The first phase was the Geophysical leg, which took place from July through October. During this phase, TDI-Brooks performed multibeam (MBES), backscatter, and plume detection of 45019.7 km2. The second phase took place from October through November and consisted of Geochemical multibeam (MBES) backscatter, plume detection, and subbottom profiler acquisition. A chirp subbottom profiler line (1 km) was acquired over each core site. Several possible hydrocarbon discoveries were made, making for a very successful program for all involved, with some visually interesting cores being recovered.
Ben Sayers, Partner of GeoPartners, commented, “Another successful acquisition completed. Thank you to all crew and support staff involved.”
Ron Daniel, Geoscience Advisor, Exploration at Staatsolie, adds, “Thank you for a safe and well-executed project, done in collaboration with all the stakeholders. We look forward to the geochemical results.”
RV GYRE is outfitted with a full seep hunting kit, including a newly installed Kongsberg EM-304 (1×1) hull-mounted multibeam (MBES) kit and Edgetech HM3300 Chirp subbottom profiler with a 4×4 Masa TR-1075 transducer array. The vessel has geotechnical and geochemical coring, heat flow, CPT, and other sampling capabilities.
Geochemical analyses and interpretation services will be performed at TDI-Brooks chemistry and geotechnical laboratories in College Station, Texas. They will perform geochemical screening analyses of geochemical cores for interstitial carbon gases (C1-C5 hydrocarbons & CO2), total scanning fluorescence (TSF), and C15+Gas Chromatography. Cores with seepage hits will further be analyzed for selected stable carbon gas isotopes and aliphatic/aromatic biological markers.
“Seep hunting surveys have been based on the observation that migrated petroleum from deep source rocks and reservoirs can be analytically detected or otherwise proxied as thermogenic seepage in near-surface soils and sediments, such that results can be used to help evaluate a prospective petroleum system. The value of survey results has been aided by the evolution of tools and techniques for site selection, sample collection, lab analysis, and interpretation. This has resulted in our growing ability to determine the charge, age, maturity, depositional environment, and even oil quality from the detected seepage. As a part of seep hunting, surface geochemical surveys search for chemically identifiable oil and gas compounds as well as seep-induced physical/geological expressions and biological communities and related features,” said Bernie Bernard, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, TDI-Brooks International, Inc. In 1996, Dr. Bernard partnered with Dr. Brooks to form TDI-Brooks International, Inc.
