Although considera bIe efforts are now being made to find new sources of
energy, alI the experts are agreed that hydrocarbons will have to
provide the greater part of our energy needs for a generation ahead.
Exploration for and production of hydrocarbons therefore pose a serious
problem for our future, as much for the quantitative satisfaction of our
requirements as for our search for self-sufficiency in energy. As a
direct result of improvements in technology throughout the world,
geophysics has progressively enlarged its field of influence in the
realms of exploration and production. But amongst the various
geophysical methods available, seismic reflection has gradually become
accepted as the basic tool of the oiI prospector. Reflection seismology
has reached and consolidated this position because it has shown itself
to be capable of adapting to the increasing complexity of the
requirements of exploration. Initially directed towards geometric
mapping of the sub-surface, it became the means of detection of
structural traps in geotectonically quiescent regions, and thereafter in
increasingly complex surroundings. It has enabled us to clothe the
structural framework with a lithology, initially approximate, but
becoming more and more precise, assisting the explorer to locate
stratigraphic traps. Further developments enable us under favourable
circumstances to estimate the quality of the deposits and to detect the
presence of fluids and of their interfaces; it then becomes an
unrivalled tool for the producer, both in the development of deposits
and in the application of enhanced recovery methods.
