900 Gulf of Mexico Deep Water Exploration Key learnings from the Integration of Electromagnetics and Seismic Methods

This talk is relevant to the session on Role of Methodology/Integration in Overcoming Subsurface Challenges. From 2004 to 2015 Pemex ventured into exploring the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, investigating most of the key geological provinces including Perdido fold belt, Mexican Ridges, and the Holok-Temoa basin. Forefront technology was utilized to enhance the geological understanding of the provinces. Key technologies consisted primarily of 3D and 2D seismic and 3D CSEM data sets. Since 2010 Pemex acquired over 16,000.00 Km2 of 3D CSEM, covering over 40 prospects of their deepwater exploration portfolio. Today after more than 10 years of deep water exploration, there are over 20 deep water exploration wells drilled, whose results have been carefully examined and significant learnings have been concluded on. The post mortem analysis enabled to fine tune the methodologies that have been used in the deep-water exploration.

Under suitable conditions the integration of CSEM data with seismic can assess the likelihood of a prospect being charged. From seismic information alone, this evaluation is usually challenging. In this work we illustrate the key learnings derived from the integration of CSEM and how this has influenced the decision making by high-grading the exploration portfolio in terms of probability of success and volume estimations. We will illustrate the volume estimation methodology using CSEM under a presence of an anomaly and what volume information can be derived in the absence of a CSEM anomaly. Through key examples will demonstrate how CSEM information can help to de-risk seismic AVO and flatspots.