MSc RESEARCH DISSERTATION FOR THE MSc PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE

(EXPLORATION/DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION)

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER (UoM)

- GUIDELINES -

AIMS:

An independent but supervised research project typically involving integrating and

interpreting seismic and well data. The project forms 1/3 of the course marks and is
therefore the most important independent work in the curriculum.

CONTENT:

This unit is intended to demonstrate that the student can apply skills learnt in the
taught part of the MSc course to an independent piece of research that is relevant to
either hydrocarbon exploration or production. The work is presented in the form of a
written dissertation, an oral and a poster presentation, all of which should be of a
professional nature and equivalent to that expected by an oil company.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
The student will:

Apply skills learnt in the taught part of the MSc course to an independent research
project;

Develop skills in project and time management, and research methology;

Be able to integrate and critically analyze data and show an appreciation of the
difference between data description and data interpretation;

Be able to produce a well written report, and develop presentation skills.

TEACHING METHODS:
Approximately 10 hours supervision and 600 hours independent study (MSc).

STAFF/SUPERVISION:

2 supervisors (both departmental staff); alternatively shared supervision between

departmental staff and company supervisor, if research is undertaken within a
company (project dependent).

Each supervisor is suggested to see each student individually every other week, or as
otherwise deemed necessary. Typically a student should expect to see his/her
supervisor for no more than 30-40 minutes per week on average.

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Students should pro-actively keep their supervisor(s) involved by giving regular

updates and letting relevant staff know of any problems (e.g. IT related issues).

Students should send their draft version of the report to their supervisor at least 2
weeks before the printing to allow sufficient time for reading and implementing
supervisors comments. Shorter turn-around times cannot be expected.

Students writing their reports at UoM should ask their supervisor for a dry-run of their
talks. Students placed within companies should aim to present their results during a
project meeting or seminar within the company.

ASSESSMENT:

75% Written report;

10% Oral presentation;
15% Poster presentation.

KEY DATES:
Independent poster submission deadline:

5th August 2016

Independent thesis submission deadline:

19th August 2016

Presentation submission deadline:

24th August 2016

Back up and return of data/samples:

on or before 29th August 2016

Project presentation day:

31st August 2016

FORMAT:
The thesis should be in a format that would be suitable for submission as a paper to Petroleum
Geoscience: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/en/Publications/Journals/Petroleum%20Geoscience
Information for formatting can be found here:
http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/en/Publications/Journals/Petroleum%20Geoscience/Information%2
0for%20Authors . By format we do not mean number of columns as all text should be one
column, but reference style, length of captions, etc
Note in particular reference style and length, max. 10,000 words including references, captions,
etc, max. 25 figures; composite figures allowed.
As part of the marking criteria it will be assessed if the report follows these guidelines. Thus it is
not bulk or volume that the thesis is marked on, but quality and scientific merit.
For comparison and template for how to present the work the paper Underhill (2009) is
suggested:
http://pg.lyellcollection.org/content/15/3/197.full.pdf+html?sid=01870ee8-2aa44830-a6d1-536b5d577c01

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 Additional material may be added as Appendices (large scale maps, correlations etc.) This is in
addition to the journal page limit for submissions.
This year we will not require hard copies of your thesis; submission will be solely via Turnitin.
For all further formatting (incl. title page, statement of independent work, layout) the university
guidelines have to be followed: http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=2863

CONTENT:
The structure of the thesis will follow the main points:
-

Abstract
Introduction
Geological Setting/Background
Methodology and Data
Data Analysis
Results
Discussion
Conclusions and Recommendations
Acknowledgement
References

A literature review should be performed but should not form an extensive part of the submitted
thesis. Instead the review should be used to inform the Introduction, Geological Setting and
Discussion parts of the write up.
A summary of the main results in one or two conceptual diagrams is highly recommended to
convey the findings to the reader, who is not familiar with the data set.
Supervisors, company sponsors/data providers, and software sponsors (e.g. Schlumberger for
PETREL) should be mentioned in the acknowledgement.

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SUBMISSION:
For the project hand in (deadlines see above), we will require:

One printed poster (A0) Portrait

Students submit their posters to the student support office (Williamson Building, room 1.42)
by 4 pm. Late submission will be penalized with deducting 5% off the mark for every working
day (Monday to Friday) of late submission. If the student works on a project within a
company away from UoM, the poster has to be submitted electronically via email to the
student support office (earth.support@manchester.ac.uk) in pdf format (maximum file size:
10 MB, file name must include students name) by 5th August 2016, 4 pm (British Summer
Time, GMT+1h). In this case, the poster has to be submitted as printed copy as soon as the
student returns to Manchester, latest by 22nd August 2016. The same regulations for late
submission apply.

Thesis to be submitted via Turnitin a Turnitin siubmission will be set up in EART60172

Students submit their reports to Turnitin electronically by 19th August 2016, 4 pm. Late
submission will be penalized with deducting 5% off the mark for every working day (Monday
to Friday) of late submission.

Presentation (MS PowerPoint)

Presentations have to be submitted to the MSc course administrator via email
(suzanne.booth@manchester.ac.uk) by 4 pm (British Summer Time, GMT+1h). Files must be
named following the pattern: firstname_surname_year.ppt (e.g. berit_legler_2016.ppt). Late
submissions will be penalized with deducting 5% off the mark for every working day (Monday
to Friday).

Project data Back up and data transmittal by 29th August 2016 (for projects at UoM):

o A back up of the project data (e.g. interpreted seismic volume, reservoir model) is required.
o Physical data (thin sections, rock samples etc.) have to be returned to the supervisor.
Samples need to be labeled and adequately packed for storage.
o Company reports, maps or other paper based or electronically stored (CD/DVD) data
provided by sponsoring companies or the university have to be returned to the (company)
supervisor.

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ASSESSMENT:
Credit will be given for:

Identifying aims and objectives and providing a critical background review to the topic area.

Describing methodologies used.

Generating appropriate data that are relevant to the research question. The data can either
by generated from own primary observations or existing published or unpublished data can
be used. Data analyses (e.g. using statistics, grouping individual units into facies) to detect
pattern and systematic variability in the raw data.

Providing appropriate critical interpretation of data/literature using consistent arguments

with reference to related published literature.

Making reasonable conclusions in the context of the stated aims and objectives and give
justified recommendations for future work.

Intelligible, well presented (with both text and illustrations) work with a comprehensive and
accurate bibliography.

Specific marking criteria include: identification of aims; quality of conclusions; degree of

understanding; signs of independent study; quality of argument; originality; conceptual
content; factual content; use of appropriate examples; use of references; quality of writing;
structure; spelling and grammar; standard of bibliography; standard of illustrations; overall
presentation.

Passages copied verbatim from previously published works or websites and

unacknowledged will be interpreted as an intention to deceive. Depending on its extent,
such plagiarism will result in either substantial loss of marks or outright failure.

All theses will be routinely checked through TURNITIN or a similar software to check for
plagiarism.

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Checklist of typical errors

Use this and refer to this when you are writing your theses, and use it at the end to finally check
your work.
1. All figures need a scale, location data (Lat / Long) and maps need North Arrow.
2. Show your study area as a box on any regional maps you present.
3. North should always be to the TOP of a map
4. All seismic needs to be located on a map (this can be an insert, or use a map at start and
highlight location of each seismic / fig you show.
5. Make sure maps, figures are legible when PRINTED, NOT TOO SMALL. Bigger is better.
6. References: make a final check that all references in text and figure captions are in your
reference list, and vica versa
7. Reference list format: find a format from a typical journal and ensure all references follow that
format

Other
1. Remember we are marking your analysis and interpretation, the bulk of the marks
come from the results section where you describe your data, and your interpretation of
that data, and then synthesize your analysis. The introduction, regional review, previous
work needs to be undertaken, but as a proportion of the thesis this is only maybe 20%
compared to the analysis section.
2. Make it VERY CLEAR, what is your interpretation and what is data. Interpretation taken
from other reports or company data. Show this in data and methodology document
what interpretation you had access to, and clearly what you did.
a. ie Previous interpretation of surfaces were provided by the company, however
the whole area was remapped with some major changes proposed, and new
maps generated.
b. Or: The seismic data was provided with no interpretation, no well ties etc
BE CLEAR on this both in thesis and ppt later (we will have a second set of advice for PPT
later)
3. Make sure you clearly and comprehensively describe your data, seismic lines, maps etc,
BEFORE you interpret. A lot of marks are given for excellent documentation and
description of data, and demonstrating this with good clear figures and maps. Seismic
should be shown uninterpreted and then interpreted to demonstrate your analysis, all
lines need to be located on a map.
4. Good tables and figures can save a lot of text
5. A good interpretative figure, showing your ideas, a model etc is very valuable, well
labeled.
6. ADDRESS UNCERTAINTY: this is key and needs to be discussed in your thesis and in your
final ppt slides. Note alternative possible interpretations, discuss ranges (for reserves
etc), dont be tied to one interpretation of your data, discuss alternatives. You can
review and still state which, based on the analysis, is the preferred interpretation, but
make sure you note uncertainty.
7. Petroleum Significance: in all studies this needs to be addressed. In some studies it isnt
any issue as you are undertaking a prospect analysis etc, but in other more research led
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8.
9.
10.

11.

projects, make sure you have a section that looks at how your research is relevant to
petroleum
Taking a wider look: if working on a block, make sure you have looked at the wider area,
fields nearby etc. Putting your data and analysis in context is very important.
Conclusions and abstract are VERY important. Take time at end to get abstract right and
get this checked by your supervisor. Needs to be 1 page a4 max and clear and well
written.
Conclusion cannot bring in any new data or ideas, and need again to be 1 page
maximum. But it does need to be comprehensive. So to prepare for writing this, go
through thesis and make a list of ALL the work you have done: ie interpreted 6 horizon,
maps show basin deepening to south, evolution of basins shown by seismic to be rift
with inversion in Aptian etc, identified gas escape, defined 6 leads, 2 prospect, reserves
sire rangewas 50 to 500 mmbo etc. Then using this list, write your conclusions to
present al of this. Start of with a one line review of data location and project aims.
Check References again

Give yourself enough time to check through and edit your thesis, for silly speeeelling errors (and
remember use spellchecker, but it doesnt pick up everything, so get a friend to read your thesis and
check it.
FINALLY
PLAGIARISM
Remember ALL theses will go through TURNTITIN. Many of you have been through this on the
course, so dont fall foul of this now. DO NOT COPY and PASTE ANY TEXT word for word. Re-write in
your own words, OR if you do use text, put it in inverted commas as a quote. And reference all work
you use.
Dont lose a year of effort by plagiarizing work

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