Abstract Oil and gas seeps have been a key tool in hydrocarbon exploration since ancient times. Basin-wide reconnaissance exploration, focused on basic geology and identification of hydrocarbon seepage, has been typical of onshore basin analysis since the beginning of the petroleum industry. Since the discovery of marine chemosynthetic “cold seep” communities in the mid-1980s, and their association with offshore oil and gas seepage, the energy industry has been mapping seeps to target them for exploration and avoid them in development. For exploration, the successful sampling of oil or gas at the seafloor reduces exploration risk by demonstrating generative source rock, maturation, migration, and charge — all key data about the subsurface petroleum systems. In the marine environment, seep communities and associated diagenetic precipitates can modify the bathymetry and/or the backscatter and can be imaged by multibeam echo sounder (MBES). MBES can provide detailed bathymetry of...