Project Highlights
Marine Drilling Hazard Mitigation and Production Facility Monitoring Using Seismic and Sonar Imaging
Subsea Systems InstituteSeeing beneath the sea: Advanced seismic and sonar imaging to detect drilling hazards before they become disasters.
Project Significance & Impact
This project pioneers a multi-sensor monitoring system using seismic and sonar technologies to detect early signs of drilling and production issues in deepwater environments. By integrating fiber-optic sensors, ocean-bottom seismometers, and sonar imaging, the system provides real-time insights into well integrity, hydrocarbon flow, and potential hazards. This proof-of-concept lays the foundation for safer, smarter offshore operations and informs the design of full-scale monitoring systems.
Project Outcomes
Project Details
This project is the first phase in a project to address the areas of early kick detection, wellbore monitoring, blow-out preventer (BOP) validation and monitoring, and remotely operated vehicle and subsea processing via subsea monitoring. The project will adapt existing seismic technology for surveying geological formations to the specific purpose of monitoring the health of subsea drilling or production systems. The project will also develop a proof-of-concept monitoring system for the early detection and assessment of drilling or production problems.
The proposed monitoring system consists of three components:
- Fiber-optic motion sensors (distributed acoustic systems - DAS) on the riser to monitor hydrocarbon flow and pressure transients. The riser is a flow line from the sea floor to the surface platform and forms part of an existing production facility. There is no additional funding to the project for this component.
- Ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS) arrayed around the well-head to detect gas and over-pressure zones, microseismic events, and sediment deformation.
- Active sonar scanners near the BOP to create 3D images of the wellhead vicinity and possible hydrocarbon leaks.
These instruments would continuously monitor and provide information to assess drilling progress, facility integrity, production state, and anomalies.
