Passive microseismic – direct hydrocarbon sensing with minimal environmental impact
Helen Debenham A * and Evgeny Smirnov BA Molyneux Advisors, 45 Ventnor Ave, West Perth WA 6005, Australia.
B TenzorGEO, 47 North St, Midhurst GU29 9DR, UK.
The APPEA Journal 62 S411-S415 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21030
Accepted: 4 March 2022 Published: 13 May 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA.
Abstract
A method for directly detecting hydrocarbons with minimal environmental impact is presented here with deployment examples from a recent Canning Basin project. To maintain their social license to operate, oil and gas explorers and producers must seek to reduce their environmental footprint and regulatory authorities are required to reduce impact to an acceptable and as low as reasonably practical level. This creates a window of opportunity for advanced, disruptive technologies, which avoid dry holes and shorten the appraisal and development timeframe, while minimising the impact on the environment. Low-frequency seismic is such a technology and here we describe its onshore application, we also briefly touch on the offshore application. Passive microseismic surveys are well known in engineering geology and seismology; however, in the oil and gas industry it is a relatively new geophysical area and their usage is increasing every year. Passive microseismic surveys are a solution both for exploration, de-risking near-field step-outs and siting infill wells in oil and gas accumulations. During August–September 2021, passive seismic data was acquired in the Canning Basin of Western Australia for Buru Energy. The author (Helen Debenham) was on site for the deployment and shares here details of the successes and challenges of data acquisition in the remote desert regions of Australia.
Keywords: Canning Basin, hydrocarbon detection, LFS, low impact, microseismic, multi-component seismic, passive seismic.
Helen Debenham is currently, through Molyneux Advisors, representing TenzorGEO as APAC technical specialist. Previously she has held Geoscience Manager/Centre Manager/Processing Manager roles at DUG, ION-GXT and Fugro FSI while in Australia. She is a seismic processing and imaging expert with specialisms in depth imaging and FWI. Prior to moving to Australia she lived in the UK, and worked in the imaging research department for CGG, after graduating from Cambridge University in 2004. |
Evgeny Smirnov is currently working as Chief Operating Officer of TenzorGEO based in London and is directly responsible for clients’ projects delivery. Evgeny has 18 years of hands-on product and project management experience with a successful track record of building, launching and servicing global customer propositions in Financial Information and Technology Sector where he still holds an Advisory position. |
References
Birialtsev EV, Plotnikova IN, Khabibulin NY, Shabalin NY (2006) The analysis of microseisms spectrum at prospecting of oil reservoir on Republic Tatarstan. In ‘EAGE Conference - Saint Petersburg, Russia’. (European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers)| Crossref |
Grafov BM, Arutyunov SL, Kazarinov VE, Kuznetsov OL, Sirotinsky YV, Suntsov AE (1998) Analysis of geoacoustic radiation of low-frequency deposits when using ANCHAR technique. Geofizika 5, 24–28.
Ryzhov VA, Shabalin NY, Birialtsev EV, Sharapov IR. (2013) Passive low frequency seismic - from prospecting to development. In ‘EAGE Conference, Gelendzhik, Russia’. (European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers). [In Russian]
| Crossref |
The Senate (2021) Making waves: the impact of seismic testing on fisheries and the marine environment, June 2021. Environment and Communications References Committee, Canberra. Available at https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/SeismicTesting/Report
Tetelmin VV, Yazev VA (2009) Rheology of oil. In: ‘Oil and Gas Engineering Series’, Educational edn. (Granitsa: Moscow) 256 p. [In Russian]
