IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2020 - 119

Finally, InSAR technology is cheaper than traditional
deformation monitoring methods. Traditional monitoring
technology entails the cost of deploying an observation
network as well as maintaining observation points and
equipment. It usually consumes a large amount of personnel and material resources. InSAR technology does not require these costs. Although the data cost is greater than
that of traditional monitoring methods, the processing can
obtain a wide range of results in one treatment, making
it very suitable for oil and gas exploration deformation
monitoring, which has a large monitoring area and a long
monitoring period. In addition, there is no need for personnel to be on duty during the monitoring process, which
greatly improves monitoring efficiency.
Obviously, the application of InSAR technology to oil
and gas deformation monitoring provides a new direction
for not only oil and gas deformation research but also for
innovation in this field. InSAR technology can make up
for the shortcomings of traditional monitoring methods
and give full play to its advantages in the field of surface
deformation monitoring. Additionally, it can be combined
with other monitoring means in the mining area to measure
the deformation of the oil field and its distribution range
on a large scale. The application of this technology provides
a scientific basis for improving management decisions for
oil and gas fields, such as those regarding water injection
volume and mining rate. The use of InSAR technology to
monitor oil and gas exploration deformation can ensure
the safe and stable operation of oil and gas field mining,
achieve early prevention and warning of environmental and
geological disasters, and contribute to the development of
the petroleum industry.
HISTORY AND STATUS SUMMARY
With the development of radar technology, scholars continue to expand its application in various fields. Scholars
in some countries tried to apply InSAR technology to oil
field deformation monitoring very early. In 1997, Kooij applied D-InSAR technology to subsidence monitoring in oil
fields for the first time [89]. In 1998, Fielding et al. [90] used
ERS-1 and ERS-2 radar data to perform an interferometric
analysis of the Lost Hills and Belridge fields and plotted the
surface subsidence of oil fields in central California. They
found that the settlement was mainly caused by oil production. These early applications provided the direction for InSAR oil and gas exploration subsidence monitoring.
With the development of InSAR technology, time series
InSAR has emerged. The methods of monitoring deformation in oil and gas exploitation areas are also moving to
the application of time series InSAR. Time series InSAR,
including SBAS and PSInSAR technologies, can effectively
overcome decoherence and atmospheric effects, and the
monitoring accuracy can reach the millimeter level, so
this technology can be well applied to surface deformation
monitoring in oil field areas. Researchers have used time
series InSAR technology to obtain long-term continuous
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IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

deformation processes in oil and gas production areas.
Monitoring results obtained by time series InSAR can be
used to better understand the evolution process of the deformation from the time series distribution and spatial
range distribution maps. This is very meaningful for the
study of deformation monitoring in oil and gas fields.
Many scholars have done work in this area of research. In
2012, Janna et al. [91] established and calibrated the transversal isotropic geomechanical model of porous media by using the InSAR data of two depleted gas fields in the Po River
plain, Italy, that are currently used for seasonal gas storage. In
2014, Singhroy used modified SBAS technology to perform
deformation monitoring on the Alberta oil field in Canada,
indicating that the area continues to rise at a rate of 2 cm/acre.
The study also found that the increasing speed of the horizontal well is highly correlated with the steam injection rate [92].
In 2016, Liu et al. [93] used SBAS technology to reflect the spatial and temporal evolution of the deformation of the Yellow
River delta region and combined the petroleum geological,
oil field, and reservoir inversion data to evaluate the role of
oil and gas exploration in deformation. The study found that,
if the method of water flooding is used in the mining process,
it accelerates the sinking speed of the oil field.
Ji et al. [94] used InSAR to detect the surface deformation
caused by underground injection using the Xinjiang Karamay oil field as an example. The results showed that the local deformation of the Karamay oil field is related to crude
oil production, and the apparent surface uplift caused by
the injection of underground fluid was found near the Hei
103 well. In 2017, Aimaiti et al. [95] used D-InSAR technology to study the surface deformation of Karamay, a typical
oil-producing city in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and further evaluated the D-InSAR results using the
SBAS and PSInSAR techniques.
In 2017, Hie et al. [96] used PSI to detect the surface subsidence area in the lower reaches of the Liaohe River. They
combined the InSAR results of adjacent tracks and analyzed
the surface subsidence of oil fields, coastal zones, and salt
areas. Site surveys were carried out in areas where the sedimentation signal was visible. Finally, land subsidence signals were found in the Panjin and Jinzhou oil fields, and
the cumulative settlement in four years was about 800 mm.
In 2018, Loesch et al. [97] used SBAS technology to analyze
the central and eastern parts of Oklahoma. It was found
that the deformation results obtained by SBAS have a wide
spatial correlation with the location of the oil field injection
well. In addition, a significant uplift signal was detected
over Cushing, Oklahoma, with a deformation of more than
44 mm. This discovery is essential for Cushing, where one
of the world's largest ground crude oil facilities is located.
Such research has led people to gradually accept the feasibility of applying this new technology to the deformation
monitoring of oil and gas exploration. Figure 7 shows the
statistics for journal and conference publications regarding
the application of InSAR technology to oil field research
(from Web of Science [98]). It can be seen that publications
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IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2020

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