GIS and Remote Sensing for Oil and Gas Exploration Training Course

Course overview

Oil and gas exploration decisions depend on bringing seismic interpretation, well control, lease boundaries, surface constraints and satellite evidence into one defensible spatial picture. Yet exploration data often arrives in incompatible formats, with uncertain coordinate reference systems, incomplete metadata and varying scales. This course addresses the practical challenge of converting those datasets into reliable GIS projects, prospect-screening maps and remote-sensing evidence that geoscientists, land teams, HSE specialists and management can use in acreage evaluation and field-development planning.

Participants learn to build an exploration GIS using ArcGIS Pro and QGIS; manage vector, raster, well, seismic-footprint and licence datasets; and apply coordinate transformations appropriate to petroleum data. The course covers satellite image interpretation, spectral indices, terrain analysis, lineament mapping, surface-change detection and multi-criteria prospect ranking. Participants also learn how to prepare map layouts, web-ready data products and documented geodatabases that clearly distinguish observed features, interpreted features and decision assumptions.

Instructor demonstrations are followed by guided exercises using an oil and gas exploration case study. Participants work through data loading, quality checks, spatial analysis and map production using realistic datasets representing wells, blocks, seismic lines, elevation models and multispectral imagery. By the end of the week, each participant produces a documented exploration-screening GIS project containing a prospect-ranking model, remote-sensing interpretation layers, a map portfolio and a short workflow note suitable for internal review.

The course is designed for professionals who already work with exploration, subsurface, land, environmental or spatial data and need stronger GIS and remote-sensing capability for upstream decisions. It is particularly valuable where teams need to evaluate acreage consistently, communicate spatial uncertainty and reduce the time required to assemble decision-ready maps.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Build an exploration GIS project integrating well locations, licence blocks, seismic footprints, geologic maps and satellite imagery
• Validate coordinate reference systems and apply datum transformations to petroleum spatial datasets
• Create a structured geodatabase with attribute domains, metadata fields and traceable data-source records
• Interpret multispectral satellite imagery to identify drainage, lithologic contrasts, vegetation stress and surface disturbance
• Derive terrain products including slope, aspect, hillshade and lineament-supporting shaded-relief models from DEM data
• Perform proximity, overlay and weighted multi-criteria analysis for acreage and prospect screening
• Produce exploration map layouts that communicate data confidence, spatial constraints and ranking results
• Document a repeatable GIS and remote-sensing workflow for an exploration decision review

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Exploration Geologists — who need to combine geologic observations, wells and imagery for prospect screening
• Geophysicists — who need spatial context for seismic coverage, acquisition planning and interpreted structures
• GIS Analysts in Upstream Operations — who manage petroleum datasets and produce decision-ready exploration maps
• Remote Sensing Specialists — who need to apply image analysis to upstream exploration and surface assessment
• Land and Acreage Analysts — who assess licence blocks, access constraints and competing spatial interests
• Environmental and HSE Analysts — who map sensitive receptors and surface conditions around exploration activity

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable working with digital maps and tabular data and should understand basic upstream exploration terms such as well, licence block, seismic line, prospect and coordinate system. Prior exposure to ArcGIS Pro, QGIS or another desktop GIS is useful, including opening layers and navigating a map, but advanced geoprocessing is not assumed. Participants should be able to use a Windows laptop and work with spreadsheet files. No programming, advanced geophysics, image-classification experience or prior use of ENVI is required; the course explains the remote-sensing methods applied.

Training methodology

The programme combines instructor-led explanation with hands-on work in ArcGIS Pro, QGIS and ENVI-based image-analysis workflows. Each day uses an upstream exploration dataset containing wells, licence areas, seismic coverage, geology, DEMs and multispectral imagery. Participants complete short technical labs before applying the methods to a cumulative acreage-screening case. Group reviews test assumptions behind lineament interpretation, weighting criteria and map communication. The final session includes a structured application-planning workshop in which participants adapt the workflow to their own asset, basin or exploration-support process.

Course outline

Day 1: Exploration GIS foundations and petroleum spatial data

• Upstream exploration workflows supported by GIS
• Petroleum spatial data types: wells, seismic, blocks and geology
• Coordinate reference systems, datums and petroleum map projections
• ArcGIS Pro project structure and geodatabase design
• QGIS layer management and data-source connections
• Attribute-table joins, relates and field-calculation methods
• Metadata, lineage and spatial data-quality checks

Workshop: Participants assemble a basin-scale GIS project from well, licence, seismic-footprint and geology files and produce a data-quality register.

Day 2: Remote sensing data for exploration reconnaissance

• Optical, radar and thermal imagery applications in upstream exploration
• Landsat and Sentinel-2 band combinations for geologic interpretation
• Raster preprocessing, clipping, resampling and mosaicking
• False-colour composites and image-enhancement techniques
• Spectral signatures of vegetation, water, bare ground and alteration zones
• Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and water-index calculations
• Image interpretation confidence and ground-truthing limitations

Workshop: Participants create enhanced multispectral image composites and an interpretation layer identifying surface features relevant to an exploration licence area.

Day 3: Terrain, structures and surface constraints

• Digital elevation model selection and vertical-data considerations
• Slope, aspect, hillshade and multidirectional hillshade generation
• Contour, drainage-network and watershed delineation
• Lineament extraction using relief, imagery and directional filters
• Fault and fracture interpretation uncertainty in remotely sensed data
• Access-route, terrain and drainage constraints for field reconnaissance
• Surface disturbance and land-cover change detection

Workshop: Participants generate terrain derivatives, digitise interpreted lineaments and prepare a reconnaissance-constraint map for a proposed survey area.

Day 4: Spatial analysis for acreage and prospect screening

• Spatial queries for wells, production indicators and licence status
• Buffer and proximity analysis around infrastructure and restricted areas
• Overlay analysis of geology, structures, seismic coverage and surface constraints
• Raster reclassification for exploration suitability factors
• Weighted overlay and multi-criteria decision-analysis models
• Sensitivity testing of factor weights and ranking thresholds
• Model validation using known wells and documented assumptions

Workshop: Participants build and test a weighted prospect-screening model that ranks target areas within a licence block.

Day 5: Decision products, reporting and operational application

• Cartographic design for exploration decision maps
• Symbology for interpreted features, confidence classes and uncertainty
• Map layouts, scale bars, grids, legends and coordinate reporting
• Exporting GIS outputs for technical reports and management presentations
• Sharing packages, layer files and reproducible project structures
• GIS workflow documentation and quality-assurance checklists
• Application planning for participant asset teams and exploration processes

Workshop: Participants finalise a prospect-screening map portfolio, workflow note and action plan for applying the methods to an active exploration decision.

Tools & standards covered

ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, ENVI, GDAL

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions