Acadian Energy contracts satellite imagery on New Albany Shale

Acadian Energy (CVE:ACX) reported Monday it has contracted Calgary-based Hawkeye Geosensing to take satellite images of its New Albany Shale gas play to measure oil potential.
The purpose of the spectral analysis of satellite images is to further quantify the oil potential of Acadian's leaseholds in the New Albany Shale, identified through the greenfield oil simulation recently completed by Fekete Associates.
Hawkeye Geosensing’s high resolution satellite maps use 1.8 metre resolution Nasa Satellite data and a series of algorithms.
The company also utilizes microwave, radiometric, thermal infrared and long and short spectrographic reflectance to assemble the maps and analyze the data.
According to the statement, Hawkeye’s system for mapping the presence of hydrocarbons lowers client risk by 46 percent and helps cut seismic costs.
Remote sensing by satellite can be used to identify large-scale changes in the structure of the basement and sedimentary basins, along with major differences in rock density.
Acadian expects to use the hydrocarbon mapping results to reduce the risk in core site selection for its 2012 shale oil drill program.
Acadian Energy is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company focused on natural gas plays and oil plays in the United States, mainly in the Illinois basin.
The New Albany formation is a hydrocarbon rich shale, mostly late Devonian in age, which rests under much of Illinois basin.
The formation is 100 to 140 feet thick in south-eastern Indiana, and dips and thickens to the southwest into the Illinois Basin, where it attains a thickness of well over 300 feet.
Unlike many other shale plays, the New Albany Shale in Indiana is a continuous thick pay zone of brownish black to greenish gray shale, capped by a thick dense, gray-green shale and provides a very effective seal.
The New Albany lies at relatively shallow depths in terms of oil and gas drilling, from 600 to 5,000 feet below the surface.