Hyderabad: The Kurnool-Anantapur-Kadapa belt could hold huge reserves of hydrocarbons.
New research claims to have found clear evidence of significant concentration of hydrocarbons in the Kurnool region through soil analysis for light hydrocarbon seepage.
Scientists will now carry out soil analysis in hundreds of locations in Anantapur district to gather more evidence for hydrocarbon exploration as part of a Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) project.
The region is believed to have hydrocarbons, but nothing has ever been found because of the thick basalt cover. Geochemists from the National Geop-hysical Research Institute (NGRI), Osmania Univ-ersity, and Oil India have now found signatures of light hydrocarbons, in about 75 soil samples collected from Kurnool region, which can be used as indicators of seepage from existent hydrocarbons reservoirs.
The research team comprising Dr T. Satish Kumar of Oil India, Prof. A.M. Dayal, NGRI and Dr V. Sudarshan, OU, published their findings in the journal Geoscience Frontiers.
The methods used by the researchers discovered traces of the hydrocarbons that conventional methods would not have discovered. Explains Prof Dayal, “If there is a basaltic surface, seismic work can’t be done and conventional exploration uses seismic data to ascertain the presence of hydrocarbons. The substructure can’t be found.” He further added, “But with geochemistry we can analyse the surface and see if there is possible presence of hydrocarbons.
