Making The Most of Your
Digital Data Part II: Imagery for Oil & Gas Applications
by Kumar Navulur, V.P. Business Development,
Pixxures Inc.
Digital imagery can be used for variety
of applications in the Oil & Gas market. The following section details a variety of uses of imagery for both upstream
as well as down stream applications.
Disturbance Analysis
Oil & Gas exploration activities
result in environmental disturbances to local vegetation. Quantitative assessments of these disturbances are requisite as
part of Environmental Impact Assessment studies. Remote sensing imagery is ideally suited for these applications. Some of
the features that cause disturbance due to oil & gas exploration include oil pads, dirt roads, paved roads, two track
roads, seismic cuts, and others. The following figure is an example of disturbed areas extracted from NAIP imagery at 1M resolution.
Further, areas that have been revegetated
can also be identified using the imagery. Using GIS analysis, these disturbances can be aggregated by lease number and a report
can be created summarizing various types of disturbances in a given lease as shown below:
Data Sources for Disturbance
Analysis
The spatial resolution required for disturbance
analysis is dependent on the features that need to be extracted. Typically 1M resolution or better is preferable to perform
the analysis. Various data sources that can be used include satellite imagery from Ikonos
and QuickBird satellites and a variety of aerial sensors including ADS40, UltraCam,
DMC and DSS. While hyper-spectral imagery can also be used for disturbance analysis,
it is economical if the imagery is collected for multiple applications such as geologic mapping, vegetation identification,
disturbance analysis, facilities mapping, etc.
Change Detection to Monitor Re-Vegetation
Efforts
In exploration areas such as Wyoming,
revegetation efforts might require several attempts of seeding to be successful. Remote sensing is an ideal tool for monitoring
the success of revegetation efforts as well as quantifying acreage of revegetated areas.
Routing for Emergency Services
and Logistics
Digital imagery can be used to extract
the road network of both public and private roads, in remote areas. websites
such as Google, Yahoo, and others, do not have the detailed network that can be used for routing for emergency purposes or
for logistics. The following figure is an example of roads extracted using digital imagery.
The following figure shows a web based
application that can be used by Emergency Personnel as well as Oil & Gas companies for routing.
Vegetation Analysis
Color Infrared Imagery (CIR) imagery
is useful for vegetation mapping. The following figure is an example of natural color imagery and corresponding CIR imagery
of the same area. The vegetation has a stronger response in the Near Infrared region and shows up as a bright red color in
the CIR image.
Different types of vegetation have unique
spectral signatures, especially in the NIR band, and can be used to extract vegetation types such as grasses, trees, shrub,
scrub, etc
Surface oil seepages affect the vegetation
health and are manifested as dark red areas. Digital imagery can be used to identify these anomalies that are indicators of
hydro-carbon seepages.
Facilities Mapping and Monitoring
Digital imagery can be used to map various
oil & gas facilities and monitor changes such as new construction, etc.
Recommendations:
Author recommends that the digital multi-spectral
imagery should be considered as an investment rather than a one-time expense due to the various uses of the imagery. When
combined with other geospatial data, imagery can be leveraged for variety of applications, both upstream as well as downstream.
For
more information, contact:
Kumar Navulur, V.P. Business Development, Pixxures Inc., knavulur@pixxures.com
