Ken Williamson, Senior Vice President of ION Geophysical’s Integrated Seismic Solutions group, commented, BrasilSPAN provides our E&P clients with a pioneering regional framework in which to objectively identify exploration opportunities in highly prospective regions along the continental margins of the southern Atlantic Ocean. The data showcases excellent imaging of Brazil’s pre-salt sedimentary sequence, crustal architecture, and the ocean-continent transition.
BrasilSPAN is comprised of 12,000 kilometers of seismic data that images the entire crustal section in Santos, Brazil’s, Campos and Espirito Santos hydrocarbon basins. The company worked closely with regional experts to design the survey and tie the acquired seismic data lines to critical wells in the basins of interest. The program was acquired with long offsets, long listen times and imaged with proprietary reverse time migration (RTM) technology from ION Geophysical’s GX Technology (GXT) seismic imaging subsidiary to provide improved resolution in the pre-salt and salt flanks.
BrasilSPAN was planned in partnership with ION Geophysical’s AfricaSPAN(TM) customers in order to address questions of great interest to global exploration teams, including how the ‘conjugate ties’ between West Africa and Brazil affect the exploration potential along the continental margins on both sides of the present-day Atlantic Ocean.
The regional, conjugate, and interpretative studies that are part of the BrasilSPAN program will assist in providing an understanding of the mechanism for the break-up of the continents, help develop and de-risk exploration play concepts, and provide a framework to characterize the hydrocarbon potential along the offshore margins of both West Africa and Brazil.
