Permanent recording installations

Ebrom et al. (1998) discuss the economic justification for installing permanent recording installations in marine environments over producing hydrocarbon fields. The incremental cost of additional 3-D seismic surveys is much less for permanent monitoring systems than for conventional repeated 3-D. The quality of ocean bottom cable data has also increased dramatically in recent years, and so permanent monitoring systems also provide a higher level of repeatability.

For these reasons, permanent installations are already installed in many basins worldwide. In the future, explorationists may take advantage of continual recordings and acoustic daylight imaging to continually monitor reservoir production.