Microseismic events are acoustic emissions that occur in the reservoir rock as a result of shear stress slippages along pre-existing faults, fluid flow paths and fractures, or during the creation of new fractures. These slippages are induced by operator-initiated production activities related to reservoir stimulation and hydrocarbon extraction.
Microseismic monitoring can be used to better understand the physical and behavioral characteristics of an oil and gas reservoir. The information associated from a passive seismic monitoring program can be used to enhance reservoir development and make significant gains in field productivity.

ESG has been involved in the petroleum industry since the late 1980’s when the founding partners successfully monitored stimulations using in-treatment well and remote observation well recordings to define event locations and mechanisms. Following these successes, ESG went on to analyze the microseismicity associated with compaction in the North Sea Ekofisk and Valhall fields. We further pioneered the use of microseismics in petroleum extraction with the widely acknowledged success in obtaining geometric and fracture growth characteristics for hydraulic fracture stimulations in the Cotton Valley fields in East Texas (Cotton Valley Hydraulic Fracture Imaging Consortium Project). The findings of this project lead to ESG developing the petroleum industry’s first viable commercial hydraulic fracture imaging and interpretation service in January 2000. We have since deployed over 150 permanent real-time reservoir monitoring systems in oil fields around the world, and have successfully assessed well over 1000 fracture stimulations for clients across North America.

We offer a full range of products and services to the petroleum industry. They include:

• Real-time Microseismic Reservoir Monitoring (ResMap™)
• Hydraulic Fracture Imaging and Interpretation Services (FracMap™)
• CO2 Sequestration and Waste Injection Monitoring