Abstract

Hydrocarbon exploration in the deepwater blocks is both challenging and expensive. This is especially true in frontier offshore basins, such as those recently offered along India’s east coast (Mahanadi, Krishna-Godavari, Cauvery and Andaman). Traditional exploration methods heavily rely on seismic and have typically led to low success rates due to the high remaining uncertainty after the information has been evaluated. In this paper, we will discuss an alternative workflow to effectively and efficiently reduce uncertainty by leveraging Controlled-Source Electromagnetic (CSEM) technology as a derisking tool. CSEM is a non-seismic geophysical technique that estimates subsurface resistivity remotely, both at prospect and regional scale. This is an independent measurement with a prediction success rate greater than 80 % (Price et al., 2019, Paulo et al., 2023).