TDI-Brooks completes multibeam and coring survey in Suriname
TDI-Brooks was recently contracted by GeoPartners – on behalf of Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname – to perform seep data acquisition, processing, interpretation and data management services for the Suriname Seabed Piston Coring Project. The work included multibeam and coring operations, with TDI-Brooks acquiring multibeam data over approximately 45,000 square kilometres of seafloor. The team also collected 60 seabed geochemical exploration (SGE) cores and seven heat flow samples.
The project was executed in two phases – geophysical and geochemical – using TDI-Brooks’ RV Gyre vessel and crew, showcasing the company’s expertise in offshore exploration.
The first phase was the geophysical leg, which took place between July and October. During this phase, TDI-Brooks performed multibeam (MBES), backscatter and plume detection of 45,019.7km2. The second phase took place from October to November and consisted of geochemical multibeam (MBES) backscatter, plume detection and sub-bottom profiler acquisition. A chirp sub-bottom profiler line (1km) was acquired over each core site. With several possible hydrocarbon discoveries, this made for a very successful programme for all involved, with some visually interesting cores being recovered.
RV Gyre is outfitted with a full seep hunting kit including a newly installed Kongsberg EM-304 (1×1) hull-mounted MBES kit and Edgetech HM3300 Chirp sub-bottom profiler with a 4×4 Masa TR-1075 transducer array. The vessel has geotechnical and geochemical coring, heat flow, CPT and other sampling capabilities.
Geochemical analyses
Geochemical analyses and interpretation services will be performed at TDI-Brooks’ chemistry and geotechnical laboratories in College Station, Texas. They will perform geochemical screening analyses of geochemical cores for interstitial carbon gases (C1-C5 hydrocarbons & CO2), total scanning fluorescence (TSF) and C15+gas chromatography. Cores with seepage hits will further be analysed for selected stable carbon gas isotopes and aliphatic/aromatic biological markers.
“Seep hunting surveys have been based on the observation that migrated petroleum from deep source rocks and reservoirs can be analytically detected or otherwise proxied as thermogenic seepage in near-surface soils and sediments, such that results can be used to help evaluate a prospective petroleum system. The value of survey results has been aided by the evolution of tools and techniques for site selection, sample collection, lab analysis and interpretation, resulting in our growing ability to determine charge, age, maturity, depositional environment and even oil quality from the detected seepage. As a part of seep hunting, surface geochemical surveys search for chemically identifiable oil and gas compounds as well as seep-induced physical/geological expressions and biological communities and related features,” said Bernie Bernard, vice president & CTO, TDI-Brooks International.
