On areas of over 20000 km² the use of classic exploration methods is economically unviable.

GeoSpectra IPDS® on the other hand, can be used iteratively, with a measurement point density beginning at 1 per 5 km², which can deliver a rough probability map without untenable costs.

Therefore, at a fraction of the usual costs and relatively quickly, GeoSpectra IPDS® can be used to examine giant unexplored basins around the world, which up till now have not been surveyed due to the immense costs which would be incurred. It could deliver a rough survey of an area which would give clues as to the existence and amount of oil present which would allow the owners of these areas to decide on further action.

This kind of exploration is especially interesting for countries who do not want to sell themselves out completely to the big players in the oil industry.

The use of GeoSpectra IPDS® in addition to classic seismic reduces the total cost of exploration considerably

A comparison:

The exploration of an area of around 1000 km² would take approx. 43 months and cost ca. 30 million US$ using 3D seismic  (this cost estimate was calculated for the Jebel Ali Area in the UAE)

A combination of GeoSpectra IPDS and 2D/3D seismic would take approx. 17 months and cost around 15 million US$.

Apart from the time and cost savings, using IPDS also minimizes the associated risk extremely as you actually measure the presence of hydrocarbons instead of just having the clues delivered by seismic, meaning you definitively know if and where oil is present!

Determination of optimal drilling location during oil exploration to avoid the drilling of dry holes

Drilling for oil often costs several million US$ per well, globally it is usually expected to drill successfully at a ratio of 1:5 or worse (for every successful well drilled, 4 or more wells are drilled unsuccessfully) . With IPDS this “dry drilling” and the associated loss of investment can be avoided.

In the long term this is the most important and, for the whole oil industry, most revolutionary application. It is assumed that significant reserves of oil are in reservoirs which cannot be identified at all using traditional seismic – these traps likely contain many times the total amount of oil produced globally up till now.

Non structural problems also occur in fields which are currently producing oil.

The reactivation of abandoned reservoirs is also extremely economically interesting. In the past major oil companies decommissioned many oil fields because their production had become uneconomical at low prices. Now, with rising prices, these fields have become economically interesting again, unfortunately current technology cannot determine where and how best to restart production from these fields.

Another possible application is the search for oil under salt domes:

These deposits cannot be detected at all, using common technologies but they exist in many oil producing regions.

Only IPDS can deliver all the Information necessary!

Permanent monitoring in producing fields, which have already reached maximum production capacity and where the aim is to increase the recovery factor. Through the use of monitoring, oil can be available for many more years at affordable prices for consumers.

As a passive process, IPDS can be used to permanently record data without the use of an external energy source. This allows for in time visualization of hydrocarbon distribution within a reservoir.

Determination and control of development strategies for oil fields (drilling position, oil-water contact, volumetric determination in concert with classic geo- and petrophysical methods) can immensely increase both the output and lifespan of an individual oil field.