What's new in exploration

	Vol. 227 No. 7
PERRY A. FISCHER, EDITOR

Remote eruptions. Some of the same techniques in remote sensing that allow oil fields to be found can be used to pinpoint where, on a volcano, an eruption is likely to occur. It was noticed more than 20 years ago that, even with the relatively few and coarse bandwidths available in earlier versions of Landsat satellites, they nevertheless would sometimes reveal images showing the precise outline of an oil field. Most often, this would happen within a narrow timeframe in the spring or fall, in a heavily wooded area, when the colors of the plants were changing. Stresses on the vegetation caused by microseepage from the reservoir far below would produce a color change at a different time than the surrounding vegetation.

A similar phenomenon has been found for determining exactly where on a volcano’s mount and surrounding area it is likely to erupt. Just look for the tallest and greenest plants. Satellite images show that shrubs and trees grow taller and greener along areas where the volcano eventually ruptures.

Nicolas Houlié from the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues studied satellite images of Mount Etna in Sicily and Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Comparing pictures before and after the volcanoes erupted, they noticed a close correlation between plant reflectivity and greenness along the fissures where the eruptions occurred. These changes were visible up to two years before the eruptions. The researchers detail their work in next month’s issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The hypothesis for this connection involves the simple logic that more cracks form in the area where the subsequent eruption will occur. These cracks might allow a better water supply where the plants grow, and/or more carbon dioxide seeping out of the ground, which also spurs plant growth.

The ability to do this can help predict where outgassing, pyroclastic and lava flows are likely to occur. Thus, it could potentially save lives by allowing better evacuation planning and warning.

Exploration business developments. When the UK Patent Office awarded a patent to Statoil of Norway last year for a particular EM mapping technique, EM patent battles were likely. The University of Southampton felt, well, cheated. It feels that it was one of the originators of marine controlled-source EM technology. The university appealed the patent office’s ruling. Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc (OHM) was on Southampton’s side, having derived some of its technology from the university. Statoil was the backer of what became the company emgs, which was eventually sold to a venture capital company, Warburg Pincus.

If the truth were told, besides being inevitable, it’s sad, because most of the folks at the research level know each other, have worked with each other, read each other’s research, helped each other, and even shared equipment. ExxonMobil is in there somewhere, as is AGO, and certainly Scripps Institution of Oceanography. However, when business interests take hold, it always comes down to who thought of what, when, and who first put it to use, and where. All made more of a lawyer’s feast due to the various ways that patent law operates in different countries.

So, it’s fitting that, last month, through talks between the university and Statoil, Southampton has agreed to drop its appeal; that’s good news. OHM said its business would not be affected. The company felt that the legal battle was too much of a distraction and, even if the university won, it would not result in a benefit to the company, although OHM does hold an exclusive license for the University’s EM collection of patents, and this battle was about one of the patents in that portfolio. Exactly what was discussed and settled has not been disclosed. I hope that this settlement is a harbinger for the future, because there are a lot more patent offices than just the UK. In the end, only the lawyers win.

Veritas DGC Inc. has signed a letter of intent to sell its land seismic acquisition business. The buyer is Matco Capital Ltd. The amount of money involved was not disclosed. In fiscal year 2005, the land portion of the company’s acquisition business brought in about $140 million of revenue, which was 22% of total consolidated revenue. The deal is expected to be finalized by mid summer, assuming no last-minute snags and regulatory approval.

The company said that it wanted to improve its return on capital and would focus on land and marine data libraries, land and marine data processing, software and consulting services, and marine acquisition. To achieve the latter goal, the company is building a Viking-class (the company’s state-of-the-art flagship) seismic vessel in record time, with delivery scheduled for first-quarter 2007.

Earlier life. Inclusions of oil trapped in rock crystals can give important clues about when events occurred in geologic time. Droplets of oil were recovered in 2.4 billion-year-old crystals near Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada. The oil contained the unique biomarkers of organics, which can be traced to a particular branch of life. This means that the Earth had enough oxygen to support fairly complex life forms at least 50 to 100 million years earlier than previously thought. This, in turn, casts doubt as to how much, and when, the Earth could have been encased in ice, i.e., the Snowball Earth theory. The finding also means that blue-green bacteria (cyanobacteria), which put oxygen in the atmosphere in the first place, were apparently pumping out oxygen for millions of years before that.

This is the second paper to reach that conclusion, making the one thing that would undo the work, namely, migrating and contaminating hydrocarbons from a later time, more unlikely. The samples also suggest that oxygen was being produced long before the atmosphere became oxygenated, probably oxidizing metals such as iron in the Earth’s crust and ocean before the atmosphere began filling with oxygen. The work was published in the June edition of Geology. Adriana Dutkiewicz, from the University of Sydney in Australia, is lead author.

Best find that I could find. Total said it has found a 165-ft (50-m) thick oil payzone. The sandstone formation is in the Dissoni Block, offshore Cameroon, in Rio del Ray basin, which was leased to Total and partner Pecten Cameroon in April 2005, along with the concessionaire, national firm Société Nationale des Hydrocarbons.