HR: 1340h
AN: B43E-1662    [Abstracts]
TI: The Importance of Chemosynthetic Communities and 'Seep-Hunting' to Deepwater Oil and Gas Exploration
AU: * McConnell, D
EM: dan_mcconnell@aoageophysics.com
AF: AOA Geophysics, 2500 Tanglewilde, Suite 120, Houston, TX 77063, United States
AU: Gharib, J J
EM: jim_gharib@aoageophysics.com
AF: AOA Geophysics, 2500 Tanglewilde, Suite 120, Houston, TX 77063, United States
AU: Orange, D
EM: dorange@blackgoldenergy.com
AF: Black Gold Energy, Jl. Kemang Timur No. 22, Jakarta, 12510, Indonesia
AU: Henderson, J
EM: jennifer_henderson@aoageophysics.com
AF: AOA Geophysics, 7532 Sandholt Road, Suite 6, Moss Landing, CA 95039, United States
AU: Danque, H
EM: hunter_danque@aoageophysics.com
AF: AOA Geophysics, 2500 Tanglewilde, Suite 120, Houston, TX 77063, United States
AU: Digby, A
EM: adrian_digby@aoageophysics.com
AF: AOA Geophysics, 2500 Tanglewilde, Suite 120, Houston, TX 77063, United States
AB: Seafloor surveying techniques have often evolved as the industry's needs have evolved. Oil and gas exploration costs have escalated over the last several years, both as a result of increasing offshore overhead costs as well as the increased demand being met by offshore service-related companies. Consequently, more companies are prospecting using inexpensive techniques that rely on scientific expertise, such as seep-hunting, as a means of identifying reservoirs, and the past few years have seen several large-scale industrial deepwater surveys with locating hydrocarbon seeps as a primary goal. The identification of seeps is also a necessity for many pre-drilling operations, as many potential developers must conform to local regulations protecting chemosynthetic communities (eg MMS NTL 2000-G20 for Gulf of Mexico development). In addition to identifying chemosynthetic communities for permitting issues, as prospecting has moved into deeper water the ability to identify seep-related drilling hazards, such as hardgrounds or shallow gas (and hydrates) has also increased in importance. The specialized field of identifying seeps, and related chemosynthetics, hardgrounds, etc., is rapidly growing, aided by advances in mapping technology, such as multibeam backscatter and interferometry, among others. Today all of the geophysical data can be brought into a common interpretation environment providing multiple perspectives, different data overlays, and/or 3D visualizations. Using these techniques, high resolution multibeam and/or side-scan surveys rapidly cover large swaths of seafloor and identify potential seeps in real- time. These targets can then be examined geochemically with a coring program, potentially working simultaneously with the multibeam program. Modern USBL navigation can position a deepwater core in <10m diameter targets. Much of the geochemistry can be analyzed in near-real time at sea (eg headspace/interstitial gas, trace/minor/major ions in porefluids, etc; only isotopic analyses are restricted to better equipped research vessels). The advantages of integrating these data are considerable, and they can be obtained for a fraction of the cost of exploratory drilling or submersible operations. This presentation intends to outline the recent history of the industry's approach to seep-hunting, its increasing importance to oil prospectivity, and future trends in industrial applications and how this might affect academic study in this field (especially related to the advances in seep-hunting technology and software that are becoming industry-standards).
DE: 0452 Instruments and techniques
DE: 0900 EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICS
DE: 3002 Continental shelf and slope processes (4219)
DE: 3004 Gas and hydrate systems
DE: 3045 Seafloor morphology, geology, and geophysics
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting