--> Abstract: Seismicity and Seepage Revisited. Combining Earthquake and SAR Data to Uncover the Deep-Water Giants of the Future, by Alan K. Williams, Nicholas Kellerman, Michael King, and Geoffrey M. Lawrence; #90078 (2008)
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Seismicity and Seepage Revisited. Combining Earthquake and SAR Data to Uncover the Deep-Water Giants of the Future

Alan K. Williams1, Nicholas Kellerman1, Michael King1, and Geoffrey M. Lawrence2
1NPA Group, Edenbridge, United Kingdom
2TREICoL, Knebworth, United Kingdom

The link between oil and gas seepage and tectonically active regions is not new and many of the earth's fold and thrust belts (such as the Andes, the Zagros, the Himalayas, etc) contain high densities of natural seeps. Furthermore, increased levels of seepage have been observed outside of these regions in less leaky onshore basin types, also associated with seismic activity. If this works onshore, why not offshore?

NPA have recently integrated the USGS earthquake (CMT) dataset into a global SAR data selection process for the whole world. We have screened some 6 million scenes from which c.250,000 Previous HitweatherNext Hit compliant scenes have been identified. The process is very simple and works by cycling through each seismic event and identifying the nearest Previous HitweatherTop compliant radar scenes in both space and time.

Scenes are flagged if they fall within a time and space buffer which can be set as required (e.g. a 2 degree space buffer with a temporal allowance of 1 month either side of the event). Accurate timing information on both the seismic event and the scene acquisition allow precise time differences to be defined.

For example, in a three month period in 2007 using only the Envisat dataset, 76 seismic events were flagged and 274 compliant radar scenes were identified with one scene captured only 4 hours after a 5.8 earthquake at 30km depth.

Satellite data has been obtained and analysed for a number of prospective deep water basins, including Indonesia, West Africa and the Black Sea to demonstrate the potential of the technique.

NPA are also investigating the link between seismicity and enhanced production from existing onshore fields, using a combination of INSAR and PS-INSAR techniques.

 

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90078©2008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas