Case Studies - Energy & Environment

QinetiQ is developing fibre optic seismic sensor arrays to improve yields in oil & gas reserves.

Oil exploration is an expensive and risky business. That's why oil companies are increasingly seeking new techniques to extract more oil and gas out of existing wells. Secondly exploration companies are having to operate in ever more hostile environments such as deep sea - Gulf of Mexico, West Africa. There, companies need to know what is happening on and below the ocean floor.

Fibre optic sensors can play a key role in providing the information oil companies need reliably and cost effectively, where traditional techniques simply do not work.

Fibre optic sensors can survive the high temperatures and high pressures experienced in downwell environments and supply detailed information of exactly what is happening underground. And because they are reliable, and consume negligible power they can do this over a sustained period of time, something electrical sensors simply cannot do.

We've developed large arrays of hydrophones which achieve totally passive underwater operation and have been successfully demonstrated in hostile undersea environments. In addition we are developing fibre optic geophones which, when combined with the hydrophones form fibre optic 4C seismic arrays that offer major advantages in permanent installations both on the seabed and downwell. These arrays are predicted to lead to significant cost savings in oilfield exploraration and production.

QinetiQ has built a number of different fibre optic sensor arrays, which have been field tested on the seabed in open ocean and interrogated via long lengths of fibre optic data link. An early example of these arrays has been interrogated for a total of 11 years without failure, proving the reliability of this technology and showing that it is particularly applicable to permanent installations on both the seabed and downhole.