Introduction to this special section: Reservoir surveillance

Abstract

This special section on reservoir surveillance gives a snapshot of where we are today with this technology and some indications of where we will be going in the future. In today's world of production geophysics, we are progressing from technology development to technology deployment and showing actual bottom line results in our business. This was clearly demonstrated at the OTC 2006 special session, “Worldwide examples of reservoir monitoring: Case studies from major oil companies,” where offshore Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, Africa, and Brazil 4D applications were discussed in detail. Further, if we look at the SEG and EAGE annual meetings, we notice that reservoir surveillance now covers a large portion of the technical program. At the 2006 EAGE Conference & Exhibition in Vienna, there were 11 oral and four poster sessions related to production geophysics. Clearly, the integrated conference setting of the EAGE with the SPE has contributed to this. At the upcoming 2006 SEG Annual Meeting in New Orleans, there is at least one reservoir surveillance-related session in each of the daily parallel sessions, in addition to posters. As for other future events in this area, the EAGE will be holding a workshop titled, “Passive seismic: Exploration and monitoring applications” in Dubai in December.