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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Special Volumes

Abstract


 
Chapter from: M 66:  Hydrocarbon Migration And Its Near-Surface Expression
Edited By 
Dietmar Schumacher and Michael A. Abrams

Authors:
M. R. Mello, F. T. Gonçalves, N. A. Babinski, and F. P. Miranda

Geochemistry, Generation, Migration

Published 1996 as part of Memoir 66
Copyright © 1996 The American Association of Petroleum Geologists.   All Rights Reserved.
 
Mello, M. R., F. T. T. Gonçalves, N. A. Babinski, and F. P. Miranda, 1996, Hydrocarbon prospecting in the Amazon rain forest: application of surface geochemical, microbiological, and remote sensing methods, in D. Schumacher and M. A. Abrams, eds., Hydrocarbon migration and its near-surface expression: AAPG Memoir 66, p. 401-411.
Chapter 31
Hydrocarbon Prospecting in the Amazon Rain Forest: Application of Surface Geochemical, Microbiological, and Remote Sensing Methods
M. R. Mello

F. T. Gonçalves

 N. A. Babinski

F. P. Miranda
 
Petrobrás Research & Development Center

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

 
Abstract

 Geochemical, microbiological, and remote sensing investigative techniques were used to reduce exploration risk in the difficult task of finding oil in the Amazon rain forest. These nonconventional methods were used successfully in ranking exploratory leads close to a major gas occurrence in the Juruá area, Solimões Basin, Brazil. Near-surface soil and sediment samples were collected along seismic lines and analyzed by geochemical and microbiological methods. The results showed anomalous concentrations of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon-consuming bacteria concordant with structural traps and aligned with the trace of a major reverse fault. The remote sensing survey presented an anomalous spectral response of vegetation over the geochemical and microbial anomalies which may represent the response of plants to long-term anaerobic conditions due to gas leakage from subsurface reservoir rocks. Further exploration on potential prospects proved the existence of gas and gas-condensate accumulations. The use of surface geochemical, microbiological, and remote sensing techniques thus proved to be cost-effective in constraining exploration risk.

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