Novel cable coupling technique for improved shallow distributed acoustic sensor VSPs

Vertical seismic profiles (VSPs) collected using fiber optic distributed acoustic sensors (DAS) are becoming increasingly common; yet, ensuring good cable coupling with the borehole wall remains a persistent challenge. Traditional cable deployment techniques used in the petroleum industry are either not possible or do not provide data of sufficient quality for shallow applications. Additionally, no direct field comparison of coupling techniques in the same borehole exists to determine the impacts of poor coupling on DAS VSP data quality. This paper addresses these issues by: (1) presenting a novel cable coupling solution using a removable and relatively inexpensive FLUTe™ flexible borehole liner; and (2) presenting field examples of DAS VSPs under different coupling conditions. The proposed coupling technique is analogous to a fully cemented deployment in that the cable is continuously coupled directly to the formation. Field experiments conducted to assess and validate the technique demonstrate a marked improvement in VSP data quality when the cable is coupled with a flexible borehole liner. Without the liner, seismic profiles are dominated by a high-amplitude cable wave and the p-wave arrival is not observed; however, with cable coupling provided by a borehole liner inflated using hydrostatic pressure, the cable wave is suppressed and clear p-wave arrivals are visible. Additional tests examining the influence of fiber optic cable structure on seismic responses demonstrate that tight buffered fibers are more sensitive to dynamic strain than loose tube fibers making them potentially better suited for certain DAS applications.