Sound Environmental Practice in Onshore Seismic Acquisition – A Field Perspective

Due to the growing interest of community and government in conserving natural areas, together with the more general growth in environmental and conservation awareness, environmental management has become an important factor in seismic acquisition.

Public perception of the environmental effects of onshore petroleum exploration mainly relates to seismic activities. It is these techniques which have been, historically, the most visibly destructive to the landscape.

Modified acquisition methods are being implemented, particularly in line preparation procedures. These are now vastly different to those which were employed ten years ago. This paper compares the past and present methods of seismic acquisition and discusses the techniques currently being introduced by operating oil companies and geophysical contractors to obtain high quality data but with minimal impact on the environment.

The introduction of environmentally sound seismic has been gradual; however companies have reported that, with proper supervision, there has been minimal impact on the cost of operations resulting from the adoption of more stringent codes of environmental practice.