Summary of Exploration Tools and Techniques to Support the COSIA Land Challenge

in 2017 COSIA’s Land Environmental Priority Area (EPA) Steering Committee publicly released a challenge seeking transformative, cost-effective technologies to eliminate tree clearing associated with exploration across the boreal forest and in particular within the oil sands region. The goal of the COSIA Land Challenge is to investigate alternative exploration techniques that would help lead us towards zero land disturbance for in situ projects. The goal of this project was to identify a set of exploration tools and techniques that can be applied across a range of oil sands projects to support avoiding or significantly reducing future exploration disturbance and caribou conservation, while enabling responsible oil sands business activities. This was explored through a report based on interviews with progressive contractors and energy and petroleum company representatives, a global literature review of available and emerging technologies, a qualitative look at potential impacts of new technologies on cost, data quality, and health and safety metrics, and a workshop with environmental and geophysical staff at COSIA member companies.

Five opportunities were identified for near zero footprint seismic: (1) modify and miniaturize existing methods: reduce size of equipment used for acquiring seismic data, including vibratory or explosive sources, receivers, and practices used to deploy them; (2) leave ground entirely by going airborne: deploy and retrieve all equipment from the air; (3) leave ground entirely by going underground: deploying all equipment in existing wells; (4) use alternative seismic sampling theory: change how the seismic waveform is measured by using emerging technologies (e.g., compressive sensing and gradient geophones); (5) accept a different definition of seismic data: recast the definition of seismic data itself by using emerging technologies like Full Waveform Inversion. There are four core drivers of current seismic approaches to consider in future innovations: (1) safety for workers, (2) cost efficiency and predictability, (3) data quality, and (4) the need to accurately model cap rock integrity to achieve regulatory requirements. Exciting opportunities in the field include solving technically complex challenges and business opportunities associated with reducing footprints. Constraints were acknowledged, including investment funding. The pursuit of near zero footprint seismic techniques is likely to require dedicated research and development funding to see progress.