Phoenix engineer Gerry Graham and Party Chief Gyula Lux of Hungary's GES perform last-minute check of System 2000 boxes. Phoenix engineers recently took part in an exciting 3-D MT survey with the Hungarian Oil Co. (MOL) and GES (Geophysical Exploration Co.) The breakthrough survey is the first 3-D MT oil exploration survey undertaken on a production basis in a developed sedimentary basin (rather than a frontier area) and was made possible by the low acquisition cost and high density capabilities of the V5 System 2000. (Although 3-D is standard in seismic, it is just becoming so in MT because of the low cost provided by the V5 System 2000.)
George Balint and Gerry Graham flew to Hungary in August to co-operate with MOL and GES employees in the Pannonian Basin. MOL has used MT and Controlled Source EM (CSEM) extensively in the Pannonian Basin for more than 20 years, complementing its seismic exploration. This extensive, systematic long-term MT coverage of the basin has given MOL unique insights into the capability of MT to delineate both stratigraphic and structural traps, in ways only now beginning to be understood by other oil companies. The survey area, previously surveyed with seismic includes a stratigraphic target in Oligocene sediments and a deeper structural target -- a Mesozoic basement uplift with complex faulting and thrusting.
The week-long, 81-site survey was conducted on a 30 square kilometre grid in farm country about 60 km outside Budapest. Data quality was satisfactory, despite weak signals, summer thunderstorms and other noise sources including cathodic protected pipelines,120 KV power lines, villages and electric railways. Also, data acquisition was shorter than usual since no overnight soundings were allowed.
Following the MT survey, a few sites were reoccupied for experimental acquisition of Tensor Controlled-Source EM data, which can improve MT interpretation.
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