Summary
Crosswell seismic is an emerging technology that provides highly detailed
images of the subsurface at the reservoir scale. The technology has the
potential not only to delineate complex structures, but also to monitor the
effectiveness of hydrocarbon-recovery and CO2-sequestration
strategies. The technique employs tomographic surveying, whereby a transmitter
and receiver are deployed in separate wells. With this setup, interwell
velocity profiling and structure can be obtained from direct-wave and
reflection processing, respectively.
With increased hydrocarbon recovery and CO2 sequestration
becoming more prominent in the oil and gas industry, the ability to monitor the
efficiency of these strategies is paramount. In this paper, two case studies of
crosswell seismic surveying are discussed, with the focus on high-resolution
imaging and monitoring during CO2 injection for improved oil
recovery. A brief description of the measurement theory and its capabilities is
provided, followed by a description of the processing workflow and, finally, a
discussion of the acquired results.
The two cases discussed demonstrate that crosswell seismic was able to
successfully monitor the injection through velocity profiling in time lapse and
provide answers as to why and how the flow has occurred through interpretation
of the crosswell reflection seismic section. The results clearly show that
crosswell seismic could significantly reduce the uncertainty and risk
associated with injection processes for improved recovery and can extend the
technique to sequestration monitoring.
© 2012. Society of Petroleum Engineers
View full textPDF
(
1,801 KB
)
History
- Original manuscript received:
21 December 2010
- Meeting paper published:
18 October 2010
- Revised manuscript received:
26 June 2011
- Manuscript approved:
26 August 2011
- Published online:
8 February 2012
- Version of record:
29 February 2012
View Cart
