Searching for natural oil seepage in the Dreki area using ENVISAT radar images

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine signs of natural oil seepage in the Dreki area, possibly indicating oil fields beneath the ocean floor. Such oil slicks can be observed in synthetic aperture radar images (SAR). SAR images from the ENVISAT saltellite with 300 m pixel size, covering the Dreki area from the years 2006, 2007 and 2008, were acquired from the web browser of the Technical University of Denmark and analyzed for patterns of interest. Interesting patterns were found in June 2007, that could be associated with the presence of herring ships fishting in the area, and attributed to fish oil. A few other instances of interesting patterns are likely to be connected to fishing activities. The study does not confirm the existence of natural oil seepage from the Dreki area.