Remote Sensing and Oil Exploration

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Remote Sensing and Oil Exploration

• Ryan Schmoll
• Embry Riddle
• December 2007

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Seeing Underground

• Seismographs were originally designed to record
  and analyze earthquakes
• Germans used them in WWII to locate enemy
  artillery emplacements
• This lead to refraction seismology in the early
  1920s

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Refraction Seismology

• Make a big boomusually dynamite charges
• Resulting energy waves are refracted through
  underground structures
• Geophones listen to the waves
• These sounds helped identify geophysical features
  like salt domes which tend to mark large oil
  deposits

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Reflection Seismology

• By the mid 1920s reflected seismology was in use
• Recorded waves that bounced off rocks
• Superior to refraction method
• Provided more detail on underground
  structuresshape and depth
• Helped find even more oil

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Concept of Reflection Seismology is still in use

• Boom can also be created by air guns for
  under water exploration.
• The hard part of seismic exploration is
  interpreting the results.
• Even with modern equipment there is only a 1 in
  10 success rate.

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Other remote sensing tools for oil exploration

• Large oil deposits alter magnetic
  fieldssensitive magnetometers measure these
  subtle differences
• Large oil deposits alter gravitygravity meters
• Satellites observe terrain that tends to have oil
• Electronic noses can actually sniff out
  oilthink about testing for explosives at airports

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References

• Yergin, Daniel. The Prize The Epic Quest for
  Oil Money and Power. Free Press New York,
  1992.
• http//science.howstuffworks.com/oil-drilling1.htm