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Seepage in Field Geology and Petroleum Exploration

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Natural Gas Seepage

Abstract

Rock permeability to gas and a gas source are the basic preconditions for gas seepage. Seepage can then provide information regarding the location and nature of the source and the migration pathway. In the modern fossil fuel industry, natural hydrocarbon seepage provided the first clues for petroleum and natural gas explorations. Although some surface seeps are not directly linked with economic petroleum reservoirs, many large hydrocarbon fields have been discovered after drilling within and adjacent to seeps with gas and oil that leaked and migrated from active petroleum seepage systems. Therefore, assessments for the origin and magnitude of seeping gas prior to drilling may be important for understanding subsurface hydrocarbon potentials and gas genesis and quality (e.g., the presence of shallow microbial gas, deeper thermogenic accumulations, oil biodegradation, and non-hydrocarbon risk gases). New instrumental and interpretative tools, based on a holistic approach that assists petroleum exploration, can be used to detect and interpret gas seepage. When integrated with geophysical and geological surveys, seepage detection is particularly useful for petroleum exploration. The justifications, potentials, critics, and advantages and disadvantages of surface geochemical prospection for petroleum exploration are discussed elsewhere.

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  1. Sezione Roma 2, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome, Italy

    Giuseppe Etiope

  2. Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Giuseppe Etiope

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Etiope, G. (2015). Seepage in Field Geology and Petroleum Exploration. In: Natural Gas Seepage. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14601-0_5

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