SUBSURFACE IMAGING USING GROUND PENETRATING RADAR FOR UNDERGROUND OIL AND MINERALS EXPLORATION

Abstract

A drilling company operates in accordance with a contract which specifies that an oil well will be drilled to a specific depth. The average cost to find and develop an oil and gas property in the United States is $17.01/ barrels-of-oil-equivalent from 2005 to 2007. The cost for onshore development was $13.38/BOE and for offshore development was $49.54/BOE. Based on some statistics one out of five rigs drilled in an area yields oil recovery. This means $20 million has to be spent for prospecting and locating one oil well. The question that arises now is whether it is worth trying all possibilities of reducing the cost of locating an oil well to $4 million and save $16 million. Well, the research presented in this paper is aimed at showing such a possibility.