more for how NOT to.

Money
You initially have a certain sum and you start investing to get licences, equipment, assets and advice. Try to get an understanding of all the costs you will encounter during your quest before making money yourself. If you dont, you risk running out of funds in the middle of an exploration or production process. This could instantly jeopardize your mission and you would loose. At the same time, you should remember that once you obtain the maximum number of oil barrels, the money you have accumulated will also count toward your position on the highscore leaderboard.

You dont know how much time you have before your opponent achieves his/her goal and beats you. Therefore, you need to act strategically in terms of your limitations. You need to act smart - and you need to constantly focus on the three parameters mentioned above. Learn more on the following pages...

Quest for Oil |A real-time strategy resource management game

Getting to know your dashboard

Location

Gameboard

Overview maps In the Overview tab on the mini map in the lower left-hand corner, you can see an outline of the oil fields for which you can buy licences. The map also shows your own assets and activity (blue dots). Your opponent is depicted with red dots

Potential If you click on the Potential tab, you can see where the oil fields with the highest potential are located. Orange: low Yellow: medium Green: high However, the greater an oil fields potential, the higher the cost of the licence

Quest for Oil |A real-time strategy resource management game

Asset overview

Research Vessel use to explore the area performs seismic surveys use when buying licence

Helicopter use to explore the area use when buying licences fastest way to move around

Fast-track click on the symbols for quickly locating your assets (rigs, helicopter or research vessel)

How to move around 1. left click to select 2. right click on the map to move the asset to the selected point

Semi-Sub drilling rig use for drilling activities (oil exploration) 2 choices available: New Semi-Sub Quality: 5/6 Bit integrity: 100% Max. attempts: unlimited Price: $ 6 m Used Semi-Sub Quality: 3/6 Bit integrity: 75% Max attempts: unlimited Price: $ 4.5 m

Ultra Harsh Jack-up drilling rig use for drilling activities (oil exploration) 2 choices available: New Jack-up Quality: 4/6 Bit integrity: 100% Max attempts: 3 Price: $ 4.5 m Used Jack-up Quality: 2/6 Bit integrity: 75% Max attempts: 2 Price: $ 3 m

Production platform use for oil production activities 2 choices available: New platform: Oil transportation options: - oil tanker - pipeline Price: $ 6 m Used platform: Oil transportation options: - oil tanker Price: $ 3 m

Quest for Oil |A real-time strategy resource management game

Maersk Advisors
Three Maersk specialists are available to you throughout the game. They introduce you to their field of expertise in the MiniGame tutorial. Make sure to listen to them carefully. They provide the crucial knowledge you need to become an oil exploration expert. The game is automatically paused during tutorials so you dont need to worry about your opponent outplaying you while the tutorial is being played.

When playing the first time, a tutorial will automatically appear. If you want to see the tutorial in a subsequent MiniGame, click the question mark in the right hand corner of the MiniGame window

Seismic MiniGame Lead Geologist - seismic oil exploration specialist

Drilling MiniGame Toolpusher - drilling specialist in oil exploration

Production MiniGame Production Engineer - oil production specialist

Quest for Oil |A real-time strategy resource management game

Game on!
Sandstone Linestone Shale

Chalk

Salt

Volcanics

Getting started 1. Check out the Potential map for locating oil fields with suitable potential. 2. Use your assets to get to the oil field preferred. 3. Once you reach the field, you will be able to check out the estimated reservoir potential and price. 4. Check availability and your funds. 5. Click buy

Buying seismic data 1. Once you have acquired the licence, start exploring for oil by buying seismic data 2. Be aware of the updated expected potential of the reservoir

Earth layer overview Study the earth layers and their characteristics carefully. Your skills in analyzing seismic data is key to finding oil

Seismic analysis - help You have different options: 1. Call your Maersk specialist and watch the tutorial and additional video provided. Call by clicking the question mark in the right hand corner. This help is free. 2. Buy an indication about where traps, caps and even potential reservoir rocks are located. Note that this kind of advice costs money

Seismic survey results You can redo the seismic survey if you are not satisfied with the result. Tip: to do better than your opponent, try to improve your ability to analyze the seismic data. Check out the tutorial and additional video and study the earth layers characteristics

Quest for Oil |A real-time strategy resource management game

Drilling for oil

Drilling for oil - Step 1 Choose your drilling rig by browsing through characteristics and prices. Remember to choose your strategy wisely (the parameters time and money). See assets overview earlier in this Game Guide

Drilling for oil - Step 2 Analyze the seismic 3D map to locate your first exploration drill (use arrows to move the map). Blue areas are closest to the surface, red areas are deepest. Your objective is to locate the actual reservoir and find out how much oil is actually down there. Tip: Oil moves upwards!

Drilling for oil - Step 3 Once you have indicated where to drill, you need to control the actual drilling process. Your goal is to drill as fast and as safely as possible. Watch out for warnings informing you about a possible blowout or pressure differential. Tip: When experiencing a pressure differential you need to react fast and work hard to balance it. Click many times on minus

Important parameters during drilling Bit integrity: indicates how well your drill bit is doing. This will initially depend on the choice of rig and secondly on your drilling skills. Rate of Penetration (ROP): Dictates how fast you drill. Drilling too fast will reduce your bits integrity and force you to replace the drill. Pressure differential: In the bore-well, the pressure must be maintained if the pressure reaches critical levels, blowout prevention is engaged and your drilling operation is temporarily halted.

Drilling for oil - Step 4 Redo the drilling process until satisfied with the results (see summary below map). Keep in mind that each drilling process costs time and money, which are your most precious resources in Quest for Oil - besides knowledge, of course

Quest for Oil |A real-time strategy resource management game

Oil production

Oil production - Step 1 Choose your production platform by browsing through characteristics and prices. Remember to choose your strategy wisely (parameters time and money). See the assets overview earlier in this Game Guide

Oil production - Step 2 After confirming the location and size of the reservoir, it is time to plan and carry out the oil production process. Your objective is to unlock the oil from the reservoir rock. You can do this by injecting water and natural gas into the rock. The right pressure adjustment is crucial. Depending on how fast you need/want to produce oil (depending on your strategy), place the injection wells closer and/or further from the production well. See how the total number of barrels and barrels per minute will change accordingly

Oil production - Step 3 After placing the injector wells, the next step is to adjust the pressure. Balance the level of injection pressure to dictate whether you wish to produce the oil slowly or fast. Faster production equals greater attrition within the reservoir, resulting in fewer barrels and vice versa. Missing the set marker results in penalty to how much oil you may extract from the reservoir

Oil production - Step 4 The last step is to choose how to transport the oil to your refinery. Tankers: cheapest mode of transportation. You are restricted to one oil tanker per production platform. Oil tankers may be freely reassigned to other production platforms at any time. Pipes: the fastest way to transport oil to a refinery

Maersk Group Esplanaden 50 1098 Copenhagen K Denmark Tel. +45 33 63 33 63 www.maersk.com