Geohazard Applications for Oil & Gas Exploration

Let’s face it: Drilling blindly for oil and gas exploration just doesn’t cut it anymore. Wildcatting isn’t just outdated—it’s ridiculously expensive.

Instead, see what’s below the surface before you drill. We can help.

Many companies think they should just drill first or use other forms of technology for oil, gas, and mineral exploration. That’s not only untrue—it could be a costly mistake!

Benefits Of Electric Resistivity Imaging For Oil & Gas Exploration

• Save time. Identify the most appropriate place to drill rather than randomly selecting a drill site. Using geology and geophysics in oil exploration leads to the most accurate results so you know exactly where to dig—and where to avoid.

• Save money. Labor and equipment for finding oil and gas are expensive. Electric resistivity imaging systems can pay for themselves, because the tools are reusable in myriad situations.

• Reduce your risk. Identify areas of risk and dry holes before you drill them. If your location has water beneath the surface and you contaminate the water or create a vulnerability by drilling before you know what’s going on, you could put your company and the environment at risk. Resistivity imaging prevents this by helping you understand what’s below the surface. Further, resistivity imaging can help you identify areas that have the potential to cave in and damage or destroy your oil and gas instruments and equipment.

Use Case

Our clients used AGI resistivity imaging tools to successfully locate a 125-gallon-per-minute groundwater well in West Texas as well as geohazards that could, if left unlocated, cause significant damage to property and increase costs.

Our clients used the SuperSting R8 Wi-Fi with a SwitchBox 112, passive cables spaced at six meters apart, and a dipole-dipole and strong gradient array. To model the data, they enlisted the help of the EarthImager 2D with a finite element inversion model.

They successfully located a large underground pool (aquifer) of brine water that could support a relatively high-production water well—approximately 125 gallons per minute in a region where 10 gallons per minute would be common when not using resistivity imaging.

Uses Beyond Mineral, Oil, & Gas Exploration

• Groundwater exploration.

• Subsurface site characterization (2D and 3D imaging, tomography, and ERT).

• Cave, void, and sinkhole location.

• Depth-to-bedrock determination.

• Landslide hazard mapping.

• Marine 2D and 3D surveys for dredging and harbor works and submarine cable deployment.

• Lithology mapping.

• Archaeological site investigation.

• Detection of free products of nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs).

• Monitoring remediation processes such as ammonia injection, desiccation, vitrification, steam injection, pumping, and air-sparging.

• Monitoring subsurface processes such as pump tests, CO2 injection, groundwater recharge, infiltration, saltwater intrusion, tunneling, dam leakage, and mining operations.