Tests of Australian aerial radiometric data for use in petroleum reconnaissance

Abstract

Recon Exploration Pty. Ltd. has successfully completed initial testing of a new method for processing and interpretation of AGSO’s (Australian Geological Survey Organization, formerly Bureau of Mineral Resources) aerial gamma‐ray spectrometer data for petroleum exploration in the Canning Basin, Western Australia and the Otway Basin, Victoria. Count‐rate data for potassium and uranium were normalized to the thorium count rate for each sample to suppress unwanted effects of variations in surface lithology or soil type, soil moisture, vegetation cover, and counting geometry. The Canning Basin test area included five producing oil fields. All except one clearly exhibit significant and characteristic radiometric anomalies which include negative normalized potassium and more positive normalized uranium values. The Otway Basin test areas included PPL-1 commercial gas production which is associated with a group of significant radiometric anomalies similar to those in the Canning Basin. These results are similar to extensive ongoing tests in the U.S. and are explained in terms of well‐understood geological, geochemical, and geophysical models. Based on 69 wells in the three test areas, it is estimated that the chance of encountering hydrocarbons (economic production or shows) in wells within the radiometrically favorable zones is about 2.6 times greater than outside the favorable areas.

Magnetic and radiometric signatures of alkaline rocks and gabbros from the Ponta Grossa Arch, southeastern Paraná Basin, Brazil

“…In addition, the parameters thorium-normalized potassium (KD), thorium-normalized uranium (UD), and DRAD, i.e. UD-KD (Saunders et al 1987(Saunders et al , 1993(Saunders et al , 1994 were also implemented to evaluate the concentration of potassium and equivalent uranium when they are normalized in relation to eTh. Equal-area distribution was used for zone color ranges in the analysis of ratios and other parameters images.…”

Recognition of gold mineralization favorability zones through airborne gamma-ray spectrometry and magnetometry in Brusque and Botuverá region, southern Brazil

“…The use of F Parameter (Efimov, 1978, apud Gnojek & Prichystal, 1985 and Kd and Ud, from Saunders et al (1994) allowed to observe hydrothermal processes. Magnetic data was reduced to the pole (Baranov, 1957;Macleod et al 1993), then magnetic anomalies enhancing methods -THDR (Cordell & Grauch, 1985), ASA (Nabighian, 1972), TDR (Miller & Singh, 1994) and Signum Transform (de Souza & Ferreira, 2013) were applied.…”

An Analysis of Airborne GaSamma Ray Spectrometric Data of Gabal Umm Naggat Granitic Pluton, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt

“…By subtracting the 'ideal' contents of U and K from the contents determined from the survey, a residual content of U and K can be obtained which can be considered as having the interference of removed lithology. They applied normalization of potassium and uranium by thorium, in prospecting for oil and gas fields in east Texas and Australia (Saunders et al 1993(Saunders et al , 1994 and normalization calculated as follows:…”