Microseismic User Group (MUG)

Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Micro-Seismic Detection and Interpretation

Paul Webster

Paul Webster

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013 – 12:00 PM MST
Aquitaine Auditorium +15 level of 540 - 5 Avenue SW

Unless the capacity is exceeded, we will not respond to your email. Attendance is free, just bring along your lunch.

RSVP NOW for the next Microseismic User Group (MUG) event.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Paige Mamer, Paige.Mamer@tgs.com,
Johnny Wentzel, Johnny.Wentzel@esgsolutions.com

Abstract

Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) allows a single mode optic fibre to be used as a listening device with many channels along a well-bore. Shell has deployed these fibres in cables strapped to the outside of casing and cemented in place to create a permanent installation. By interrogating the fibre with laser light pulses during hydraulic fracture operations we have been able to detect micro-seismic events. In this paper we show a comparison of micro-seismic events recorded on DAS and geophones.  Whilst the sensitivity of DAS is less than that of geophones, it has a much wider aperture and is better sampled, and if recorded in a deviated well, can also be used to locate the micro-seismic events.

Biography

Paul Webster is a geophysicist at Shell, based in Calgary, where he has been working for 10 years. Previous to that he has worked as a geophysicist in Woodside and at Veritas, based in Australia.

During his career he has worked on signal processing, seismic interpretation, designing 3D Marine surveys, project management and a special projects, in particular Distributed Acoustic Sensing.

He has a PhD in Physics from the University of Calgary.