The Role of Navigation Satellites in Oil Exploration

Abstract

Since the release of the Navy Navigation Satellite System (or Transit) to the public in 1967, the oil and gas exploration industry has been an active innovator and end user of this potentially highly effective navigation and positioning tool. However, many knowledgeable people outside the oil exploration community, and even some people from within the community, do not know the role played by Transit in the pursuit of increasingly difficult to find oil and gas reserves. Moreover, these same individuals are unaware of the costly operational delays in exploration activity caused by the present poor orbital coverage in the Transit System. This paper attempts to call attention to the oil and gas exploration communities' requirements for navigation and positioning and to the active role played by the Transit Satellite System. The possible uses of future navigation satellite systems (such as GPS) are also explored. Most important, this paper puts forth the plight of the civil user of the present day Transit system and the civil user's similar predicament if commercial use of GPS is available only in the coarse code mode.