Permanent reservoir monitoring using passive microseismic techniques

In the course of the last ten years the author and his colleagues have been responsible for the design and installation of many permanent passive microseismic monitoring systems for oil, gas and CO2 sequestration projects. Theses systems are typically designed to be Life of Field installations with an operating life for the downhole components predicted to be > 15 - 20 years. In all cases the systems are intended to provide operators with relevant information about the response of the reservoir and the surrounding strata, the behavior of existing or induced structural failures, and the performance of the subsurface infrastructure, i.e. injection, casings, production tubulars, etc. The paper discusses the design parameters and results from four projects and illustrates how permanent passive microseismic monitoring systems can be used to assist operators in their quest to maximize extraction from a reservoir and to assess the effectiveness of production enhancement techniques.