WO2016011502A1 - Procédé et appareil de levé marin - Google Patents

Procédé et appareil de levé marin Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2016011502A1
WO2016011502A1 PCT/AU2015/050409 AU2015050409W WO2016011502A1 WO 2016011502 A1 WO2016011502 A1 WO 2016011502A1 AU 2015050409 W AU2015050409 W AU 2015050409W WO 2016011502 A1 WO2016011502 A1 WO 2016011502A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
survey
marine survey
marine
streamer
vessel
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/AU2015/050409
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Ronald Stephen Fleming
Original Assignee
Ronald Stephen Fleming
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority claimed from AU2014902810A external-priority patent/AU2014902810A0/en
Application filed by Ronald Stephen Fleming filed Critical Ronald Stephen Fleming
Publication of WO2016011502A1 publication Critical patent/WO2016011502A1/fr

Links

Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B63—SHIPS OR OTHER WATERBORNE VESSELS; RELATED EQUIPMENT
    • B63B—SHIPS OR OTHER WATERBORNE VESSELS; EQUIPMENT FOR SHIPPING 
    • B63B21/00—Tying-up; Shifting, towing, or pushing equipment; Anchoring
    • B63B21/56—Towing or pushing equipment
    • B63B21/66—Equipment specially adapted for towing underwater objects or vessels, e.g. fairings for tow-cables
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B63—SHIPS OR OTHER WATERBORNE VESSELS; RELATED EQUIPMENT
    • B63B—SHIPS OR OTHER WATERBORNE VESSELS; EQUIPMENT FOR SHIPPING 
    • B63B22/00—Buoys
    • B63B22/18—Buoys having means to control attitude or position, e.g. reaction surfaces or tether

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to marine surveys, and in particular to a marine survey apparatus and process for performing such surveys in order to improve the safety, performance and/or efficiency of the surveys.
  • a marine survey is a survey of one or more regions of the seabed and/or its underlying strata carried out by one or more surface marine survey vessels or ships.
  • marine surveys are used by oil companies to locate geological traps which may contain oil or gas, and to determine suitable drilling locations.
  • geological traps which may contain oil or gas
  • An oil company negotiates with governments to explore particular geographic areas. The company's geologists identify the most promising regions within these areas, and then design survey patterns that they hope will deliver the best information for the lowest cost.
  • 2D surveys are carried out by a single vessel towing a single streamer, usually over set of straight or doglegged lines having a range of directions.
  • 3D surveys are carried out by a single vessel towing multiple streamers along a series of closely spaced parallel lines, usually all of the same direction.
  • Multi Azimuth 3D surveys are similar surveys carried out over the same area using two or more different line directions.
  • Multi Vessel surveys are surveys carried out using multiple vessels moving in formation.
  • Circular or coil surveys are carried out by one or more vessels moving in formation along coiled or circular or spiral paths.
  • a marine survey is carried out by at least one vessel or ship 102 towing one or more long subsurface streamers 104 and one or more seismic sources 106.
  • Each seismic source 106 is an array of compressed air guns that generates an intense shock wave or seismic pulse at regular intervals of time.
  • Each streamer 104 is a long and flexible cable containing hydrophones (not shown) spaced along its length. The streamer 104 is submerged as it is dragged along behind the vessel 102. As the ship 102 sails along a survey line, the source 106 produces a seismic pulse that travels through the water and is reflected back towards the surface by structural layers beneath the sea floor.
  • each streamer 102 detects these reflected signals, the signal reaching each hydrophone having travelled along a different path.
  • a map or model of the geological structure of a particular region of the sea floor can be generated from seismic data measured along a series of lines covering the region of interest.
  • a typical marine seismic survey pattern 200 consists of a set of straight survey lines 202, as shown in Figure 2.
  • the process of travelling from the end of one survey line to the start of the next survey line is referred to in the art as a line change.
  • no seismic data is collected. It is therefore important to reduce the unproductive time spent by the ship 102 on line changes between survey lines.
  • a marine survey apparatus for towing by a survey vessel in order to perform a marine survey, the marine survey apparatus including:
  • a marine survey streamer having a first end for attachment to the survey vessel; and a tail buoy attached to a second end of the marine survey streamer;
  • the tail buoy includes actuable components to selectively submerge the tail buoy below a surface of a body of water in which the survey streamer is disposed so as to reduce the risks of damage and entanglement of the marine survey streamer.
  • a marine survey apparatus in the form of a tail buoy for attachment to a marine survey streamer, the tail buoy including selectively actuable components to selectively cause the tail buoy to submerge or to surface with respect to a surface of a body of water in which the survey streamer is disposed so as to reduce the risks of damage and entanglement of the marine survey streamer.
  • a marine survey streamer for towing by a survey vessel in order to perform a marine survey including:
  • the tail buoy includes actuable components to selectively control the depth of the tail buoy with respect to a surface of a body of water in which the survey streamer is disposed so as to reduce the risks of damage and entanglement of the marine survey streamer.
  • the marine survey streamer includes a receiver for receiving commands from the survey vessel, the received commands instructing the tail buoy to surface, submerge, maintain a specific depth, and/or follow a specified time varying depth profile.
  • the received commands include one or more commands instructing the tail buoy to submerge to respective depths.
  • the tail buoy includes a buoyancy tank and a compressed gas tank
  • the selectively actuable components include valves that control the relative amounts of water and gas within the buoyancy tank, and therefore the depth of the tail buoy.
  • the tailbouy includes a compressor to recharge the compressed gas tank or the buoyancy tank with a gas.
  • the tail buoy includes one or more steering components to steer the tail buoy relative to a direction of towing.
  • the steering components are configured to selectively steer the tail buoy left or right relative to the direction of towing.
  • the steering components are configured to selectively steer the tail buoy towards or away from the surface of the body of water.
  • a marine survey streamer tail buoy for a marine survey streamer including selectively actuable components to selectively control the depth of the tail buoy with respect to a surface of a body of water in which the survey streamer is disposed so as to reduce the risks of damage and entanglement of the marine survey streamer.
  • a marine survey process including:
  • the process includes selectively controlling the depth of the tail buoy with respect to a surface of a body of water in which the survey streamer is disposed.
  • the survey vessel tows a plurality of marine survey streamers having respective tail buoys attached to respective remote ends thereof, and the process includes causing selected ones of the tailbuoys to submerge during one or more line changes between successive traversals of survey lines by the survey vessel to reduce the risks of damage and entanglement of the marine survey streamers.
  • the plurality of survey lines are traversed by a plurality of survey vessels, each said survey vessel towing a corresponding one or more marine survey streamers having respective corresponding tailbuoys attached to remote ends thereof, including selectively causing at least some of the corresponding tailbuoys to submerge during line changes between successive traversals of corresponding survey lines to reduce the risks of damage and entanglement of the marine survey streamers.
  • the durations of line changes are reduced by reducing the safety clearances between one or more survey vessels and their streamers.
  • the durations of line changes are reduced by allowing one or more of the survey vessels to cross above submerged streamers of one of more of the survey vessels.
  • the process includes selectively submerging different portions of a marine survey streamer to respective different depths.
  • the process includes changing the submerged depth of at least one portion of a marine survey streamer during a line change.
  • the ability to submerge and steer a tail buoy is used to improve the efficiency or imaging performance of a coil or circular marine survey.
  • the ability to selectively submerge and steer a tail buoy is used to improve the efficiency of the marine survey.
  • the ability to submerge and steer a tail buoy is used to allow a source vessel to be deployed above the streamer(s) of a second survey vessel.
  • the ability to submerge and steer a tail buoy is used to allow a second survey vessel and its marine survey streamer streamers to be deployed at least partially above the marine survey streamer streamers of the survey vessel.
  • one or more acoustic pingers attached to the towed equipment of the second survey vessel are used as part of an acoustic network with the acoustic pingers of the first survey vessel to allow a more accurate determination of the positions of all towed elements.
  • a marine survey vessel control system configured to determine optimal or quasi-optimal marine survey vessel paths that include a set of marine survey lines for traversal by one or more marine survey vessels in order to survey the marine survey lines, the marine survey vessel control system including a tailbuoy control component configured to perform the process of any one of claims 10 to 18 in order to improve the safety and/or reduce the duration of line changes between successive traversals of corresponding survey lines.
  • a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a marine survey vessel control or planning system, cause the processor to determine optimal or quasi-optimal marine survey vessel paths for traversal by one or more marine survey vessels in order to survey a plurality of marine survey lines, including controlling the submerging and surfacing of one or more tailbuoys attached to remote ends of respective marine survey streamers in order to improve the safety and/or reduce the duration of line changes between successive traversals of corresponding survey lines.
  • Figure 1 is a schematic side view of a survey ship towing a seismic source and a streamer
  • Figure 2 is a schematic plan view of a series of seismic survey lines, together with a survey ship;
  • FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a submersible tail buoy in accordance with the described embodiments of the present invention.
  • Figure 4 is a schematic side view of a survey ship towing the streamer of Figure 3 during a line change between successive survey lines with the tail buoy being submerged;
  • Figure 5 is a schematic side view of a survey ship towing the streamer of Figure 3 while surveying a survey line with the tail buoy floating at the water surface;
  • Figures 6 and 7 are plan views showing the paths followed by two marine survey vessels during line changes between traversals of successive survey lines of a marine survey respectively without ( Figure 6) and with ( Figure 7) the benefit of the submergible tail buoys described herein.
  • the inventor has identified that the difficulties described above are exacerbated when a marine survey involves more than one vessel or ship 102, each towing one or more corresponding streamers 104 and one or more corresponding sources 106.
  • a marine survey involves more than one vessel or ship 102, each towing one or more corresponding streamers 104 and one or more corresponding sources 106.
  • the streamers 104 attached to one vessel 302 may be damaged by another vessel 304 or become entangled or otherwise disrupt or damage the streamers 104 attached to it.
  • a cautious and conservative approach is taken when determining line changes in order to reduce this risk, resulting in highly sub-optimal vessel paths being followed, with consequential losses of efficiency and increased costs of the survey.
  • each streamer 104 includes a small vessel referred to in the art as a 'tail buoy' 108 attached to its remote end to mark and locate the remote or 'tail' end of the streamer 104.
  • the tail buoy 108 includes navigation equipment that is used to accurately determine the locations of the end sections of the survey vessel's towed equipment.
  • the towed equipment includes hydrophone streamers which are towed at depths determined by the geophysical requirements of the marine survey. The streamer depths are controlled by winged depth controllers that allow accurate depth positioning of the streamer 104.
  • the inventor has identified that if the tail buoys 108 at the ends of the elongate streamers 104 were able to be controllably submerged and resurfaced on demand, it would allow the use of a number of techniques that could be used to greatly reduce the risk of entanglement and/or damage at reduced clearances, and consequently represents a major contribution to overcoming or alleviating the losses of efficiency and increased costs described above. Although particularly applicable to multi-vessel marine surveys, the risks of damage and/or entanglement also apply to single-vessel surveys. In order to address these difficulties, the inventor has developed a new type of streamer having a remotely operated submergible or submersible tail buoy.
  • a marine survey streamer 302 includes a remotely operated submersible tail buoy 300.
  • the submersible tail buoy 300 includes navigation equipment 302, a controller 304, a buoyancy tank 306, and a compressed air cylinder 308.
  • the controller 304 is electronically coupled to electronically actuated valves 310, 312, and 314 to selectively open or isolate the internal volume of the buoyancy tank 306 to each of the compressed air cylinder 308, the external ambient above the tank 316, and the external ambient below or near the base of the tank 318.
  • the controller 304 includes a processor (e.g. , a microprocessor) 320 that is configured to receive commands via either a wired communications interface 322 connected to the survey vessel (not shown) towing the streamer, or via a wireless communications interface 324. Responsive to such commands, the controller 304 selects the open or closed state of the valves via one or more corresponding output interfaces 326 to control: (i) the ingress of water into the buoyancy tank 306, (ii) the ingress of air from the compressed air tank 308 into the buoyancy tank 306, and (iii) the corresponding egress of air and/or water from the buoyancy tank 306.
  • a processor e.g. , a microprocessor
  • the controller 304 is able to cause the tail buoy 300 to float or submerge on demand, and to determine the depth at which the tail buoy 300 is submerged by controlling the relative amounts of air and water contained in the buoyancy tank 306 at any given time.
  • the tail buoy 300 allows the tail buoy 300 to be selectively submerged during line changes, as shown in Figure 4, thereby reducing the risk of damage and/or entanglement.
  • the sets of streamers towed by different vessels can be selectively submerged to different depths on demand in order to further reduce this risk.
  • the controllable tail buoys 300 attached to the streamers of one vessel are instructed to submerge to a first depth below the water surface
  • the submergible tail buoys 300 attached to the streamers of a second vessel are instructed to submerge to a second depth below the water surface, where the first and second depths are sufficiently different to substantially reduce the risk of damage and entanglement.
  • the coordination of these different depths between different vessels is optimized by modifying a survey planning and control system such as that described in International Patent Application No. PCT/AU02/00269, entitled “Marine seismic surveys” (the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference), to include a tailbuoy depth controller that determines streamer and tailbuoy depth combinations that allow for safe and efficient line changes.
  • Tail buoy depths are then controlled using systems similar to those that are already used in the marine survey industry to control streamer (but not tail buoy) depths.
  • the tailbuoy depth controller generates and transmits commands to the different sets of tail buoys 300 to instruct them to submerge during line changes and to surface thereafter, as shown in Figure 5, when it is safe to do so and in preparation for traversing the desired survey lines.
  • Figure 6 is a plan view showing the path followed by two marine survey vessels during a line change between traversals of successive survey lines of a marine survey, using standard, non- submergible tail buoys. Because the tail buoys always remain at the water surface, it is critical to ensure that the paths taken by the streamers and associated towed equipment do not cross each other, as this is likely to cause damage or entanglement of the streamers.
  • the simulated duration of the illustrated paths is 3: 19, that is, three hours and 19 minutes.
  • Figure 7 is a corresponding plan view showing the optimised or quasi-optimised paths taken by the same vessels during a line change between traversals of the same survey lines, but where the tail buoys attached to the streamers are submergible under remote control, so that some of the tail buoys are selectively submerged during the line change, allowing the paths followed by the streamers and towed equipment to cross each other during the line change, resulting in a substantially reduced duration of the illustrated paths, whilst not compromising safety.
  • the simulated duration is reduced from 3: 19 to only 1:57 (one hour and 57 minutes). This reduction, particularly when multiplied across an entire marine survey, is substantial, resulting in substantial cost savings.
  • the submersible tail buoy includes steering components in the form of rudders or vanes that allow the tail buoy to be selectively steered towards the left or right of the direction in which the tail buoy is being towed. This configuration can be used to steer the tail buoy and other parts of the streamer out of the paths of other vessels and/or streamers towed by other vessels, thereby further reducing the risk of damage or entanglement.
  • the submerging and depth of a tail buoy are determined, either in conjunction with a buoyancy tank or instead of a buoyancy tank, by controllable fins attached to the tail boy and that can be actuated to push the tail buoy deeper into the water, lifted towards the surface, or to maintain a current depth, as desired.
  • the described tail buoys are particularly advantageous when used in multi-vessel surveys. These surveys usually involve complex movements of multiple vessels as each positions itself correctly for the corresponding next survey line. In these cases, it may be advantageous for vessels to be able to cross each other's towed equipment while performing changes of survey lines, providing a shorter and faster path to the target starting vector, thereby reducing the overall line change duration.
  • a further application is the urgent avoidance of damage to towed equipment by non-survey vessels such as fishing boats.
  • the winged depth controllers and the remotely operated submersible tailbuoy can be controlled such that different portions of the or each streamer are selectively submerged to different depths under remote control.
  • the submerged depth of at least one portion of a marine survey streamer can be changed during a line change.
  • the ability to selectively submerge (and in some embodiments also to steer) a submersible tail buoy under remote control can be used to improve the efficiency of a marine survey. Additionally, the ability to selectively submerge and steer a tailbuoy under remote control can be used to allow a marine survey vessel in a multi-vessel survey to deploy sources and or streamers partially (or even entirely) above the streamers of another vessel.
  • This configuration can be advantageous because it allows the acquisition of survey data for source and hydrophone geometries (azimuths in particular) that are not normally available in towed streamer marine surveys for the simple reason that without submersible tail buoys, it would cause the survey streamers to become tangled and/or damaged as described above.
  • the seismic source is offset from the first hydrophones in the streamers due to these towing constraints.
  • Source over streamer marine survey configurations allow the acquisition of data for zero azimuth geometries in which the seismic pulses are transmitted and reflected in a vertical or near- vertical geometry. It is considered that these normally forbidden acquisition geometries would allow for improved imaging performance of marine seismic surveys.
  • the positions of remote or tail ends of the streamers are primarily determined using GPS receivers located on the tail buoys, combined with a network of acoustic pingers on the streamers.
  • the accuracy of the determination of the positions of the tail ends of the streamers will be reduced.
  • the determination of positions of the tail end of the first vessel's streamers can be improved by creating an acoustic network from the tail end pingers of the first survey vessel, and a set of pingers attached to a second survey vessel.

Abstract

L'invention concerne un appareil de levé marin destiné à être remorqué par un navire hydrographique afin d'effectuer un levé marin, l'appareil de levé marin comprenant : une flûte de levé marin comportant une première extrémité permettant sa fixation au navire hydrographique ; et une bouée de queue fixée à une seconde extrémité de la flûte de levé marin ; la bouée de queue comprenant des composants pouvant être actionnés pour submerger de façon sélective la bouée de queue au-dessous d'une surface d'une masse d'eau dans laquelle flûte de levé est disposée de sorte à réduire les risques de détérioration et l'enchevêtrement de la flûte de levé marin.
PCT/AU2015/050409 2014-07-21 2015-07-21 Procédé et appareil de levé marin WO2016011502A1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AU2014902810A AU2014902810A0 (en) 2014-07-21 Marine survey streamer and tail buoy
AU2014902810 2014-07-21

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2016011502A1 true WO2016011502A1 (fr) 2016-01-28

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Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US10132949B2 (en) 2015-02-24 2018-11-20 Seabed Geosolutions B.V. Single vessel range navigation and positioning of an ocean bottom seismic node
CN114771737A (zh) * 2022-05-12 2022-07-22 山东大学 一种Argo浮标及基于Argo浮标的海洋声学及环境参数协同观测方法

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20130033960A1 (en) * 2011-08-05 2013-02-07 Pgs Geophysical As Method and system of a controllable tail buoy
US20130182531A1 (en) * 2009-03-09 2013-07-18 Ion Geophysical Corporation Marine Seismic Surveying with Towed Components Below Water Surface
US20130213291A1 (en) * 2012-02-16 2013-08-22 Kongsberg Seatex As Control Device for Positioning an Instrumented Cable Provided With Buoyancy Means for Retrieving the Control Device and Instrumented Cable From Submerged Positioning

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20130182531A1 (en) * 2009-03-09 2013-07-18 Ion Geophysical Corporation Marine Seismic Surveying with Towed Components Below Water Surface
US20130033960A1 (en) * 2011-08-05 2013-02-07 Pgs Geophysical As Method and system of a controllable tail buoy
US20130213291A1 (en) * 2012-02-16 2013-08-22 Kongsberg Seatex As Control Device for Positioning an Instrumented Cable Provided With Buoyancy Means for Retrieving the Control Device and Instrumented Cable From Submerged Positioning

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US10132949B2 (en) 2015-02-24 2018-11-20 Seabed Geosolutions B.V. Single vessel range navigation and positioning of an ocean bottom seismic node
CN114771737A (zh) * 2022-05-12 2022-07-22 山东大学 一种Argo浮标及基于Argo浮标的海洋声学及环境参数协同观测方法

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