InSAR Monitoring and Analysis of Ground Deformation Due to Fluid or Gas Injection in Fengcheng Oil Field, Xinjiang, China

Over the last decade, Fengcheng oil field rich in heavy oil geological reserves has had a broad prospect of exploration. The reservoirs are mainly composed of high porosity, high permeability sandstone and conglomerate in study area. The reservoir characteristics led to poor fluid and gas injection causing ground surface deformation with the injection of gas and fluid and threatened the safety of nearby construction facilities. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technology has been used to identify ground surface deformation with high precision, which is widely used in various fields. This paper adopted Small Baseline Subset InSAR (SBAS-InSAR) method to monitor oil field for the period of February 2007 to September 2010. In this study, the Fengcheng oil field in Xinjiang served as an example; we measured subsurface fluid and gas injection-induced ground surface deformation by SBAS-InSAR technique and investigated the causes of observed deformation. The results showed significant uplift over Fengcheng oil field and testified the feasibility of SBAS-InSAR method. The Phased Arrary L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) datasets outcome revealed ground surface maximum cumulative uplift for 4 years was 40 cm in the line of sight (LOS) direction, and annual average deformation rates were ranging from − 80 to 120 mm/year. Further, the time series analysis based on monitoring results found that the causes of ground surface uplift were related to the increase in pore pressure under the reservoir, and the surface deformation area corresponded to the production well position of study area. Therefore, InSAR technique is an essential tool for the ground surface deformation monitoring due to fluid and gas injection in heavy oil field, ensuring the safety of personnel and property.