September 23rd, 2013
Award winning technology will be showcased at the SEG Show, which commences in Houston, USA, this weekend
OptaSense announces this week an enhanced version of its award winning DAS-VSP™ (Distributed Acoustic Sensing – Vertical Seismic Profiling) technology at Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) show in Houston, Texas, USA, which runs from 22nd to 27th September. The OptaSense DAS-VSP™ – which recently won the 2013 Special Meritorious Award for Engineering Innovation in the Geosciences category of the prestigious E&P awards – boasts a full well bore coverage and larger level count compared to conventional geophone arrays and can deliver live correlated and stacked virbroseis data for remote QC.
OptaSense’s DAS-VSP™ solution was released commercially this year and uses fibre-optic cable to image wells that were previously inaccessible to conventional geophone arrays. The updated version means users can benefit from real time data acquisition and analysis as opposed to the longer lead times that are usually associated with VSP measurements.
Providing the captured SEG-Y/D data in real-time via the internet enables geophysicists to remotely perform checks on the data and if necessary modify the acquisition programme to optimise the quality of the measurements being recorded. This also reduces the lead times to process images.
Further efficiency savings are afforded due to the full wellbore coverage provided by OptaSense® DAS-VSP™, which eliminates the need for repeat shoots as a conventional geophone array is moved up the well. Also since no well intervention is required multiple DAS-VSP™ measurement in separate wells on a pad can be performed providing a more detailed image of the reservoir.
Thanks to the simplicity of deployment, full well bore coverage and real-time remote QC capabilities, DAS-VSP has the potential to dramatically improve the cost, efficiency and safety of borehole seismic imaging.
Magnus McEwen-King, Managing Director of OptaSense, commented: “Our updated DAS-VSP™ service means operators can significantly improve the quality of data collection and reduce the cost and risks of data acquisition compared of conventional geophone VSP operations. The benefits of real time delivery of data straight to the experts in the right format enable them to verify the quality of the data and modify the acquisition as needed. The new feature enables operators to maximise the effectiveness of their data acquisition programmes.”
OptaSense DAS-VSP™ uses permanently installed optical fibre to make measurements in producer or injector wells which are not possible to measure with geophone arrays, either because they are too hot, highly deviated or difficult to access.
Dr David Hill, Chief Technology Officer of OptaSense explains “OptaSense enables gapless coverage along the entire length of the wellbore with many hundreds of channels and we able to take measurements in places and on a scale not seen before. For example High temperature wells, in excess of 300 Degrees Celsius and over 10,000 PSI, such as those used for steam injection, can now be imaged for the first time. In a recent technical first, OptaSense DAS-VSP™ was used to perform a 3D VSP in a 50,000 shot offshore programme lasting 6 weeks. The data was simultaneously collected on two wells and resulted in over 70 million seismic records and should lead to an unprecedented understanding of the reservoir.”
