Aircraft for aerial seismic surveys to find hydrocarbon deposits beneath areas troublesome to cowl terrestrially. Photo: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
GUWAHATI
Constrained by powerful terrains and hostile environments, an oil exploration main has began an aerial seismic survey for finding hydrocarbon deposits beneath strategic stretches throughout the nation.
The Director General of Hydrocarbons has entrusted the Assam-headquartered Oil India Limited (OIL) with the duty of prospecting for oil and fuel in “unapprised areas” in the northeastern, southern, central, and northern elements of India.
These areas are Nagaland, Manipur, southern Mizoram, North Cachar Hills of Assam, elements of Arunachal Pradesh, the Cauvery basin, Bastar, Satpura, Spiti-Zanskar, and Karewa.
“These areas could not be covered by a seismic campaign on account of various specific reasons such as a logistically difficult terrain, hostile environment, protected areas, and non-availability of in-principle approval for conducting seismic survey operations under the National Seismic Programme,” an OIL spokesperson mentioned.
The technical time period for this aerial survey is “acquisition processing and interpretation of 40,000 flight LKM of airborne gravity gradiometry and gravity magnetics (AGG&GM)“.
“The acquisition of the AGG&GM survey started from [eastern Assam’s] Jorhat airbase on May 27. The second aircraft is scheduled to start acquisition from Dibrugarh airport to cover the northeast,” the spokesperson mentioned.
The aerial seismic survey technique is a non-intrusive exploration software with a fast turnaround time that enables for the quickest attainable protection of a big area. It additionally affords geoscientific worth for the general analysis of areas coated by a survey, oil consultants mentioned.
Seismic surveys use mirrored sound waves to provide a scan of the Earth’s subsurface. They will help find groundwater, are used to research areas for landfills, and characterise how an space will shake throughout an earthquake, however they’re primarily used for oil and fuel exploration.
