Royal Dutch Shell is working on an instrument that can sniff molecular signatures of trapped hydrocarbons floating in the air at concentrations of just ten parts per trillion.
The instrument is placed on an aircraft flying about 1,000ft over potential oil territory. It sniffs the air and compares the information with other data collected onboard about the chemistry and structure of the terrain and the local weather conditions, according to Forbes.
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Shell aims to find interesting places to do more traditional, surface-based early exploration such as reflection seismology and drilling test wells.
The method is cheaper than traditional methods, it can cover lot of ground and find fields in places it would otherwise be hard to get to.
Shell’s exploration technology vice president Dirk Smit was quoted by Reuters as saying that a plane with many of these sensors can fly over the desert to get a picture of the subsurface geology.
“From there you can look for interesting structures,” Smit said, reports Forbes.
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By GlobalData
