--> Abstract: Unconventional Exploration Techniques in a High Cost Deepwater Basin : A Case Study From the Black Sea, by D. S. MacGregor, R. I. Crisp, A. Ignatov, C. Mumcuoglu, and A. Yildizel; #90987 (1993).

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MacGREGOR, DUNCAN S., and RUSSEL I. CRISP, BP Exploration Operating Company, Middlesex, England; ALEXANDR IGNATOV, Yuzhmorgeologiya, Gelendzhik, Russia; and CETIN MUMCUOGLU and ALI YILDIZEL, TPAO, Ankara, Turkey

ABSTRACT: Unconventional Exploration Techniques in a High Cost Deepwater Basin : A Case Study From the Black Sea

It seems likely that many of the new petroleum provinces of the 21st century will lie in deepwater. High drilling costs imply that the geologist must maximize the use of pre-drilling techniques in order to focus the search for the large, high flow rate fields that will be economic in such an environment. In particular, the needs to maximize the information obtained from seabed sampling.

Deepwater basins are often seepage-prone, presenting many opportunities to sample and investigate the origin of the hydrocarbons present. Assessments of stratigraphy and potential reservoirs may in some cases be made from bedrock outcrops on the continental slope.

BP and TPAO have, in their Black Sea acreage, procured the services of a Russian research vessel to undertake such a program of seabed sampling and analyses. Five hundred geochemical cores are being located from previously acquired geophysical and airborne fluorosensor data. Bedrock sampling on submarine escarpments will address many uncertainties regarding the structural evolution of the Black Sea basin, the presence of potential reservoirs, and the current absence of seismic ties. Some core measurements will investigate the geothermal regime of the region and various technological problems.

The cruise is supplying critical geological information at the fraction of the cost of a stratigraphic well. Further such advances in seabed geology/geochemistry will substantially aid the industry in breaching economic barriers in deepwater frontier basins.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90987©1993 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25-28, 1993.