Stories of Innovation: Seismic Reflection

Patrick Charron, Senior Seismic Processing Specialist: My geologist and geophysicist friends think they have found a new oil field. But before they get too excited, we have to confirm that. Here’s how I can help!

Welcome to Stories of Innovation, a series of podcasts from TotalEnergies. In each episode, our employees explain how the innovations that have changed the world of energy came to light. Want to find out more? Let's go!

Patrick Charron: Oil fields are underground, that’s obvious. So to find them, we need to explore the ground. But to know where to explore, we need an image of the subsurface. This basic idea today, but originally brilliant, was the brainchild of US engineer John Karcher. In 1921, he proved that sending acoustic waves into the ground made it possible to produce an image of the subsurface. By measuring and analyzing the wave’s reflection time the structure of the subsurface can be inferred. Like an ultrasound scan. We call this seismic reflection or seismic imaging. A few years later, in 1925, John Karcher founded a research consortium with an oil company in order to continue to perfect his protocol. It delivered just three years later, when it made its first oil discovery. We still use seismic reflection today, but the method has come an incredibly long way since its early days: from blurred images, we now have very accurate 3D images. The progress made in seismic acquisition, signal processing and IT have turned seismic reflection into a very powerful tool! A tool for optimizing the production of oil fields but also to make drilling safer. This tool is now being adapted to prepare for the rise of renewable energies like offshore wind.

Thank you for listening to Stories of Innovation. Visit totalenergies.com to discover the origins of other innovations.