Remote sensing applications for petroleum resource exploration in offshore basins of China

In this paper, a new approach for detecting and analyzing sea surface slicks caused by hydrocarbon seepage of offshore petroleum accumulations has been developed. This approach uses remote sensing radar technology and geophysical exploration techniques and has been developed based on hydrocarbon seepage theory. In this study, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data were used as the main data source. These data were integrated with gravity data inversed from satellite altimeter data, geophysical abnormal data from airborne magnetic data, and geological data of oil-and gas-bearing basins. Using the geographical information system, the oil and gas accumulating areas were outlined by the prospect models. This approach for the exploration and evaluation for offshore petroleum accumulations has been applied to two study areas in offshore petroleum basins in China: the Bohai Sea and Pearl River Mouth basins. By comparing the drilling outcomes and relative materials, our results show that the application of this integrated method is very effective.