NETL: Exploration Technologies - Advanced Seismic Technologies

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Exploration & Production Technologies
Advanced Seismic Technologies

Packaged fiber optic MEMS pressure sensor

Advanced seismic technologies are critical for reducing drilling risks and increasing resource recovery in the nation's oil and gas fields. 3D seismic imaging has replaced 2D imaging as the industry standard for mapping the extent and thickness of oil and gas reservoirs in three dimensions and for identifying fluid-flow pathways and barriers within a reservoir. Specialized tools, including multicomponent seismic data acquisition and processing, seismic attribute analysis, wave equation migration, advanced AVO analysis, borehole seismic imaging, and time-lapse imaging are being adopted in combination with advanced log analysis techniques to delineate oil and gas sweet spots, especially in complex reservoirs. Application of these advanced seismic tools and techniques has led to more effective targeting of wells in complex reservoirs, and to overall improvements in oil and gas recovery in existing fields. Our nation's energy security is enhanced directly by these technologies.

As exploration targets become deeper and more complex, there is a growing need for more accurate, more durable, and more affordable seismic tools. Industry requires higher resolution images and more reliable fluid discrimination tools to characterize structurally complex or frontier reservoirs, often at depths greater than 15,000 feet. In addition, there is a need to control costs, which means developing economical systems for seismic data acquisition, transmission, and processing to handle increasingly large volumes of data.

The NETL Oil and Natural Gas Technologies Program has developed successful technologies for detecting fractured areas in tight gas reservoirs; for sub-salt imaging in oil fields; for reservoir characterization using seismic attenuation; and for improving seismic image quality and resolution in structurally complex oil and gas reservoirs. We continue to develop advanced seismic technologies, because these technologies support our mission to ensure a reliable, affordable, and environmentally sound supply of natural gas and oil to meet future demand.

The NETL Oil and Natural Gas Technologies Program currently supports projects to develop Fiber Optic MEMS based seismic receivers for borehole applications; projects to improve algorithms for using seismic attributes such as attenuation as a direct indicator of reservoir properties; projects to improve the quality and affordability of borehole imaging; projects to develop 3D and 4D multicomponent seismic acquisition and processing systems; and projects to integrate seismic and log data into reservoir characterization and basin analysis.