oa Advances in Time-Lapse Reservoir Monitoring Using the New Generation of Radar Satellites

Surface deformation monitoring provides unique data for observing and measuring the performance of<br>producing hydrocarbon reservoirs, for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and for Carbon Dioxide Capture<br>and Storage (CCS). To this aim, radar interferometry (InSAR) and, in particular, multi-interferogram<br>Permanent Scatterer (PS) techniques are innovative, valuable and cost-effective tools.<br>Depending on reservoir characteristics and depth, oil or gas production can induce surface subsidence<br>or, in the cases of EOR and CCS, ground heave, potentially triggering fault reactivation and in some<br>cases threatening well integrity.<br>Mapping the surface effects of fault reactivation, due to either fluid extraction or injection, usually<br>requires the availability of hundreds of measurement points per square km with millimeter-level<br>precision, which is time consuming and expensive to obtain using traditional monitoring techniques,<br>but can be readily obtained with InSAR data. Moreover, more advanced InSAR techniques developed in<br>the last decade are capable of providing millimeter precision, comparable to optical leveling, and a high<br>spatial density of displacement measurements, over long periods of time without need of installing<br>equipment or otherwise accessing the study area.