P-Cable UHR4D Reservoir Monitoring Case Study
A New Paradigm in 4D Reservoir Monitoring
With the P-Cable marine seismic data acquisition system, our client achieved:
- OBN-level positioning repeatability at a fraction of the cost
- Compact, relatively small volume source arrays for optimal resolution and reduced environmental impact
- Near zero offset streamer data for simultaneous deep reservoir monitoring and shallow geohazard imaging
- Compact receiver spread supports data acquisition in close proximity to offshore infrastructure, eliminating or minimizing the need for expensive undershoots
The Challenge
The expense of offshore oilfield development in deeper waters and the value of residual oil in these fields are two key factors that have a profound impact on the economics of deep-water resource production. Even modest increases in the resource recovery factor can have a significant impact on the financial success of an offshore oilfield project. This observation is one key driver for the application of 4D time-lapse seismic monitoring of offshore fields.
Our client, a major international E&P company, needed to develop a low-cost methodology for routinely performing 4D time-lapse seismic monitoring of deep-water oil fields in the US Gulf of Mexico that are being produced by water injection. Previous attempts at performing time-lapse seismic surveys using marine streamer technology proved problematic due to poor positional repeatability of the streamers caused by current-induced streamer feathering.
As a result, targeted Ocean Bottom Node (OBN) surveys were being used for time-lapse monitoring in these fields, and although the positional repeatability for these surveys was excellent, the costs were too high to justify relatively frequent monitoring (e.g., once or twice per year) of the reservoirs.
Learn more about the project, challenges and discoveries by downloading our comprehensive case study.