Data assimilation of PS-InSAR movement measurements applied to the bergermeer gas field

Abstract

This paper reports a study on the use of satellite radar data to constrain the subsurface model parameters of the Bergermeer gas field. Using PSI (Persistent Scatterer InSAR) technology, ascending and descending data were applied in line-of-sight geometry, i.e., without first unravelling the horizontal and vertical components of the signal. The model parameters were constrained using an ensemble smoother with multiple data assimilation. A good match could be obtained with realistic values of the reservoir compaction coefficient and of the subsurface basement elastic modulus. For the aquifer parts that were depleted according to the reservoir simulation, the northern part indeed gave a reasonable value for the compaction coefficient. For the southern part the resulting compaction coefficient was around zero, indicating that the pressure depletion in this part of the aquifer was overestimated and that it was actually not connected to the reservoir. The study shows that it is feasible to use PSI surface movement data to obtain information about the reservoir and that the use of line-of-sight movements from both ascending and descending satellite passes adds an additional dimension to the data and an improved quality of the assimilation results.