OYO
Geospace installs industry's largest permanent seismic reservoir
characterisation & monitoring system
Posted: 16 September 2003
OYO Geospace announced the successful installation of the industry's
largest permanent subsea seismic system.
The system consists of 2,504 multi-component stations with a total
of 10,016 channels.
The system is installed in the Valhall Field located in the Norwegian
sector of the North Sea in 70 meters of water.
BP's Norwegian subsidiary, BP Norge, operates the field in partnership
with divisions of Shell, Amerada Hess and Total.
More than 90 miles of armored cables consisting of the sensor and
digitising system were trenched approximately one (1) meter below
the ocean floor and cabled to the production platform.
The data is gathered and temporarily stored on the platform.
Data is then available for transmission via a fiber optic transmission
cable directly into the processing office onshore or, conventionally
through stored media. In addition to gathering seismic data, the
system also measures tidal action and reservoir subsidence at the
rig site.
The project was a joint collaboration between BP and Geospace Engineering
Resources International (GERI), a division of OYO Geospace.
The project was more than two years in design and construction.
Rigorous sea trials were conducted prior to installation to insure
a successful installation. The system was designed and manufactured
in-house by GERI and the manufacturing divisions of OYO Geospace
in Houston, Texas.
Gary D. Owens, Chairman, President and CEO of OYO Geospace said,
"This marks the beginning of a new application for the seismic
method in which the industry can monitor changes in the reservoir
during production of the field. Such information can lead to an
increase in extracted hydrocarbons. The system increases knowledge
of the reservoir by monitoring production caused changes. Understanding
the changes in a field's characteristics allows the engineers to
utilise the best options available to sustain and increase the productive
life of a field."
Owens continued, "We are hopeful that the success of this project
will lead to future projects in other fields. We are aware of other
potential fields in need of this technology. The time-lapse seismic
technique is one of the most sought after new tools for managing
the reservoir. The permanent seismic system solution offers significant
advantages over retrievable systems in many situations. It is these
particular reservoir situations that hold the best opportunities
for us in the future to build on what we have learned in this project."
The system technology of GERI is also in use in the deep waters
of the North Sea in the form of retrievable subsea seismic acquisition
systems as well as employed in the company's suite of borehole seismic
systems.
Both system types were designed by GERI and manufactured by the
manufacturing division of OYO Geospace.
They are currently used in North America, China, Europe and the
Middle East.
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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