Petroleum Africa
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Tuesday, November 26, 2013
South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRO), in partnership with MAREX, is exploring nearly 70,000 sq km of the Central Mozambique Channel. The exploration permits are in Juan de Nova in French TAAF waters and the Belo Profond in Madagascar waters.
The main objective of this project is to scientifically identify and sample areas where there may be naturally occurring seeping or venting of hydrocarbon-rich fluids. This follows an initial program last year where SAPETRO collected multiyear persisting surface oil slick samples. The slicks were detected on ESA satellite radar imagery in collaboration with Astrium/Infoterra and analyzed by Gore Technologies.
Geoscience and engineering consulting company Fugro GeoConsulting and French IPEV vessel R/V Marion Dufresne were contracted by SAPETRO to acquire geophysical data (multibeam echosounder bathymetry and backscatter data and subbottom profiler data), to provide onboard seep-mapping and interpretation of the geology and shallow fluid migration systems, cutting edge seabed sampling with the Calypso Corer (up to 40-m piston coring), and onboard real-time geochemical analyses to optimize the sampling sites.
The expectation is that the geochemistry of the samples will elucidate the nature of any hydrocarbon reservoir that may be present at depth. This general region of East Africa has yielded many very large natural gas discoveries, but the actual geologic window with oil, instead of gas, has been elusive. This is an area that may yield those oil-rich deposits.
Dr. Jim Gharib, Exploration Manager of Fugro GeoConsulting and chief scientist on the vessel, explains, “There are many advantages to having an intelligently designed geochemical program for oil and gas exploration. We’ve had very high demand from many of our clients for using this methodology to high-grade (or for that matter downgrade) their eventual 3D seismic programs. A program like this can provide the client’s exploration team with valuable data for a fraction of the cost of a 3D survey, and can ultimately de-risk the exploration of your play, as well as provide valuable data to help generate interest for farm-ins from potential partners.”
In addition to the real-time interpretation of the geophysical data to get the best targets possible for the geochemical program, the science team on board also ran real-time geochemical analysis to recognize the merit of the recovery at each site. This allowed the onboard team to better determine if a site was worth revisiting, as well as providing the confidence of knowing if the cores sampled suitable targets while still out on the water, instead of waiting months later for a shore-based laboratory to provide all the results, after the ship has already demobilized. Historically the Fugro GeoConsulting seep exploration group has had an exceptionally high success rate with these types of projects because of their experience and expertise with understanding the data that can be interpreted from the high-resolution resolution multibeam mapping of seabed anomalies and understanding the structural and geochemical drivers of hydrocarbon seepage.
The technical skills of the IPEV team and their Calypso Corer also was a very valuable tool, as the deep piston cores, with recoveries as deep as 30 meters below seafloor, help provide the best and deepest geochemical signal possible short of actual drilling operations. These cores were then sampled with a Multi-Sensor Core Logger by the Fugro team while still onboard the vessel, providing an extremely detailed analysis of sedimentological and physical properties such as gamma-ray, p-wave, spectrophotometric, and magnetic susceptibility measurements.
Initial results showed evidence that the fluids sampled were upwelling, and that the shallow section was relatively organic-poor, therefore indicating that the sampled hydrocarbons were likely of thermogenic origin coming from a deeper source. This was SAPETRO’s geochemical objective, as the deep fluids will be the ones carrying the signatures of the deep hydrocarbon reservoirs. A major four way structural closure believed to be of Cretaceous age, near to the seeps will be explored with a 3-D seismic program by the PGS M/V Ramform Sterling in early Q1 2014.
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