Monitoring Environments From Space

Abstract

As low commodity prices and expectations for responsible business practice continue to grow, sustainability challenges have never been greater. Such challenges have translated into tighter margins and pressure to do better with less. This presentation will showcase through use cases how satellite imagery and the derived information and intelligence, helps companies with the following aspects of the asset lifecycle:

-Planning and efficient implementation of operations

-Gathering and providing impactful visual evidence of facts and changes in the environment, infrastructure, risks, and investments in local communities

-Measuring social return and responding to community conflict

-Water and food security

-Exploitation of natural resources

-Effects on climate change

-Asset protection

-monitoring of licit and illicit activities affecting human rights

Through the discussion of use cases we will cover relevant topics through the design and planning stage, and the operational stage, as well as the ever so important communication to all the stakeholders involved.

The design and planning phase is key for establishing a coherent view of the historical and present state of the asset. This supports not only the lawful environmental impact assessment but also the environmental sensitivity indexes of the habitats at stake. Extractives should demonstrate that through proper best practices the local communities affected can be duly informed and in control of environmental commitments (social license). As presented for the case of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the planning phase covers large areas; 350 satellite images allowed a seamless environmental classification of the terrestrial and marine habitats over 90.000 Km2 in 20 months; this now represents the baseline environmental reference to check changes, aggressions or disruptions. Furthermore, it is demonstrated how satellites reduce project planning costs through visual planning over the life of the project, the analysis can be used from multiple points of view and this methodology addresses a number of relevant issues, such as water security community resilience and environmental impact.

The support of satellite data during the assets operations phase is shown at very different scales: From artisanal quarries in suburban Nairobi, environmental impact on the coast of Mozambique, producing fields in Africa to industrial oil and gas fields in the Middle East: images monitor and give prove of evidence of the status of infrastructure components and the changes experienced through operations such as environmental impact, evolution of the urbanization and asset protection.

we will demonstrate the positive impact in time of an oil and gas asset on the surrounding community. The analysis of the land uses, land tenure, evolution of social infrastructures, changes in density and others have guided corporate investments in new and traditional economic activities.

In summary, Communication is key for all the stakeholders to understand the progress and the impact good and bad of the asset during its lifecycle. A new and innovative approach is using predictive analysis tools theintegration ofinformation and insightfrom multiple sources such as social media, on the ground polling , human geography , satellite imagery and historical data gives a new perspective on problems that are relevant today and in the future.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90323 ©2018 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 20-23, 2018