Oil and Gas Ground Deformation Monitoring
We use satellite InSAR to monitor ground movement across oil and gas operations - producing fields, injection and storage sites, and pipeline corridors. Our work tracks the surface response to production and injection, supports asset integrity, and provides an independent record for health, safety, and regulatory reporting.
Where InSAR Adds Value
| Operational situation | What satellite InSAR provides |
|---|---|
| Production drawdown | Detect reservoir compaction and surface subsidence |
| Injection, enhanced recovery or CO2 storage | Map surface uplift and relate it to operations |
| Underground gas storage and salt caverns | Watch for surface signs of integrity loss |
| Pipeline and facility corridors | Screen for subsidence, heave, permafrost and slope risk |
| Injection-induced seismicity | Map the surface deformation around injection |
Reservoir and Injection Monitoring
Production and injection both move the surface. Withdrawing fluids can compact a reservoir and lower the ground above it, while injection - waterflooding, enhanced oil recovery, steam stimulation, carbon-dioxide sequestration, or fluid disposal - can lift it. Satellite InSAR measures these subtle uplift and subsidence patterns across the whole field, providing a continuous map of how the surface is responding to operations. Compared at intervals, these maps help relate surface movement to injection and production activity and flag changes that warrant attention, all without instruments in the field.
Fluid injection can also be associated with induced seismicity. Because InSAR maps the surface deformation that accompanies subsurface pressure and volume change, it contributes to understanding where and how the ground is deforming around injection operations. Our published work has used satellite InSAR together with Bayesian modelling to characterize a fault system and injection-related earthquakes, illustrating how surface measurements inform interpretation of processes at depth.
Underground Storage and Cavern Integrity Monitoring
Underground gas storage and salt caverns are a distinct case, because the controlling process can be fast. Where water reaches stored salt, it dissolves rapidly, and the resulting loss of support can express itself as surface movement more quickly than the slow compaction seen in producing fields. Satellite InSAR provides repeated, wide-area coverage of storage sites and the ground above caverns, building a record that helps operators watch for the surface signatures of integrity problems and demonstrate ongoing surveillance. The multi-year archive means a storage site can be assessed against how it behaved in previous years, not only from the day monitoring is commissioned.
Pipeline and Facility Ground Movement
Pipelines and surface facilities are vulnerable to ground movement beneath them - subsidence, heave, and settlement that can stress lines and foundations over time, and, on northern routes, seasonal and long-term movement driven by permafrost thaw. Satellite InSAR screens long routes and large facilities for this movement from a single source, identifying where the ground is shifting before it becomes a structural concern. Where pipelines cross steep or unstable terrain, slope-driven risk is addressed in more detail under landslide monitoring and slope stability; our published regional assessment of landslide hazard to pipelines in northeastern British Columbia is an example of exactly this kind of corridor screening. For pipelines and facilities outside the field, see our infrastructure deformation monitoring service.
What an Oil and Gas Program Delivers
A program delivers a field- or corridor-wide velocity map; a displacement time series for every measurement point, so uplift or subsidence can be read at an individual pad, cavern, or pipeline segment; a separation into vertical and horizontal components where geometry allows; and an interpretive report for integrity and regulatory use. We match the radar band to the setting - C-band from Sentinel-1 for wide fields and long corridors, X-band from Germany's TerraSAR-X and Italy's COSMO-SkyMed for detail on facilities, and L-band from Japan's ALOS-2 over the vegetated and northern terrain common to Canadian operations. Results are supplied as GIS layers and updated as new acquisitions arrive.
Why Satellite InSAR for Oil and Gas
Satellite InSAR covers fields, facilities, and corridors without sending crews into the field, and its multi-year archive shows how the surface has responded to operations over time rather than at a single moment. It provides an independent, repeatable record that supports integrity management and health, safety, and environmental reporting. Our small-baseline processing keeps measurements reliable over the vegetated and remote terrain typical of northern operations, and every rate carries its own error estimate. Our methods are grounded in peer-reviewed research published in international remote-sensing journals. GNSS integration, independent validation, and regulatory reporting support are available on request. Oil and gas is one of our four core monitoring services, alongside mining, land subsidence, and landslide monitoring.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can InSAR distinguish uplift from subsidence over a field?
Yes. It measures both, so injection-driven uplift and production-driven subsidence can be mapped across the field and compared over time against operational activity.
Can it help with injection and induced seismicity?
InSAR maps the surface deformation that accompanies subsurface pressure and volume change around injection operations. It does not measure earthquakes directly, but the deformation record supports interpretation of the processes at depth, as in our published InSAR and Bayesian modelling of an injection-related fault system.
Why is cavern and storage monitoring treated separately?
Because the mechanism differs. Salt dissolves quickly when it meets water, so storage and cavern integrity issues can develop faster than the gradual compaction of a producing reservoir, and wide-area repeated coverage is valuable for watching the surface above them.
Can you monitor pipeline corridors and northern routes?
Yes. We screen long routes for subsidence, heave, settlement, and permafrost-driven movement, and for slope-driven risk where lines cross unstable terrain, in coordination with our landslide and slope stability monitoring.
Does it work over vegetated or remote terrain?
Yes. Small-baseline processing and longer-wavelength L-band radar are chosen to keep measurements reliable over the vegetated, remote, and northern ground where many operations and corridors are located and where survey access is limited.