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Updated: Aug 24, 2025

Pore-scale Imaging and Characterization of Hydrocarbon Reservoir Rock Wettability at Subsurface Conditions Using X-ray Microtomography
Published on: October 21, 2018
Seismic velocity changes in the Groningen reservoir associated with distant drilling
Wen Zhou1,2, Hanneke Paulssen3
1Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. w.zhou@uu.nl.
Abstract:
In this study, we show that passively recorded data of nearby passing trains by a deep borehole geophone array could be linked to fluctuations of the gas-water contact in the Groningen reservoir in The Netherlands. During a period of 1.5 months, changes of inter-geophone P-wave travel times were detected by deconvolution interferometry of the recorded train signals. P-to-S converted waves, obtained by deconvolution of the horizontal component by the vertical component at individual geophones, showed simultaneous variations. The observed travel-time changes could be related to fluctuations of the gas-water contact in the observation well caused by pressure variations at a well drilling 4.5 km away. The [Formula: see text] 3.5 day delay between drilling in the reservoir and the seismic response yields a hydraulic diffusivity of approximately 5 m[Formula: see text]/s and suggests that the pressure front is effectively propagated over such a long distance. Our observations illustrate that downhole geophone arrays can be used to monitor changes in the subsurface if repeating noise sources are available, and that unexpected effects may occur due to drilling.
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