Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to Identify Hydrocarbon Seepage in Kifl Oil Field and Adjacent Areas South of Iraq

The study area lies south of Iraq, it covers 4009 km². The data is used in this research comprise Landsat 8 (OLI) data, and Ancillary data such as geological and topographic maps. The study area include the Kifl Oil Field whereas comprise number of important formations for oil production. There are four oil wells drilled in the Kifl Oil Field. Some of them producer of hydrocarbon and others wells have hydrocarbon evidences.The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is used to identify prospective hydrocarbon seepage areas within the vegetation cover, the magnitude of green vegetation was quantified to levels and separated from other classes. The classification system for the vegetation in the study area is based on four categories: High vegetation density, Moderate vegetation density, Low vegetation density, and no vegetation. The result of classification reveals that low vegetation density areas, and no vegetation areas could be prospective hydrocarbon seepage areas. Supervised classification apply on the gray scale image of NDVI by chosen training areas of dark tones pixels that have values of absorption close to values of water absorption which are illustrated prospective hydrocarbon seepage areas. Three classes in the study area included hydrocarbon seepage class compared with other three classes collected from another near area, this comparison has been proved that there is identical behave of the spectral signatures for all three classes. According to the conclusions, the NDVI is effective to identify hydrocarbon seepage in the study area particularly in the regions characterized by vegetation cover. Keywords: Landsat 8 (OLI), Hydrocarbon Seepage, NDVI, Threshold, Anaerobic