Related work

Although the concept of time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring is relatively new, a few notable pilot projects have been attempted at steam injection sites. Pullin et al. 1987 collected two 3-D seismic surveys before and after a steam pilot at an Athabasca tar sands reservoir site. By comparing time delay and amplitude attenuation maps between the two stacked surveys, they were able to map qualitatively the location of heated versus unheated zones. Eastwood et al. 1994 performed a similar analysis on a 3-D seismic monitor of an Alberta cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) project. They used two 3-D seismic surveys recorded at separate production and injection cycles, integrated with crosswell data, thermal reservoir simulations, and rock physics measurements. They were able to explain the magnitude of observed traveltime changes between two surveys, but less so the spatial distribution of changes. Non-steam seismic monitoring projects of interest include an in-situ combustion study by Greaves and Fulp 1987, and a gascap monitoring study in the Oseberg field by Johnstad et al. 1993.