Pictured from left: Al Danforth, Justin Vanden Brink and Kiran Misra
The HGS International Explorationists dinner meeting, Monday January 19, highlighted the discovery of undrilled prospective basins in both east and west offshore India. Al Danforth, G&G consultant to ION Geophysical, presented information on the expanding number of plays and basins recently illuminated by new high-resolution regional seismic lines. Understanding the new play ideas requires seismic and gravity-magnetic data from India’s conjugate margins in Africa and Antarctica. Danforth showed an overview of the historic producing provinces of India and examples of recent emerging plays based on results of a campaign of regional PSDM seismic acquired in 2006-2007 by ION-GX Technology. His co-author is Steve Henry, an HGS member now based in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Current HGS International chairman Justin Vanden Brink (RPS Energy) introduced Danforth as recent past chairman of the International Explorationists group, and set the stage for Al’s return to the podium as technical speaker. After Danforth’s talk, Dr. Kiran S. Misra, consultant to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, India, gave a presentation on "Cretaceous Volcanism, Geological Development and Exploration of Mesozoic and Tertiary Hydrocarbon Pools in and around Peninsular India." Dr. Misra presented photos and maps of near-surface volcanics near Mumbai, India, and discussed new ideas for oil and gas potential traps associated with the Deccan traps. The G&G members of the audience had many questions for both presenters after the talk, showing widespread interest in the expanding oil and gas frontiers of India.