Operational applications of RADARSAT-1 for the monitoring of natural oil seeps in the south Gulf of Mexico

The origin of the oil activity in Campeche Sound is closely related to the activity of the natural oil seeps. At the moment, the operational areas with greater production in the Cantarell field from PEMEX Exploration and Production (PEP), coincide with the activity of the most important seep in the south of the Gulf of Mexico. With the intention of establishing the origin and magnitude of the hydrocarbon contributions of the natural seeps in this area, the Northeast Marine Region (RMNE) of PEP, with the support of the Subdivision of Technology and Development (STDP) of PEP and the Corporative Unit of Geographic Information Systems (SICORI) developed during the 2000-2001 with RADARSAT International and RADARSAT Resource Center in Brazil a progressive application of the RADARSAT-1 satellite to evaluate oil seep potentiality in detection and measurement, being allowed to establish a proven method for the monitoring of oil seep behavior. The methodology is applied in a continuous way from 2002 and includes a regional criterion for the selection of images, basic and advanced digital analysis utilizing the Unsupervised Semivariogram Textural Classifier (USTC), and meteo-oceanographic calibration. The methodology also correlates geologic and environmental information. The results shown activity of the Cantarell seep in 79.5% of the 83 images analyzed during 2000-2002. Area coverage of Cantarell seep from 66 images ranks between 0.04 to 207.4 km2, with an average area of 32 km2. RADARSAT-1 analysis identified that the main hydrocarbon contribution, in area as well as frequency for South Gulf of Mexico, comes from the natural oil seeps, particularly from the Cantarell field. This project also demonstrates the viability of the integration of disciplinary groups within PEMEX for the development of new technologies with multiple applications that allow the optimization of resources and enhance the availability of environmental tools.