TDI Brooks International has started a geochemical survey for United Oil and Gas offshore on the Walton Morant Licence offshore Jamaica.
TDI Brooks International has started a geochemical survey for United Oil and Gas offshore on the Walton Morant Licence offshore Jamaica.
The vessel R/V Gyre is carrying out the multibeam echo sounder (MBES) survey, which will be followed by heat flow measurements and seabed piston coring operations.
The survey is designed to confirm the presence of thermogenic hydrocarbons. Certain seabed features such as shallow depressions or pockmarks, some of which can extend to several hundred metres in diameter, can often be associated with hydrocarbons venting at the seafloor. These surface features may be linked to subsurface seismic features indicative of fluid migration, including vertical migration pathways (or fluid escape chimneys) and shallow amplitude anomalies which can be seen directly beneath the surface pockmarks, together with nearby seismic responses that may represent direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs) in the form of bright soft amplitude responses.
By targeting such features, the piston coring programme is intended to test for the presence of a thermogenic hydrocarbon signature in recovered seabed sediment. A positive result would provide direct evidence of an active petroleum system and materially derisk the prospectivity of the Walton Morant Licence.
Brian Larkin, CEO of United Oil & Gas, said: ‘The results will play a central role in de-risking the licence and informing future strategic decisions as we continue to unlock the potential value of over 7.1 billion barrels of unrisked prospective resources in this highly prospective offshore area.
