What is it about?
Muons are particles rain down on Earth continuously. They interact with matter and therefore are indicators of density changes. Muon tomography uses the paths of many muons to illuminate the subsurface density distribution. During reservoir production, the density distribution changes due to injection and extraction of material. Muon sensors deployed in boreholes are thus able to monitor production processes and could lead to optimizing production and conserving energy and water consuption.
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Why is it important?
The relevance lies in the fact that the muon tomography observations illuminate a reservoir on short time scales, which is often not possible from other geophysical surveys, e.g. seismic. Muon tomography has also high localization power amd is able to be intergrated with other survey types in inversion models.
Perspectives
Muon tomography is on its way to become a new and exciting survey technology to continuously characterize the subsurface in oil and gas operations.
Alexander Braun
Queen's University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: On the detectability of density change in steam-assisted gravity drainage reservoirs using muon tomography, The Leading Edge, July 2020, Society of Exploration Geophysicists,
DOI: 10.1190/tle39070497.1.
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