Page 44: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2019)

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FEATURE TECH Seabed Surveillance

SEABED SURVEILLANCE ENTERS

AGE OF AUTONOMY

Seabed deformation monitoring is moving into new realms of capability, as self-calibration, autonomous deployment and data collection open up new possibilities for extending the life of oil ? elds.

Shaun Dunn, Sonardyne’s Global Business Manager, Exploration & Surveillance, explains.

n the recent downturn, one of the sidence. Seabed movement is often to how to operate them more productively.

measures oil companies took to be expected above reservoirs as they are The ability to measure sea? oor move- sustain production was to focus produced and pressure levels fall. Sev- ment laterally and vertically over time more on improved oil recovery eral centimeters of movement a year enables geophysicists to fuse this in-

I(IOR) programs at existing ? elds is quite typical. As pressure levels in formation with other production data rather than exploring new frontiers. a production zone reduce, so does the to infer ? uid ? ow, pore pressure, res-

Proactive management of existing ability of the reservoir rock to support ervoir level compaction, etc., and then reservoirs to maximize recovery, with- the rock layers or overburden above it, tune their reservoir management plans out the need for major upfront capital leading to sea? oor deformation phe- and improve recovery rates accordingly. investment that developing new ? elds nomena such as a gradually increasing During drilling and production activ- requires, was and remains a pro? table subsidence bowl. ity, sea? oor monitoring can also help to way to get more product out of the While this movement might not cause avoid geohazards, such as fault reactiva- ground, using less resource and reduced a major hazard in itself, knowing how tion and mud slips.

environmental impact. Yet, with IOR much movement there is, in what direc- comes additional risks including fault- tion and how fast it’s happening helps

AMT deployment during the reactivation and other geohazards, such operators to learn more about how their

Ormen Lange project, offshore as seabed fractures, deformation or sub- reservoirs are performing, and therefore

Norway.

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