Planning and Operating a Transition and Land 2-D Seismic Survey Using a Combination of Integrated Source and Recording Equipment in a Remote Location, Lake Tanganyika – The East African Rift Valley

Abstract

Recent commercial oil discoveries in Lake Albert in the Western Rift Valley in East African have captured the world's attention and have made remote frontier areas around the African great lakes the focus for oil exploration. Beach Energy has operated the Lake Tanganyika South permit in the Rift Valley in Western Tanzania with TPDC since 2010 and in mid 2014 Woodside Energy farmed into the acreage. The permit extends over 7163 km² and covers a sedimentary basin considered to be a significant and untested multi-billion barrel oil province. The current permit work commitment includes approximately 1,300 km of 2D seismic on the lake to provide infill to the 2,100 km of 2D seismic acquired in 2012. The program also includes acquiring a 100 km land and transition zone 2D seismic at the lake margin. This part of the program is to confirm fault positioning, trap integrity and sediment thickness for a future land based exploration drilling location. The terrain for the land part of the survey area ranges from open low relief hills to flat rice paddies between the two densely populated villages on the lake. The TZ area ranges from shallow lake edge to deeper water lake areas to a depth of 200m below the water level. This variety of terrain has necessitated the survey being acquired using a range of seismic sources including mini vibrators, dynamite and air guns and recorded into land and swamp geophone cable, multi sensor ocean bottom cables and ocean bottom nodes. The planning and operation of this complex land and TZ seismic has required multiple scouting / reconnaissance trips to review the terrain from a logistics, geophysical end environmental operations viewpoint and to manage detailed stakeholder engagement process.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90217 © 2015 International Conference & Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia, September 13-16, 2015