Light Hydrocarbon Geochemistry in Bottom-waters of the Arafura Sea, Northern Australia : Project 121.24

During February-March 1990 the BMR conducted a combined seismic and DHD
(Direct Hydrocarbon Detection) survey in the Arafura Sea of northern Australia. This
survey was the second to employ the 'geochemical sniffer' (DHD) aboard Rig Seismic,
and represented the first deployments of the geochemical equipment from amidships
Rig Seismic. The purpose of these deployments were to develop the capability to
collect underway, bottom-water geochemical data simultaneously with seismic
reflection, gravity and magnetic data. The bottom-water geochemical data hence
would complement existing remote sensed methods to aid in offshore exploration for
hydrocarbons, and to provide new insights into concepts of hydrocarbon generation
and migration. As such, the deployment of the equipment amidships Rig Seismic was
successful and will become a permanent installation. However, some mechanical
(deployment) and data collection difficulties resulted in some gaps and artefacts in the
bottom-water DHD, and these are noted in the text. Some parts of the data have been
heavily edited.