The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Total are deploying what they claim is the world’s first automated seismic acquisition system in Abu Dhabi.
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Total are deploying what they claim is the world’s first automated seismic acquisition system in Abu Dhabi.
The pilot project, performed with Total’s Multiphysics Exploration Technology Integrated System (METIS), uses drones and a ground vehicle to drop off and retrieve seismic sensors without human intervention, therefore at lower cost.
Khadija Al Daghar, vice-president, research and technology development at Adnoc, said: ‘The purpose of this collaboration is to be able to jointly develop a safer, faster, more efficient and cost-effective acquisition system to acquire 3D and 4D high-resolution seismic images of the subsurface, which can be processed in real-time to build a clearer understanding of the subsurface, lowering geoscience and drilling uncertainties and optimizing field production.’
The Downfall Air Receiver Technology (DART) comprises dart-shaped wireless geographical sensors that are dropped by the drone fleet to ‘carpet’ the exploration area and deliver high-resolution images of seismic traces to the processing centre in real time. The fleet can drop up to 400 receivers per square km, at a rate of up to 4000 DARTs a day.
The solution, which is also hailed for giving energy companies the ability to more easily to install nodes to acquire seismic data in harsh and inhospitable environments, will be deployed throughout the emirate of Abu Dhabi, to contribute to onshore exploration and appraisal campaigns.
The seismic sensors will be dropped by six autonomous aerial drones and will later be retrieved by an unmanned ground vehicle — whereas they are conventionally manually deployed and recovered by ground-based teams.
After successful trials of METIS conducted by Total at the end of 2017 in Papua New Guinea, the project will be undertaken by ADNOC Onshore to test the versatility and upscaling ability of the system in a 36 km2 desert environment.
Alan Nelson, chief technology officer at ADNOC, said: ‘METIS is a pioneering automated technology with the potential to conduct seismic surveys in harsh environments, such as the desert, which are tough on people and equipment.’
Dominique Janodet, vice-president R&D of Total, said: ‘Total is focusing on innovation in seismic acquisition to minimize surface impact of petroleum activities and improve the quality of sub-surface images, while increasing our overall operational efficiency. In addition, METIS is a major technology to reduce the environmental footprint of our onshore exploration and appraisal campaigns, which is completely in line with our environmental commitments and our ambition to be the responsible energy major.’
