ALF Compatible Laboratory UV Fluorescence Spectra of 120 Offshore Western Australia Oils Vol 1,2a,2b and CDROM

As part of AGSO's commitment to advancing exploration technology, the Petroleum and Marine Division has been conducting studies into the use of fluorescence signatures as a means of detecting, mapping and typing hydrocarbon seeps to their sources. AGSO's aim is to provide data that will allow sea surface hydrocarbon anomoloies, detected during Airborne Laser Fluorosensor (ALF) surveys, to be correlated with oils and ultimately characterise the anomolies directly to their source.

This report concludes the first stage of AGSO's 'remote sensing' multi-client study and comprises ultra-violet fluorescence (UVF) emission spectra of 120 open file western Australian oils. Aliquots of oil samples diluted with n-hexane were analysed by UVF to evaluate the type and quantity of aromatic hydrocarbons present in the samples. The laboratory UVF data were collected by scanning the 280-500 nm emission response of oils using an excitation wavelength of 266 nm as employed by the ALF system currently being operated by World Geoscience Corp. Ltd.

The purpose of this report is to enable industry to make a comparison of UVF spectra of known oils with ALF surveys carried out off western Australia. The oils included in this report represent all known offshore western Australian petroleum systems (Table 1) as defined by Bradshaw (1993) and Bradshaw et al. (1994, 1997) and are compatible with those oils analysed in The Oils of Western Australia study (AGSO and GeoMark Research, 1996).

This report is designed as a stand alone product, with supplementary geological and geochemical information being incorporated from The Oils of Western Australia study (ibid) and published papers.