New developments in upstream oil and gas technologies: hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate

Original publisher: Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 2011. LC Number: KF26 .E55 2011l OCLC Number: (OCoLC)746059934 Subject: Petroleum -- Prospecting -- United States. Excerpt: ...entire statement in the record as if read. Dr. Davis. STATEMENT OF THOMAS DAVIS, DIRECTOR, RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION PROJECT, COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES, GOLDEN, CO Mr. Davis. Good morning. Thank you very much, Chairman Bingaman and Ranking Member Murkowski. I'm here to talk to you about seismic technologies. The technologies I'm going to focus on are related to data acquisition systems. These--before I jump into that framework of acquisition systems let me just tell you a little bit about seismic data itself. How it's acquired. What it is. In this particular regard, the fact that I'm talking to you in here relates to seismic waves. These are acoustic waves that we transmit. So our ears are sensors. In the same vein in the framework of the seismic industry we developed sensors that record ground motion. So the ground motion allows us to hear and see into the subsurface. Now the kinds of sensors that we use today have transformed or changed. We have different mechanical sensors, acoustic sensors. We put sensors in the water which we call hydrophones. So there's a whole variety of sensors. They record different types of waves. So as I've indicated there's acoustic waves. But there are also other types of waves we call elastic waves. Now with these multiple sensors and the ability to be able to look at recording all these different forms, we can better characterize the subsurface. This gives us a huge uplift in terms of our ability to see the unseen, what's underneath us. In this regard then the kinds of sensors that we've been going toward now have been matched up with new recording systems. The kinds of recording systems that we're now looking at you can hold in your hand, much like a cell phone. In this regard then they're easy to...