TDI-Brooks has said it has completed the offshore multibeam phase offshore the Niger Delta, under a contract by the Norwegian seismic data firm TGS.
"This survey took place in water depths of 750 to 3,500 meters and is Nigeria’s first regional multi-client Multibeam and Seafloor Sampling (MB&SS) Study," TGS said Thursday.
TDI-Brooks’ research vessel Gyre acquired 82,000 square kilometers of high-resolution hull-mounted multi-beam echo sounder data.
During the multibeam data collection, a total of 1,223 active hydrocarbon seeps were detected in the multibeam water column data. Onboard hydrocarbon seep analysis was conducted in near real-time onboard the vessel to expedite the process of core selection, the company said.
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Proteus to follow up in July
TDI-Brooks said that the R/V Proteus vessel is scheduled to begin acquisition of the follow-up Surface Geochemical Exploration (SGE) coring campaign in July 2020, where approximately 245 piston core samples targeting suspected seep features selected from the MBES dataset will be collected, along with an additional 45 additional piston core samples for geotechnical and biostratigraphic studies. An additional 17 surface heat flow measurements will also be collected as part of the program.
Surface Geochemical Exploration is a petroleum prospecting tool based on the premise that traces of upward migrated petroleum from deep source rocks and reservoirs can be detected in targeted seabed sediments and used to evaluate exploration potential.
"Modern Surface Geochemical Exploration campaigns utilize an integrated approach to identify seepage on the seafloor, pinpoint core locations, and accurately characterize geochemical results. The science and art of this seep hunting involves proper selection of core sites from the geophysical records, safe and skilled acquisition of seabed cores at these exact sites, analytically distinguishing promising samples from samples with varying levels of natural background concentrations, and properly interpreting the geochemical results in a geologic context," TDI Brooks said.