Use of Satellite Imageries to Identify Potential Hydrocarbon Microseepage in Off-Shore Areas

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology has the ability to image surface oil seeps that originate by slow leakage from oiland gas-filled traps. Multi-temporal satellite data over such seeps delineate prospective areas and provide the locations for follow-up surface sampling from which key geochemical information of the reservoir oil can be obtained. Satellite radar can offer the oil industry an effective, low-cost technique for reducing the risk in high-cost exploration environments such as in the ultra deep frontier basins. The knowledge that surface seepage has a direct link to subsurface oil and gas accumulations is not new. Since 1992, a powerful platform for offshore seepage detection has emerged. This is satellite-borne active microwave radar, which now offers the industry wide-swath, multiple-repeat imagery over all of the world’s continental margins, at any water depth.