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The European Petrophysics Consortium (EPC) involves 3 European universities undertaking petrophysics research , in particular, combining borehole geophysics and geology:

- Leicester (UK),
- Montpellier (France)
- Aachen (Germany)
 

All 3 institutions have a history of involvement with ocean drilling, particularly in relation to downhole logging. The EPC central office is located at the University of Leicester and is responsible for management of the consortium. Leicester represents the EPC within ECORD (European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling) and IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program).


The EPC structure offers high-level scientific and technical support to the international IODP and ECORD for logging in the highly variable environments drilled by the non-riser and mission specific platforms and addressing a range of scientific objectives. At each University, the EPC provides a petrophysical expertise base which is available to all scientists in the IODP:

- Development and revision of drilling proposals

- Development of tailored logging and core petrophysics programs for the expedition prospectus

- Evaluation and interpretation of petrophysical data from IODP expeditions and for scientists using legacy petrophysical data


Acting within IODP context

ECORD Science Operator

Started up in October 2003 the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is supported by 24 countries: the U.S.A., Japan, ECORD (16 European country members & Canada), China (April 2004), South Korea (June 2006), ANZIC (Australia-New-Zealand IODP Consortium) & India (April 2009). IODP form an international research program for oceanic drilling that explores Earth's history and structure as recorded in seafloor sediments & rocks, and monitors sub-seafloor environments.  IODP builds upon the earlier successes of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), which revolutionized our view of Earth history & global processes through ocean basin exploration.  IODP greatly expands the reach of these previous programs by using multiple drilling platforms, including riser, riserless, and mission-specific, to achieve its scientific goals.

With the Borehole Research Group (BRG / LDEO), Columbia University, New York, EPC is part of the International Scientific Logging Consortium that provides staff for Riserless expeditions (IODP-USIO).

ECORD Science Operator (ESO) is a three-component consortium, involving operations (BGS), curation (University of Bremen) & petrophysics through the European Petrophysics Consortium (EPC).

The ESO operates mission-specific platforms that extend operations into areas such as ice-covered waters and very shallow water environments. 

EPC provides ESO with appropriate staff and facilities to enable and integrate all aspects of the acquisition, management and distribution of petrophysical measurements on core and downhole petrophysical measurements and images.