In the latest addition to our Seismic Reflections series, we caught up with Celina Giersz, Senior Processing Geophysicist at STRYDE. Celina shares her insights on present and upcoming seismic trends, along with this year’s exciting introduction of STRYDE Lens™ and its potential impact on various companies in 2024.
What shifts in the seismic industry have interested you the most in 2023?
“It’s fascinating to see so many interdisciplinary collaborations emerging in the seismic industry, especially those that go beyond the oil and gas sector. An interesting example has been the combination of geophysics and biology by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Animal Vibration Lab. Researchers have learned to use nimble seismic nodes to “listen” to elephants’ rumble, helping conservationists to locate and monitor animals in their native and often fragile habitat.”
What trend can you identify from the past 12 months within the seismic sector?
“Over the last few years, a significant emphasis has been placed on climate change, which has prompted many countries to set ambitious net-zero carbon targets and support a transition towards cleaner resources. This shift has led to an increase in the use of seismic surveys in the search for carbon capture and storage opportunities. Seismic surveys are also used in the exploration or storage of renewable energy resources, such as geothermal, hydrogen, and rare minerals, where seismic plays a key role in understanding the subsurface and de-risking project development.
“With the evolution of nodal systems and new approaches to field operations, like those driven by STRYDE, it has been demonstrated that seismic imaging can be accessible to those industries at a significantly lower cost, with simplified and safer field operations and a much lower environmental footprint.
“The awareness of seismic data usage is present in renewable industries but a lot of work is still required to demonstrate its value. There’s also a real need for skills transfer from the hydrocarbon industry to the renewable industries to drive the energy transition effectively.”
What emerging trends or technologies do you foresee impacting land seismic acquisition in 2024?
“The industry is getting more familiar with nodal systems and their benefits, which include robustness, increased safety and operational efficiency, low environmental footprint, data quality, and its lower price point. This has removed many obstacles to acquire high density surveys especially in difficult terrains.
“These systems enable enormous diversity in survey design. We see many new design concepts emerging to obtain better spatial sampling, which benefits the subsurface imaging in all types of environments - from harsh desert conditions to mountains that are difficult to access for heavy machinery, challenging environments from an environmental and HSE perspective (such as forests and jungles), and in densely populated urban areas.
“At STRYDE, we expect the trend towards high density to continue evolving well beyond the known techniques and practices used in the oil and gas industry. What was once considered a standard for onshore acquisition layout is now becoming a legacy concept as interpreters and decision-makers strive for better resolution seismic data.”
How do you envision the intersection of AI, machine learning, and land seismic acquisition technology evolving in the next year?
“Every evolution comes with its challenges. With modern, scalable platforms acquiring more data than ever before, the conventional QC methods are no longer feasible. The integration of AI, machine learning and digital tools into geophysical workflows is lagging behind compared to other industries.
“Early stage machine learning is being utilised in data interpretation, however, there is also a lot of potential for AI to be applied in field data QC, reducing the need for manual checks to further enhance efficiency and data standardisation. With advancements in computer performance and modern programming languages, this can be achieved - and a growing appetite for seismic data shall be the driver.”
What has been your personal highlight from the past 12 months?
“For me, the highlight of 2023 at STRYDE was the implementation of our in-field processing service on a commercial project which is known today as STRYDE Lens™. This project was run in-country on the STRYDE system in the Middle East, and we were able to quickly adapt to our customer’s needs and deliver a priority batch of data two months before the scheduled deadline. This allowed the operator to take key drilling decisions shortly after.”
What project have you most enjoyed working on this year?
“The last few years have been an exciting time for the seismic data processing industry, specifically data from land surveys. With unprecedented access to HPC and cloud computing, it’s expected to see continued growth in this area.
“We had such a variety of projects in the STRYDE processing team last year that it is difficult to pinpoint just one, however I particularly enjoyed tailoring and utilising our processing platform to not only provide conventional 2D/3D processing, but also to respond to very bespoke requirements from diverse industries such as imaging the near surface for renewables with bespoke survey designs, or being able to process passive seismic data which was acquired as a free by-product of the STRYDE nodal acquisition system during a project in 2023.”
Can you highlight a specific project or initiative from 2023 that exemplified STRYDE’s capabilities and innovation?
“The launch of STRYDE Lens™ the much needed, fully integrated in-field processing solution, has significantly narrowed the time gap between data acquired and data processed. As soon as enough data is acquired, the STRYDE system can be transformed into a processing environment allowing access to interpretation-ready subsurface images faster than ever before.
“As with any STRYDE system, Lens is very flexible and can be tailored to meet different processing objectives. With the need for data transfers and the use of a more expensive HPC environment eliminated, Lens saves precious time and money for our clients.”
What type of companies do you think will benefit most from this new service in 2024 and why?
“STRYDE Lens™ can benefit a variety of companies that require a quick project turnaround for critical decision making, both within the oil and gas, and emerging energy industries. Companies in the emerging energy sector are often new to seismic and do not have access to the processing resources required to access the seismic image they need to analyse and make decisions, meaning that an integrated solution like STRYDE Lens™ is often preferred.
“STRYDE Lens™ can also benefit those who acquire seismic data in regions that face data export restrictions, as the data can be processed remotely by a team of highly experienced land processing experts, with data securely stored within the country of origin.”