Advanced sensing and imaging for efficient energy exploration in complex reservoirs

The oil and gas industry continuously struggles to cope with the high cost of production in the context of competitive worldwide market prices. Low oil and gas prices backstop an economic situation where exploration and exploitation of complex reservoirs are hindered. Exploration and production of complex reservoirs face several challenges. Despite having subsurface information from geological models and seismic images, they are prone to uncertainties, and as a consequence, the development and production of such reservoirs are not optimal. Here, we focus on advanced sensing methodologies that are tailored to complex unconventional reservoirs, such as the heavy oil reservoirs in Canada. Further refinement of reservoir extent, hosted oil, and geological properties can potentially increase production rate, decrease the costs and risks of drilling, alleviate well placement issues, and improve the management and monitoring of reservoir — overall leading to lower uncertainty on developing the resource. We introduce new workflows for smart drilling and optimal well placement by taking advantage of the seismic-while-drilling imaging approach. The proposed framework provides high-resolution images of the subsurface thanks to new advancements in seismic remote sensing, signal processing, and imaging.