Print this pageAAPG GEO 2010 Middle East
Geoscience Conference & Exhibition
Innovative Geoscience Solutions – Meeting Hydrocarbon Demand in Changing Times
March 7-10, 2010 – Manama, Bahrain
An Advanced Airborne Geophysical Approach for Exploration of Petroleum Resources
(1) UTS Geophysics, Perth, WA, Australia.
Recent advances in mapping technologies coupled with the emerging needs of the exploration industry to precisely characterize the sub-surface systems, have led to the resurgence in interest for gravity and magnetic methods in oil and natural gas exploration. These methods are typically used in frontier areas to carry out reconnaissance surveys, to identify new and prospective basins as well as to explore more seismically challenging areas. An integrated approach combining gravity, magnetics and seismic along with other geological data is becoming the modern/latest approach for oil and gas explores to push the envelope and venture into new frontier environments. Traditionally the potential field (Gravity and magnetic) measurements are time consuming. But the need for acquisition of large gravity and magnetic data sets at a greater speed has renewed the demands for precise airborne measurement system, which has unlimited accessibility over any terrain conditions such as coastal areas covering both land and shallow sea, over remote deserts, marshy lands, thick forests and icy lands etc. Significance of airborne geophysical approaches have increased with major advances in satellite positioning technology such as GPS and GLONASS, which enables the determination of 3-D position of the moving platform (aircraft) with greater accuracy. UTS Geophysics utilizes the latest version of airborne gravity systems called TAGS (Turnkey Airborne Gravity System) on a fixed wing geophysical survey aircraft, which is already equipped with a magnetic acquisition system as well as radar and laser altimeters. Prior to offering the services of this new system, a pre-purchase test of the gravity meter was undertaken. The system performance was tested mainly in three different ways, (a) repeatability along predefined survey flight lines, (b) crossover errors and (c) comparison with ground data. The results provided a high level of confidence in offering this multi-system airborne geophysical approach to the petroleum industry. A detailed discussion on the system details and test survey results will be presented.