Mapping the salt structures from magnetic and gravity gradiometry data in Nordkapp Basin, Barents Sea Available to Purchase

Accurate interpretation of salt structures plays an important role in hydrocarbon exploration. Over the years, several methods have been applied to mapping salt structures, including seismic, gravity and magnetic. The gravity and magnetic methods in particular have the advantages of low cost, efficiency, and ability to map the salt flanks and base of the salt, which are critical in oil and gas exploration. The salt diapirs are characterized by diamagnetic properties which makes a standard magnetic inversion for susceptibility difficult to apply. In this paper, we apply a recently developed method of total magnetic intensity (TMI) data inversion for magnetization vector instead of susceptibility. The magnetization vector can change its orientation within the inversion domain, thus indicating different types of magnetic properties of the rocks. The 3D inversion for magnetization vector, however, becomes very complicated due to the increased non-uniqueness of the inverse problem. To address this ambiguity, we use a joint inversion of gradiometry and TMI data based on a joint focusing stabilizer. This novel approach is illustrated by the case study of mapping the sea-bottom salt structures in the Nordkapp Basin of Barents Sea.