Dr Peter Morris
B.Sc. (Hons) M.Sc. Ph.D.
Palaeo7 LLP Partner Representative
Pete is a micropalaeontologist with extensive global experience of Permian – Holocene biostratigraphy gained through over 35 years research and operational involvement with the oil and gas industry. Following completion of his doctorate at UCW Aberystwyth (thesis title: ‘A microfaunal and sedimentological analysis of some Lower Inferior Oolite (Aalenian) sections of the Cotswolds’), Pete joined BP International and began his industrial career working on routine well and review projects ranging from Alaska to Sulawesi. Intense involvement with Middle Eastern, Permian – Tertiary, carbonate dominant sequences was notable at this time, and Pete headed up projects on the Khuff and Mishrif formations of the Gulf region, and became field palaeontologist in southern Oman. On moving to BP Aberdeen Pete worked on the Jurassic – Tertiary of the UK North Sea sector advancing BP’s Jurassic biozonation and sequence stratigraphy of the Central and Viking Graben areas. On leaving BP and joining Geostrat Pete gained invaluable experience on the ‘other side of the fence’ working on numerous wells and fields in all North Sea sectors.
Setting up Microstrat some 20 years ago, Pete has continued to work on routine well and review projects in the North-Norwegian and Barents Sea regions acquiring in an in-depth knowledge of Triassic – Tertiary biostratigraphy of numerous field areas including Norne/Urd, Statfjord, Gullfaks, Sleipner,Valhall, Hod, Johan Sverdrup, Oseberg and King Lear – Norway, and Franklin, Erskine, Scott, Brae, Magnus, Mungo, Arbroath and Everest fields - UK. Pete’s Middle East expertise has continued to grow through the Permian – Tertiary analysis of wells from onshore/offshore Yemen, Kuwait and SW Iraq with detailed studies of the Yamama, Mishrif/Rumaila and Hartha formations in the Rumaila Field.
Biostratigraphic analysis of sections in the above regions has required the application of all the main microfossil groups encountered in conventional (foraminifera, ostracods, radiolarian, diatoms, megaspores) and thin-section analysis (larger foraminifera, calpionellids, calcareous algae), ranging from Permian to Holocene in age.
Research interests include the integrated megaspore – palynological biostratigraphic evaluation of the Triassic – Jurassic, fluvio-deltaic sequences of the N. Atlantic margin. Currently involved with Bergen University in a study of the Late Triassic of Hopen, Svalbard, and the Middle Jurassic, Ravenscar Group of N. Yorkshire, in collaboration with Aberystwyth University.
Norwegian Continental Shelf Experience
Pete has been extensively involved with the biostratigraphic analysis/evaluation of numerous exploration wells across the region including Barents Sea, and development wells in Sleipner, Statfjord, Gullfaks and Norne,fields : multiwell reviews of the Late Triassic – Jurassic in the Statfjord , Gullfaks, Oseberg, Veslfrikk, Snorre, Johan Sverdrup , Urd, Nord and King Lear field areas leading to the development of microfaunal / megaspore biozonal / sequence stratigraphic schemes. Jurassic – Cretaceous reviews of Valhall – Hod field areas and Kamschjell, and Cretaceous review of Haltenbanken wells.
Wellsite monitoring of Tertiary – Jurassic sections in numerous wells in most of the above areas, notably in Kamschjell, Tyr and Valhall areas.
Publications
Morris, P. H., 1981, Distribution and Palaeoecology of Middle Jurassic Foraminifera from The Lower Inferior Oolite of the Cotswolds. Palaeogeog. Palaeoclim. Palaeoecol., 37:319–347.
Morris, P. H., 1983, Palaeoecology and Stratigraphic Distribution of Middle Jurassic ostracods from The Lower Inferior Oolite of the Cotswolds. Palaeogeog. Palaeoclim. Palaeoecol., 41:289–324.
Morris, P.H. and Coleman, B., 1989, A Stratigraphical Atlas of Fossil Foraminifera. Middle Jurassic (Aalenian – Callovian) section. Ellis Horwood, Chichester (second edit.)
Morris, P.H. and Dyer, R., 1990, The Application of Middle Jurassic – Early Cretaceous Agglutinated Foraminifera to the offshore correlation of Humber Group sediments in the North Viking Region. In: (C. Hembeleden et al., eds.) Palaeoecology, Biostratigraphy, Paleooceanography and Taxonomy of Agglutinated Foraminifera, 961–967. Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.
Morris, P.H., Payne, S. N. J. and Richards, D.P.J., 1999, Micropalaeontological Biostratigraphy of the Magnus Sandstone Member (Kimmeridgian – Early Volgian), Magnus Field, U.K. North Sea. In: (Jones, R.W. & Simmons, M.D. eds.) Biostratigraphy in Production and Development Geology. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 152, 55–73.
Morris, P.H., Cullum, A., Pearce, M.A. & Batten, D.J. 2009. Megaspore assemblages from the Åre Formation (Rhaetian–Pliensbachian) offshore mid-Norway, and their value as field and regional stratigraphic markers. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 28:161–181.
Morris, P.H. & Batten, D.J. 2016. Megaspores and associated palynofloras of Middle Jurassic fluvio-deltaic sequences in North Yorkshire and the northern North Sea: a biofacies-based approach to palaeoenvironmental analysis and modelling. Journal of Micropalaeontology, 35:151–172.
Paterson, N.W., Morris, P.H., Mangerud, G. 2019. Lycopsid megaspores from the Upper Triassic of Svalbard and their relationship to the floras and palaeoenvironments of northern Pangaea. Papers in Palaeontology (in press).
