ESG Solutions can help operating groups reduce risk while optimizing performance and services perfect in a recession.
When trying to survive a recession, risk avoidance is the name of the game. Fortunately for ESG Solutions, its proprietary microseismic monitoring systems help upstream energy companies avoid as much risk as possible in a number of areas.
“With what happened with the oil price crash and the general downturn, a lot of companies started pulling back from exploration,” Marketing Director Shan Jhamandas says. “A lot of seismic companies are having tough times because these companies are scaling back on their efforts.
“That’s because the conventional seismic services are more geared toward finding the oil,” Jhamandas adds. “But our services are used to avoid risk and help optimize production. They’re good to develop existing assets, so as the oil industry began to slow down, we’re positioned to be the provider of the technology to help increase recoveries from existing assets.”
ESG is a worldwide leader in microseismic – also known as passive seismic – monitoring. The company was founded in 1993 based on more then 10 years of industry-sponsored research on seismic hardware, software and interpretative processes.
The company boasts in-house manufacturing, engineering, software, installation and seismic processing services. This allows ESG to design, develop and manufacture all of its system components itself, leading to highly customized solutions for customers.
ESG has deployed more than 300 permanent systems in mines, oilfields and structures throughout the world. Through its staff of scientists and engineers, the company possesses more than 300 years of combined experience in industrial microseismic monitoring. ESG has doubled in growth since 2007, bringing its work force from 25 to 60 as a result.
Numerous Applications
Besides risk management, Jhamandas says ESG Solutions has experienced substantial growth the last two years because of the technology’s many applications. In the petroleum industry specifically, ESG’s microseismic solutions can be used to image the dynamic reservoir processes occurring thousands of feet below the surface.
“This is one of the only technologies out there that gives a real-time continuous picture of what is occurring in the reservoir away from the well bore,” Jhamandas says. “Other technologies like seismic surveys take a static shot of the entire reservoir, but don’t provide continuous information. It’s similar to comparing a video recording to a photograph image.”
ESG Solutions, however, gives users a continuous picture of how a reservoir is behaving in response to stimulation and production-related activities. This is especially useful when dealing with oil sands and heavy oil, and unconventional gas production that is not as simple to extract resources.
Microseismic reservoir monitoring uses downhole and surface sensors to detect the microseismic events associated with production operations. Producers can obtain detailed knowledge of injection movement, identify fluid flow paths, fracture development, fault reactivation, and in some cases, even image the steam chamber. Microseismics can also be used to image and interpret hydraulic fracture treatments used for unconventional gas recovery.
For environmental compliance, ESG Solutions’ products help manage risk by avoiding potential hazards and disastrous occurrences. In the mining industry, ESG is called upon to determine mining and structural stability by determining unstable rock conditions and slope stability. In the petroleum sector, it is used to manage environmental risk by monitoring caprock and well casing integrity and ensuring injections remain contained to target zones.
“Microseismic monitoring can be used for environmental compliance purposes since we often monitor steam and CO2 injections to make sure they remain within the reservoir and don’t breach the caprock or escape down faults or leakage pathways,” Jhamandas says. “This allows the producer to basically demonstrate to the regulatory agencies that they are making sure their operations are not having ill effects on the environment.”
ESG Solutions continues to search for new applications for its microseismic technology. Jhamandas says the company has recently began to apply microseismic technology to the structural monitoring of hydroelectric dams. ESG has installed microseismic dam monitoring systems at multiple hydroelectric dams in the Middle East and in Asia. These systems are designed to monitor the structural integrity of the dams and identify any potential areas of risk.
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