4D Seismic Knowledge Base

A unified collection of case studies, research papers, and technical reports. Use this repository to benchmark workflows and discover operational insights.


🌍 Global Case Study Map

Explore the locations of the 4D monitoring projects documented in this hub. Click markers for a quick summary.

💡 Practical Case Summaries

Middle East Carbonate OBN

Offshore UAE/Qatar
Detecting subtle pressure depletion in stiff carbonates using high-repeatability OBN.

Gullfaks Main Field

North Sea, Norway
The pioneer of 4D. Identified undrained compartments leading to over $1B in added value since 1996.

Valhall LoFS

North Sea, Norway
First Life-of-Field Seismic (PRM). Over 20 surveys acquired, driving virtually every infill well decision.

Girassol

Offshore Angola (Block 17)
Deepwater turbidite monitoring. Textbook example of tracking water flood fronts in complex channels.

Jubarte PRM

Campos Basin, Brazil
First deepwater optical PRM. Monitoring heavy oil production and geomechanical effects.

Atlantis OBN

Gulf of Mexico, USA
Sub-salt 4D imaging. Using OBN to see through complex salt bodies where streamers failed.

Ekofisk

North Sea, Norway
Compaction monitoring. Using 4D time-shifts to map pressure depletion and geomechanical arching.

Harding

North Sea, UK
Gas cap and aquifer monitoring. Critical for steering horizontal wells in thin sands.

Schiehallion

West of Shetland, UK
4D in a soft seabed environment. Proven capability to monitor connectivity in complex reservoirs.

Sleipner CCS

North Sea, Norway
The world's first industrial-scale CO2 storage monitoring. 4D seismic proved the safety of geological storage since 1996.

Pluto LNG

North West Shelf, Australia
Asia-Pacific deepwater gas monitoring. Identifying aquifer drive strength and compartment connectivity in a hard seabed setting.

Wister SAGD

Alberta, Canada
Onshore heavy oil monitoring. Using 4D to track steam chambers in shallow sands for thermal recovery optimization.

Johan Sverdrup

North Sea, Norway
Next-gen PRM & Gravity. Combining permanent seismic sensors with borehole gravity to monitor a giant field from day one.

Mars OBN

Gulf of Mexico, USA
Infrastructure-constrained imaging. Using nodes to undershoot the Mars TLP platform, revealing bypassed oil near the facility.

Draugen

Norwegian Sea
Complex tidal reservoir monitoring. Tracking water injection sweeping through heterogeneous Rogn formation sands.

📑 Technical Papers & Reports

Gullfaks 4D seismic: 10 years of experience

2005 | Landrø, M. et al.
A definitive summary of how 4D seismic matured from a research experiment to a standard asset management tool, generating over billion in value.
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#North Sea#Legacy#Value Creation

Life of Field Seismic (LoFS) at Valhall

2004 | Barkved, O.I. et al.
The case that changed the industry: installing permanent cables on the seabed for frequent, high-repeatability monitoring of a compacting chalk reservoir.
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#PRM#Compaction#LoFS

Girassol: A textbook example of 4D seismic monitoring

2005 | Lygren, M. et al.
Demonstrating how 4D amplitudes can perfectly track water flood fronts in high-porosity turbidite channels in deepwater West Africa.
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#West Africa#Deepwater#Turbidites

Jubarte PRM: 4D seismic in deep water

2013 | Thedy, E. et al.
Deploying the world's first deepwater optical Permanent Reservoir Monitoring system to manage a complex heavy oil field in Brazil.
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#Brazil#PRM#Heavy Oil

Atlantis OBN 4D: Imaging below salt

2012 | Beasley, C. et al.
Using Ocean Bottom Nodes (OBN) to achieve 4D repeatability and illumination under complex salt canopies in the Gulf of Mexico.
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#GoM#Sub-salt#OBN

Ekofisk 4D: Monitoring compaction and water flood

2014 | Bertrand, A. et al.
Using 4D time-shifts to map the geomechanical response of the overburden to reservoir compaction, a critical safety and production metric.
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#Geomechanics#Time-shifts#Chalk

Harding field: 4D seismic imaging of gas injection

2008 | Dailly, P. et al.
Visualizing gas cap expansion and coning to optimize horizontal well placement in a high-quality sandstone reservoir.
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#UK#Gas Cap#Horizontal Wells

Schiehallion: 4D in a soft seabed environment

2002 | Chapin, M. et al.
Early proof that 4D could work in the harsh West of Shetland environment, revealing compartmentalization that altered the drilling program.
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#West of Shetland#FPSO#Connectivity

Sleipner 4D: Time-lapse seismic monitoring of CO2 injection

2004 | Arts, R. et al.
The seminal paper on CCS monitoring. Quantifying the thickness and distribution of CO2 layers in the Utsira aquifer.
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#CCS#CO2 Storage#Environment

Pluto 4D: Challenges and successes in Australian waters

2015 | Smith, T. et al.
Overcoming strong currents and hard seafloor multiples to image gas-water contact movement in a major LNG feedstock field.
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#Australia#Gas#Hard Seabed

Wister 4D: Monitoring steam chambers onshore

2011 | Nakayama, K. et al.
Using high-frequency land seismic to track heat fronts and steam chamber growth in shallow heavy oil sands.
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#Onshore#Heavy Oil#Thermal

Johan Sverdrup: Integrated PRM and gravity monitoring

2019 | Alnes, H. et al.
A state-of-the-art surveillance strategy combining fibre-optic PRM with gravimetry to constrain the water balance in a giant reservoir.
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#PRM#Multi-physics#Gravity

Mars OBN 4D: Undershooting platforms

2011 | Ross, A. et al.
Demonstrating how nodes can fill illumination gaps under production facilities that are impossible to image with streamers.
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#GoM#Infrastructure#OBN

Draugen 4D: Success in a complex tidal reservoir

2000 | Koster, K. et al.
One of the earliest successes in using 4D to identify bypassed oil in heterogeneous tidal sands, leading to successful infill drilling.
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#Tidal#Infill Drilling#Legacy