Energy Technology

Seismic Technology

Images of deep rock formations can help us discover new oil fields

In the unrelenting search for more oil and gas, innovation plays an unquestionable role. As large oil and gas fields become increasingly difficult to find, geologists, geophysicists, and engineers employ new technologies, such as seismic, to uncover resources that just 10 years ago were unimaginable. Seismic is a technology that bounces sound waves off rock formations deep below the surface of the earth to provide explorers with a picture of the subsurface, often revealing locations where oil and gas may be trapped.

When you shout in a long hallway or a large room, the echo you hear is the sound of your voice bouncing off the walls back to your ears. The larger the room or the longer the hallway, the more time it will take for you to hear the echo. Seismic relies on a very similar process, in which sound generated at the surface travels into the earth, hits a rock formation and then bounces back to devices that record the echo. The time it takes the sound to bounce back to the receiver is related to the depth of that rock formation. When thousands of these echoes are recorded over time, they create a picture of the rocks beneath our feet.

This technology has been used for decades in the industry but is constantly changing and adapting to new challenges. Today, novel changes in the technology allow seismic to image deep rock formations that were previously invisible, shrouded by huge salt flows rising up from thousands of feet below the surface like big balloons. This method assisted the recent discovery of huge oil fields in the ultra-deep water offshore Brazil.

Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technology

Could new kinds of fuel and vehicles help the world save energy?

Among the alternatives being considered is equipping vehicles with the ability to consume clean and affordable natural gas. This resource, combined with liquefied natural gas from places like Qatar, Australia and Trinidad and Tobago, constitutes a clean and realistic alternative to gasoline. Already a proven technology, many challenges still remain—pipelines, service stations and vehicles must all be adapted to accommodate the fuel.

It will also be important to develop cutting-edge electric cars to offset the demand for gasoline and diesel fuel. Eventually, refueling your car may be as easy as plugging it into an electrical outlet in your garage.

On the distant frontier of alternative transportation technologies are novel ideas such as hydrogen-powered cars that transform hydrogen into electricity. The major promise of this technology is that water is the only waste product released. Scientific breakthroughs in these areas are still required to make these technologies competitive with today’s fuels.