ION Geophysical completes offshore southern Australia data acquisition

Offshore staff

HOUSTON -- ION Geophysical has completed acquisition of 5,000 km (3,107 mi) of regional seismic data covering the Bight basin and Ceduna sub-basin offshore southern Australia. Known as BightSPAN, this latest addition to ION's global BasinSPAN seismic data library offers the first regional geologic study of Australia's deepwater southern coast, the company says.

The acquired BightSPAN data is currently being processed by ION's GX Technology (GXT) subsidiary using pre-stack time (PreS) and depth migration (PreSDM) techniques and is scheduled for delivery to clients by year end, in advance of the April 2010 closure of the Australian Government's Offshore Petroleum Acreage Release. The upcoming licensing round includes six new blocks of frontier acreage in an under-explored area characterized by multiple source rock intervals and a wide range of structural and stratigraphic plays.

The BightSPAN program was designed to image through the crustal section, providing a better understanding of petroleum systems in the region. The thickest depocenter in the Bight basin, the Ceduna sub-basin, contains a sedimentary section in excess of 12 km (7.5 mi) thick. Indications of active petroleum systems in the area include oil and gas shows, a palaeo-oil column, and evidence of hydrocarbon seepage, the company says.

BightSPAN was acquired with 10-km (6.2-mi) streamers for long offsets and eighteen-second record lengths to provide the best possible deepwater imaging of the region's petroleum systems. The program was designed in collaboration with regional geoscience experts and the Australian government to deliver new insights into the basin architecture and geologic framework and a more definitive understanding of the general source, structure, reservoir, and seal mechanisms of the region.

“The BightSPAN dataset should allow our clients to better define the potential of the deepwater areas of South Australia's Great Australian Bight and provide a clear understanding of the multiple source rock intervals and migration pathways of the region,” says Ken Williamson, senior VP of ION's Integrated Seismic Solutions group. It is the first regional geology program in Australia of this magnitude, and we are seeing interesting structures and intriguing geologic features in the early data results."

07/31/2009