ABSTRACT

Remote sensing is one of the most misunderstood and underused tools of the exploration toolbox. Explorationists either hate and ignore it, or love and preach it. For many explorationists, remote sensing is not a regular contributor to the everyday exploration and production business even though it has so much to offer; for innovative explorationists not even the sky is the limit anymore.

Images of the earth taken from airplanes and satellites have provided the oil industry's professionals with useful information for several decades. Remotely sensed data come in a variety of forms that can be custom processed and interpreted, then incorporated into exploration and development programs.

Satellite imagery has evolved into a very useful tool for geologists and geophysicists, surveyors and environmental planners. Since Landsat's launch in 1972, the sensors have undergone extensive improvements in terms of both spectral and spatial resolution. With the advent of the French SPOT satellite in 1986, a new range of operational applications has emerged. The high resolution (10 m) panchromatic SPOT data are currently used by the oil industry for geological evaluation, updating of seismic lines, planning of exploration programs, pipeline route selection, disaster contingency planning and wildlife habitat mapping, to name a few applications. However, SPOT has by no means replaced the old workhorse of remote sensing - the Landsat system.

Case histories from Canada, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Yemen illustrate the various applications of remote sensing in the oil and gas exploration business.

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