eField Exploration completes first offshore airborne survey

Offshore staff

YORBA LINDA, California -- eField Exploration has completed its first offshore airborne survey. Contracted by a Norwegian JV, the survey in the Nordland area of the Norwegian Sea was used to rapidly assess the potential of multiple blocks for the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate's 20th Licensing Round.

Passive electromagnetic and high resolution magnetic data acquisition was completed in less than one week with a specially designed sensor package, the company says.

eField's platform incorporates multiple sensors including high resolution magnetics and electromagnetics recording data from the air-ocean interface to sub-floor penetration. Satellite data is then added to provide valuable natural seep mapping.

The underlying technology of the eField system detects the presence of hydrocarbons by reading natural electric currents known as Telluric. These are induced by solar energy and lightning that penetrate deep into the earth. eField's airborne system captures resultant resistivity and polarization changes that occur at the interface of water and dissolved hydrocarbons and in the seabed.

eField can model and accurately identify anomalies where hydrocarbons may be present at depths of 20,000 ft (6,096 m) or more below the ocean floor and in natural seep columns that percolate to the surface, the company says.

"Conventional methods such as Marine Seismic or CSEM would have taken months and costs would have been prohibitive," says Ed Johnson, president of eField. "Our Offshore Airborne System can cover up to 500 line mi per day at a fraction of the cost of a marine survey."

04/20/2009