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Journal of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists
RESEARCH ARTICLE

First application of airborne gravity to oil exploration in the Shengli oil province, eastern China

Wenyong Li 1 2 Jianxin Zhou 1 Yanxu Liu 1 Jianchun Xu 1
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

1 China Aero Geophysical Survey & Remote Sensing Center for Land and Resources, 31 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China.

2 Corresponding author. Email: liwy66@163.com

Exploration Geophysics 46(3) 297-307 https://doi.org/10.1071/EG13086
Submitted: 22 October 2013  Accepted: 1 June 2014   Published: 17 July 2014

Abstract

An airborne gravity survey was successfully conducted over the Dongying, Gudao and Gudong oilfields of Shengli oil province, eastern China. These survey areas cover onshore and offshore regions of the south-west Bohai Sea. The data were processed using the potential field transformation approach. The derived Bouguer gravity data correlate well with features such as known faults, swells and sags identified by earlier seismic survey and drilling data. The depth to the Cenozoic basement in the study area, including the Dongying, Gudao, and Gudong oilfields, was calculated by means of gravity inversion constrained by seismic and drilling data. The differences between the depths to the Cenozoic basement calculated from gravity anomaly and those determined by the earlier seismic and drilling data are less than 5%.

Key words: airborne gravity, gravity inversion, land–sea transition zone, oil exploration, potential-field transformation, Shengli oil province.


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