Three‐component sonde orientation in a deviated well

Abstract

In well seismics, when operating with a three‐component tool, particle velocities are measured in the sonde coordinate system but are often needed in other systems (e.g., source‐bound or geographic). When the well is vertical, a change from the three orthogonal components of the sonde to another orthogonal coordinate system can be performed through one rotation around the vertical axis and, if necessary, another one around a horizontal axis (Hardage, 1983). If the well is deviated, the change of coordinate system remains easy in the case when the source is located at the vertical of the sonde, or in the case when the source stands in the vertical plane defined by the local well axis. In the general case (offset VSPs or walkaways) or when looking for unknown sources (such as microseismic emissions induced by hydraulic fracturing), coordinate rotation may still be performed, provided that we first get back to a situation in which one of the axes is vertical.