Environmental Geochemistry Consultancy

Our Vision

Our vision is to contribute our advanced petroleum geochemistry expertise in support of the transition to a net-zero energy world. We believe that cost-effective environmental monitoring and modelling methods, combined with innovative technology, are a key to decarbonation in particular with respect to:

increasing energy supply from local and environmentally sustainable facilities, including oil and gas (O&G) and blue hydrogen-carbon capture and storage (CCS) synergies;
reducing the impact of historical O&G activities by supporting operators during the decommissioning process.

IGI has provided expert geochemical consultancy and software services for the O&G industry since 1983, with scientific rigour at its core. The world is now faced with significant environmental challenges, prompting the industry to progress toward net-zero emissions with a demanding 2050 target for the UK and the European Union. IGI is committed to supporting the O&G industry in this effort by providing specialist geochemical, modelling and software expertise at all stages, from exploration to decommissioning.

Our aims

IGI aims to support O&G companies during the energy transition in the areas of monitoring of hydrocarbon gas emissions and forensic oil geochemistry.

Our developing environmental geochemical services include:

forensic petroleum geochemistry for the industry and regulatory institutions to manage hydrocarbon production in an environmentally sensitive manner;
interpretation of in-situ methane and CO₂ concentration data and identification of sources and sinks;
modelling of methane and CO₂ fluxes from O&G and CCS infrastructures above regional background values.

Monitoring of gas emissions

In line with the UK’s Oil & Gas Authority, we believe that two of the most influential factors for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions during the transition period are:

maximizing hydrocarbon recovery from the UK Continental Shelf to supply the national demand;
supporting the rapid net-zero transition to the blue hydrogen-CCS synergy through the use of real-time emissions monitoring and of forecasting models.

We specifically aim to:

contribute to the implementation of best environmental practise in exploration & production by monitoring and modelling their impact on local methane and CO₂ emissions;

provide independent assessments of methane emission fluxes in support of exploration and production companies in legal cases;

produce and regularly update UKCS databases specially tailored to store all relevant geochemical and supporting data for use in the early identification of enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations above background levels.

Contamination and forensic oil geochemistry

We offer independent forensic petroleum geochemistry consultancy services, based on our specialist expertise in oil geochemistry, to support O&G companies and national regulatory bodies in:

unravelling contamination sources;
planning and monitoring decontamination of sites;
forensic petroleum geochemistry studies in support of legal cases.

Please contact us for more information on our environmental consultancy services and software products.

Our Team

Marianne Nuzzo holds a Master in environmental hydrogeology from the University of Avignon (France) and a PhD. in methane biogeochemistry from the University of Bristol (UK). She worked for seven years as a research fellow in the Marine Geology Department of the Portuguese Geological Survey and at Geomar (Kiel, Germany) in multi-disciplinary and multi-national research projects. Her research areas included submarine hydrocarbon seep provinces of the NE Atlantic, Eastern Mediterranean Sea and Central Pacific Ocean. Since then, she has been working as a petroleum geochemist at IGI for seven years, where she is taking on the role of lead petroleum geochemist. Marianne's IGI profile can be found here: Marianne Nuzzo

Laura Milne has been working as a petroleum geochemist and basin modeller at IGI for five years. In the past year she has completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Decommissioning with the University of Aberdeen which has allowed her to build a broad knowledge base on the law, environmental impacts and engineering requirements associated with decommissioning, with focus on the UKCS. Laura's IGI profile can be found here: Laura Milne

Dan Cornford is an experienced academic, with a background in maths and meteorology, who specialised in managing uncertainty in complex systems, data science and machine learning. He currently leads up the software development side of IGI, and also contributes to data science initiatives within the company. He has relevant expertise in:

spatial statistics and monitoring accounting for various sources of uncertainty
the use of observational data to infer state or calibrate parameters in models (data assimilation, Bayesian inference, solving inverse problems)
optimal experimental design for monitoring and modelling
uncertainty management and propagation in systems and models
data management and interoperability of data and models
data analysis and visualisation, particularly in the geospatial context
machine learning and data driven modelling

Dan Cornford's IGI profile can be found here: Dan Cornford

Tiago Cunha

Tiago's IGI profile can be found here: Tiago Cunha