Airborne Transient Pulse Surveys Identify Subtle Stratigraphic FDD Channel Sand Reservoirs in Australia, Namibia and South Africa

The Fluvial-Dominated-Deltaic (FDD) Reservoir is the most common and important onshore reservoir in the United States, and is responsible for the majority of its oil and gas production from sandstone reservoirs. It is quite possible that this may be true in other countries also, for we see such reservoirs elsewhere. Typically FDD reservoirs are subtle stratigraphic traps which are not easily found by seismic exploration, but can be readily identified by Airborne Transient Pulse Surveys, if those airborne data are properly recorded, processed, and mapped using appropriate Kriging parameters.

LeSchack and Jackson first showed the potential for surveying for hydrocarbon reservoirs from aircraft using Airborne Transient Pulse Surveys.

http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2006/06063leschack/index.htm

Four years later, major improvements were made to this technology by Pinemont Technology Inc that included fully computerized digital recording and processing with the additional capability of not only mapping potential oil fields, but estimating the depth at which they could likely be encountered (LeSchack, etal.)

Update 2010: Airborne Transient Pulse Surveys for Hydrocarbon Exploration Major Recent Improvements; #40686 (2011)

In October 2010 surveys were flown for clients in Namibia and South Africa over areas which the clients believed to be petroliferous. Upon processing of these Airborne Surveys a petroleum geologist, on seeing these maps can readily recognize plan views of FDD reservoirs, the type reservoir earlier predicted for these areas from classical geological study of outcrops. Although in these areas oil seeps had already been found, water wells drilled that occasionally encountered oil, and random soil samples analyzed thereby identifying oil and gas rich regions, there is not yet onshore production in either country.

The Fluvial-Dominated-Deltaic (FDD) Reservoir is the most common and important onshore reservoir in the United States, and is responsible for the majority of its oil and gas production from sandstone reservoirs. It is quite possible that this may be true in other countries also, for we see such reservoirs elsewhere. Typically FDD reservoirs are subtle stratigraphic traps which are not easily found by seismic exploration, but can be readily identified by Airborne Transient Pulse Surveys, if those airborne data are properly recorded, processed, and mapped using appropriate Kriging parameters.

LeSchack and Jackson first showed the potential for surveying for hydrocarbon reservoirs from aircraft using Airborne Transient Pulse Surveys.

http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2006/06063leschack/index.htm

Four years later, major improvements were made to this technology by Pinemont Technology Inc that included fully computerized digital recording and processing with the additional capability of not only mapping potential oil fields, but estimating the depth at which they could likely be encountered (LeSchack, etal.)

Update 2010: Airborne Transient Pulse Surveys for Hydrocarbon Exploration„Major Recent Improvements; #40686 (2011)

In October 2010 surveys were flown for clients in Namibia and South Africa over areas which the clients believed to be petroliferous. Upon processing of these Airborne Surveys a petroleum geologist, on seeing these maps can readily recognize plan views of FDD reservoirs, the type reservoir earlier predicted for these areas from classical geological study of outcrops. Although in these areas oil seeps had already been found, water wells drilled that occasionally encountered oil, and random soil samples analyzed thereby identifying oil and gas rich regions, there is not yet onshore production in either country.

Significant exploration and drilling, however, have already been reported for an offshore area nearby our Namibia Airborne Survey. A comparison is made between (a) the Ibhubesi Gas Field offshore South Africa as mapped by seismic attributes and other inversion processing of a 312km 3-D survey and (b) a key portion of the nearby onshore Namibia Airborne Survey. The Ibhubesi map shows FDD channel sands and a derived hydrocarbon map based on “seismic attributes.” This comparison strongly suggests similar FDD reservoir characteristics for both maps and an analogous reservoir. The channel and oxbow sands on both maps exhibit similar shapes and sizes, and soil samples coincident with the Airborne anomalies, however, suggest oil rather than gas will be encountered upon drilling onshore. Our Airborne methodology, which is directly linked to microseeping hydrocarbons, seems more definitive, more quickly accomplished, and is certainly a vastly less expensive form of exploration for finding subtle stratigraphic traps.

In addition to this offshore-onshore comparison, Airborne maps of FDD reservoirs in Australia as well as Namibia and South Africa are presented and discussed, as is the capability of differentiating multiple stacked channels in single channel-belts.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90142 © 2012 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, April 22-25, 2012, Long Beach, California