Seismic reservoir monitoring with encoded permanent seismic arrays

Abstract:

Hydrocarbon reservoirs can be efficiently monitored with encoded data recorded by permanent seismic arrays. Permanent seismic sources and receivers can yield a vast amount of data that may enable near-real-time monitoring. I propose an encoding approach that may overcome some of the operational, storage and processing challenges posed by these vast data volumes. Although data encoding introduces cross-talk artifacts, permanent arrays allow for good repeatability of such artifacts, thereby aiding time-lapse seismic cross-equalization. Because the proposed method utilize low-energy intermittent seismic sweeps, data must be recorded for longer durations compared to conventional data recording. Direct migration of these long-duration data is efficient and gives good-quality time-lapse images. Using a 2D numerical model, I show that this method can produce reliable time-lapse images of comparable quality to those from conventional seismic sources.