Cable development for distributed geophysical sensing with a field trial in surface seismic

Fibre-optic distributed sensing has the potential to revolutionize well and reservoir surveillance in the oil and gas industry. Benefits include the passive nature of optical fibre sensors, the potential for cost-effective installations, combined with the possibility of densely distributed measurements along the entire length of the fibre. Amongst a range of fibre-optic sensing technologies, Distributed Acoustic Sensing has the potential to provide a low cost alternative for conventional seismic technologies. To widen the geophysical application scope further, the fibre-optic sensing cable should be made more sensitive to incoming seismic waves that arrive at the cable perpendicular (“broadside”) to its axial direction. We introduce the development of such cable concepts, and present results of a successful cable deployment in a surface seismic field trial. Efforts continue to realize cost-effective directionally-sensitive cables for geophysical use, for deployment down-hole and on surface.