Conclusions and Future Work

We have shown that InSAR can be a useful tool for monitoring petroleum well activity and the surface deformations associated with these wells. The deformations associated with only a couple months of drilling are easily resolved with this technique, and in our study area we see areas of relative subsidence and upheaval due to the activity of wells. We were also able to correlate time dependent features in the InSAR data with changes in the activity of the associated wells. Obviously, many more wells need to be studied, but InSAR can be a useful method to monitoring well activity. Indeed several companies exist who use InSAR data to work with oil companies to help monitor and optimize their wells. Unfortunately their data and findings are not published.

In future studies it would be interesting to correlate well parameters with the surface displacement. For instance how does the pumping rate affect the subsidence rate, or how does the uplift volume scale with the amount of hydraulic fracturing fluid injecting into the well. Complications arise since multiple wells are pumping and fracturing a single reservoir, so the effects of all of these wells can lead to one overall surface deformation. Additionally wells are often drilled horizontally, so the mapped location of the well head may not be a good indication of where its associated deformation is likely to occur.