Stryde

Reducing carbon emissions and minimising land disturbances are key motivators to use innovations for onshore seismic acquisition. Seismic Mechatronics B V through its fully battery-powered electric seismic source has now enabled zero carbon-emission from vibrators and project vehicles during seismic acquisition with minimal disturbance on land. It recently proved this in a seismic survey in a noise-limited zone at the border of the Netherlands and Belgium. Being able to minimise environmental impact and to acquire higher-quality results in an environment with a challenging sub-surface made this project a success. This article compares the results achieved by one Storm10 eVibe in combination with STRYDE autonomous nodes operated with zero carbon-emissions to results obtained in mid-2022 using three conventional Mertz M12 diesel powered Vibroseis trucks in combination with Sercel WiNG nodes. We demonstrate that even with challenging operational conditions the results achieved with the eVibe are superior for both the near-surface and deeper subsurface.

The overall conditions under which geophysical data are being acquired have changed over the past five years due to the global economy combined with an increased emphasis on low environmental impact sustainability and safety. For land seismic acquisition minimizing land disturbance reducing CO2 emissions and increasing crew safety are key motivators to use innovations that drastically change conventional land seismic acquisition methods. One of the sources proven to do this is the eVibe developed by Seismic Mechatronics B V. They were recently contracted to undertake an urban seismic program utilizing their proprietary eVibe source in combination with Stryde Nodes. The seismic survey was acquired in one of the largest cities in the Netherlands without the need for permits. Being able to minimize environmental impact to reach a high safety standard and to acquire high-quality data in a noisy urban environment with the used technology made this project a success. This paper compares the results achieved by the Storm10 eVibe in combination with Stryde nodes to results previously obtained by an explosive survey. We show that the results are technically superior with the eVibe and the Stryde Nodes proving far better suited to acquiring seismic data within this challenging and restrictive urban environment.

The last few years have seen a rise in interest of governments and businesses including major operators in alternative sources of energy and a strong determination to achieve a net-zero carbon goal by 2050. It’s agreed that Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) plays a key role in making any net-zero plan a reality. The progress made in seismic technology - a key tool for imaging the subsurface for CCUS -over the last decades in the oil and gas exploration has been remarkable and could save decades of innovation to any renewable industry requiring detailed knowledge of the subsurface. However access to the latest innovative technologies is often restricted with a relatively high access price. To support CCUS and other alternative energies where seismic data plays a key role in their success STRYDE Carbon Management Canada (CMC) and Explor have collaborated to acquire an ultra-high density (UHD) seismic survey using a very efficient and affordable receiver and source equipment available in the market and achieved an outstanding raw trace density of 257 million traces/km2. Operational results as well as imaging examples are presented to assess the benefits of such a survey for CCUS applications.

Geothermal and CCUS are technologies used for many decades to support and complement the energy industry and are considered today essential technologies to realistically achieve a net zero carbon future. A good knowledge of the subsurface is an important requirement for both of these industries to make sure the subsurface conditions are right and also to monitor the field through its life. However having access to the latest seismic acquisition and processing technologies at an affordable price is a real challenge for these green industries which don’t have the budget nor the resources to run a complex seismic program and derive all the attributes needed for them. In this paper we will discuss how the latest seismic technologies can make seismic more affordable and accessible to these industries using the example of a CCUS UHD seismic acquisition run in 2021.

Geothermal energy is expected to play an important role in the new zero-carbon emission era where renewable sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources should grow in the energy mix. The reduction of the subsurface risk for the geothermal energy development requires exploration technologies that can be borrowed and adapted from the O&G industry: the seismic method has a major role in the geothermal exploration. The challenges of “geothermal seismic” often come from the urban environment with its obstructions and restrictions limiting the geometry options the high incoherent noise level.

The Oil&Gas industry has been pushing the limit of the seismic acquisition technology allowing denser surveys to be acquired. However the price of these acquisition systems and their associated operation cost has been prohibitive especially for non-Oil&Gas industries limiting survey designs to 2D or sparse 3D.

The emergence of new acquisition technologies such as a new generation of much more nimble seismic nodes allows agile and light operations and opens new possibilities for urban exploration. Combined with the modern processing and imaging approaches including model based coherent noise attenuation to precondition data not adequately sampled allow deploying frugal and agile methods to deliver 3D seismic images at reduced cost.

A dense 3D seismic survey including both active and passive surface wave measures has been performed around the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (Italy) in order to provide a deeper understanding of the archaeological setting of the area. In particular ambient noise has been characterized both in terms of amplitude and direction of propagation. A cross-correlation analysis of 22 hours of continuous recording allowed to reconstruct the virtual source gathers which are symmetric and comparable to active gathers despite the directional character of noise typical of an urban environment. These preliminary results demonstrate the potential of this dataset to bring new insights about the area.

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