Reprocessing of Legacy Seismic Profile for Shale Gas Exploration in the Karoo Basin (South Africa)

Abstract

Summary The reflection seismic method has proven to be one of the major contributors to mineral exploration and mine planning because of its ability to resolve targets at great depths. South Africa has collected and stored an extensive number of reflection seismic profiles for mineral exploration in the past 50 years, therefore it is important to keep on improving existing methods and developing new approaches to gain insight into seismic data. In this study we reprocessed the legacy reflection seismic profile using advanced processing algorithms for shale gas exploration in the Karoo Basin (South Africa). The data were acquired in the Karoo Basin, which covers over 50% of South Africa. The basin has been identified as a possible shale gas reserve, therefore its potential has to be investigated while considering dolerite sills and dykes that were emplaced after basin sedimentation. Their intrusion triggered the explosive releases of gas in the basin, marked on the surface by breccia pipes and hydrothermal vents. Preliminary results suggest that the area is characterized by strong reflections associated with sills and shale gas target. Further processing will be done to improve the quality of the seismic section.