De-risking shallow geothermal energy storage in challenging urban environments

In 2017 TNO and GFZ combined a dense accelerometer based high resolution surface seismic survey with a fibre optic based Vertical Seismic Profiling (DAS VSP) survey. The combined survey took place on a narrow patch of land in a challenging, noisy urban environment, in Berlin, Germany. The objective was to demonstrate the possibility to acquire a...

Optimization of sparse 4D seismic surveys using seismic full waveform inversion

Accurate characterization and reliable monitoring of geological reservoirs often requires extensive geophysical measurements, in particular time-lapse (4D) seismic surveys. The conventional approach to reveal the time-lapse changes is to perform comprehensive seismic surveys with high repeatability. This approach is often not economically viable...

Near-surface shear-wave velocity profiling with ambient noise seismic interferometry for geothermal exploration

We demonstrate in this geothermal exploration case study performed in The Netherlands that ambient noise seismic interferometry (ANSI) can be an effective and efficient method for obtaining surface wave dispersion curves, leading to shallow shear-wave velocity-depth profiles that can improve imaging of deep structures. As the ANSI method...

Quantifying efficiency of field-wide geophysical surveys for verifying CO2 plume conformance during storage operations

To manage risks in CO2 storage operations, monitoring systems need to be designed such that the data can inform the operator whether the storage site will continue to behave as expected or not. In order to compare the benefits of different monitoring strategies, we require a measure of ‘efficiency' that is based on a balance between monitoring...

The geomechanical response of naturally fractured carbonate reservoirs to operation of a geothermal doublet

The properties of faults and fractures under dynamic reservoir conditions are critical in determining flow and performance of geothermal doublets in fractured reservoirs. The complexity of faults obtained from geological and seismic characterization is usually not honored in flow models for fractured reservoirs. Fault zone architectures may...

4D seismic history matching of the Norne field model using ensemble-based methods with distance parameterization

A distance parameterization of flood fronts derived from time-lapse seismic anomalies was recently developed to facilitate incorporation of time-lapse seismic data into history matching workflows based on ensemble methods such as the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) and the ensemble smoother (ES). A number of advantages were demonstrated on...