Weyburn-Midale: Spot Seismic Innovation
Structured case brief
Weyburn-Midale (Spot)
Monitor local CO₂-related changes more frequently without repeating a full-field 4D survey for every observation.
- Location
- Saskatchewan, Canada
- Monitoring system
- Sparse Nodes
- Repeat interval
- 1 year
- Repeatability
- < 15% (Local repeatability)
- Main signal driver
- CO2 Saturation
- Water depth
- N/A (Land)
Targeted spot measurements demonstrated a lower-footprint route to recurring surveillance at selected monitoring locations.
When the monitoring question is spatially focused, a sparse system can complement full-field surveys rather than imitate them at reduced density.
Spot Seismic: 4 years of monitoring on the Weyburn site
The source is a direct project publication from the monitoring provider and operator context. It is useful operational evidence but is not treated as an independently peer-reviewed technical paper.
project publication · reviewed 2026-08-03
Open source recordThe case supports recurring seismic surveillance at selected locations and addresses a focused local monitoring question rather than full-field plume imaging.
- A sparse spot does not provide the spatial coverage of a full-field 4D survey.
- The monitoring locations and detection threshold must be justified before the system can be transferred to another site.
Decision context
The Weyburn-Midale project combines CO₂ injection, enhanced oil recovery, and long-term storage monitoring. A full-field seismic repeat can provide broad spatial coverage, but it is expensive and difficult to acquire frequently. The practical question was whether selected locations could be monitored more often with a much smaller acquisition footprint.
Monitoring approach
Spot Seismic uses repeatable, targeted source-receiver pairs instead of reconstructing the entire survey geometry. Each monitoring point is designed around a specific local surveillance question, allowing the same spot to be revisited over time.
Evidence
- Targeted repeatability: The acquisition is optimized for recurring measurements at predefined locations.
- Higher observation frequency: A smaller field operation makes more frequent monitoring practical.
- Reduced footprint: Sparse acquisition limits operational disturbance compared with a full-field repeat.
Operational outcome
The multi-year program demonstrated that sparse seismic monitoring can provide a useful recurring signal for selected parts of a CO₂-EOR site. It creates an intermediate surveillance layer between continuous local sensors and occasional full-field seismic campaigns.
Transferable lesson
Sparse monitoring is most credible when the project first defines where change matters and what threshold must be detected. It should complement broader imaging, not be presented as a universal substitute for full-field 4D seismic.
Community review
What supports this interpretation, and what limits transfer?
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Supporting signals
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Limits and counterexamples
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4D Forum
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