OilFinder – Local Technology for Oil Seep Identification

[No text]Even with the continued increase foreign O&G service companies opening shop in Brazil, local companies also begin to offer more specialized services that once had to be imported. In some instances, even competing very favorably with international companies, well established in the industry. OilFinder is one of these local companies and it offers services such as remote sensing and computational modeling solutions for Exploration and Production of O&G and also solutions for emergency situations in case of oil spills. OilFinder has already made an impact with its Inverse Modeling services, reportedly an exclusive and innovative technology that estimates the origin of oil seeps on the seafloor. It was mainly developed for deepwater exploration and it estimates the pathway of the oil back in time. In other words, as they explained internet site, the trajectory of oil between the position it was detected and its origin at seafloor. Most oil seeps identified on the sea surface in deep water regions with complex circulation are tens of kilometers from their origins at seafloor. The inverse modeling provides more correct and precise information, according to OilFinder it is demonstrating to be the most suitable technology for both oil spill mapping and for identifying oil reserves in unexplored areas . The Brazilian company performed a mapping of the seep areas along the whole Equatorial margin of Brazil for the ANP 11th Bid Round, identifying 10 areas of seeps in the seafloor obtained from inverse modeling of more than 100 oil slicks detected on sea surface by satellite and classified as natural flows. The Mapping of the Campos, Santos and Espirito Santo Basins has already been completed and OilFinder has been analyzing data from the Brazilian northeast coast, including the Sergipe-Alagoas, Camamu-Alamada and Jequitinhonha Basins. According to OilFinder, they are able, through Inverse Modelling, to identify areas in the sea floor where active petroleum systems leak, known as seeps. The oil seeps indicate not only the presence of source rocks in the area, but also the occurrence of the geologic processes of thermal maturation and migration of the generated hydrocarbons. Having the precise location of identified seeps would definitely be invaluable information for operators looking at identifying new petroleum systems, in areas still unexplored. OilFinder´s partnership with UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), through its COPPE organization, which oversees graduate programs and technological research, is an important factor in ascertaining that OilFinder will be able to continuously develop its products. The analysis the results obtained at each different Brazilian Basin should also bring important information of analysis of deepwater locations in the rest of the south eastern coast of South America and for WA Basins.