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2018 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition

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A New Seismic Technology for High Density Acquisition With Near Zero Environmental Footprint

Abstract

The oil sand resource in Western Canada presents significant technical and environmental challenges to the 3D seismic industry due to its shallow depth. To properly image these shallow zones, there is a need for close spacing of source and receiver lines. This can result in a significant environmental footprint even when using Low Impact Seismic (LIS) techniques to open the lines. As part of its continued experimentation with reduced energy seismic sources, Explor has developed a high-resolution, low-impact, single-person-portable, impulsive seismic source (Patent pending) that is capable of delivering high quality seismic images within the oil sands play fairway without the need for opening LIS source lines. The results from several recent high density 2D lines as well as 3D testing in the Athabasca area are shown in this paper. We further intend to optimize the method by using field-proven techniques such as simultaneous source recording. One of the keys to delivering an increased pre-stack trace density in 2D, 3D and 4D seismic data acquisition is to increase the areal density of the source points. However, conventional seismic source systems involve the use of vehicular access (LIS drills, buggy-mounted impulsive sources or vibrators), helicopter support (heli-drilling) or some combination of some of these methods. In the case of an oil sands survey, source line spacings for 3D surveys are typically in the 30m – 100m range and the individual cut lines are 2.75 metres wide. In the boreal forest environment, deployment of existing seismic source systems with close line spacing can result in both undesirable environmental impact and high operating cost. The new, low power, seismic source delivers sufficient signal to penetrate through the full oil sands stratigraphy and into the Paleozoic economic basement, without the need for opening LIS source lines. The principle of acquiring a greatly increased pre-stack trace density using a highly portable, relatively low powered, source with resultant improvement of spatial sampling has proven to be effective. We believe that this principle can be extended to 3D and 4D seismic surveys within the oil sands play fairway and will likely applicable for other shallow geological imaging objectives. We now plan to deploy multiple units of this source across 3D surveys using field proven simultaneous source techniques to allow for the acquisition of a high source density in an operationally efficient manner (Abma, 2015).