Leakage and oil spill detection utilizing active acoustic systems

Abstract

Modern active acoustic multibeam sonars have the last 1.5 years achieved a major breakthrough in terms of performance, physical size, power consumption, uplink flexibility, processing and not least price. This now allows the tool to be used in a much wider context during subsea hydro carbonate (Oil/gas) detection, quantification and visualization. As the new generation sonar is so flexible it will easily integrate to any platform, AUV, ROV, Gliders, permanent installation, ship borne etc. The multibeam sonar is capable of monitoring larger areas and perform various tasks in an oil exploration setting. Active acoustics can be used for various applications such as: Reservoir fault monitoring, a good example of such an event is the Frade field spill November last year. Natural seeps; this is instrumental to monitor during exploration but also during operation of the field. Leakage detection; on subsea infra structure, naturally it is of great concern to have real time detection of leakages. Oil spill response; detection of hydro carbonate suspended in the water column as well as under the ice, and on the seafloor. Dispersant mixing efficiency; real time 3D monitoring of the mixing process during application of dispersant. A major events; such as the deep water horizon it is important to be able to monitor hydro carbonate in the water column. Active acoustic data will be presented from several trials from various parts of the world, examples hereof is California natural seeps, Brazil leakage detection, Norway plume mixing phenomenon and more, test data presented here will be a mix of real offshore data as well as laboratory based data sets.