Explor approached STRYDE to trial our STRYDE Nimble system™ in conjunction with their innovative Pinpoint® seismic source for a mining client. The aim was to gather a 2D seismic line to confirm the suitability of STRYDE in mountainous terrain.
This particular work was scheduled to take place in June 2020, which meant we faced the additional challenge of supporting Explor in the middle of the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
As a consequence, STRYDE’s support team was unable to travel to the site to provide our usual onsite training and technical support. It also meant that Explor could only send a small core team of three out into the field.
"The whole trial was conducted successfully in half the time and with less than 20% of the people who are typically needed."
Allan Châtenay
President, Explor
PinPoint’s design makes it extremely portable and removes the need for environmentally disruptive line clearing – a particular issue in Canada where the traditional acquisition of high trace density seismic often requires significant amounts
of heavy machinery for land preparation, including removing forest.
In combination with STRYDE’s lightweight, low-impact seismic receiver technology, Pinpoint removes the need for line clearing altogether, enabling zero environmental footprint seismic acquisition.
Despite our initial concerns that the pandemic and lack of onsite training would prevent the trial from going ahead at all, our team quickly adapted their approach, providing simple operating instructions on node deployment and data harvesting. We also provided round-the-clock remote support as the trial progressed.
What’s more, the team – first-time users of our technology – successfully carried out node deployment and data harvesting using our operating instructions, showing the simplicity that STRYDE bring to receiver systems.
During the trial, Explor hit an average deployment rate of one node every 11 seconds, and it took two members of the team just three hours to retrieve several hundred STRYDE Nodes™ in rugged mountainous terrain! While the lightweight, portable nature of our STRYDE Nodes™ makes them ideal for large surveys, this trial demonstrated that their key characteristics also suit smaller surveys. In both cases, our system reduces equipment and logistics and speeds up deployment times.
In fact, Explor was able to fit all the equipment they needed for deployment and recording including both the STRYDE Nimble system and the PinPoint source system into a single pick- up truck and 20-foot trailer, with room left for a server, desk, chair and some additional equipment and supplies. This compares with a previous Explor study, which had required a 50-foot tractor trailer and a truck, plus 18 people, just to get the system into the seismic camp!
"It’s a totally different scale and mind blowing to think how much this will change the efficiency of seismic operations. The support we had from STRYDE – despite all the challenges associated with the pandemic – was excellent."
Allan Châtenay
President, Explor
The trial also gave Explor the opportunity to test their portable source with our nimble receiver and the team were extremely encouraged by the results.
The successful execution of this test opened the door for further collaboration between STRYDE and Explor in support of their minimal environmental footprint vision for high-density seismic. Our next collaboration will see Explor use over 20,000 STRYDE Nodes™ on a 3D seismic survey in Canada. We continue to provide a high level of remote support despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic.
To acquire a 2D line in extremely rugged terrain with just three people is amazing and testament to STRYDE’s system.
STRYDE’s customers benefit from a substantially reduced environmental footprint, reduced HSE risk, faster surveys and significant operational efficiencies. Put simply, STRYDE’s products save customers money and time while enabling them to deliver higher quality seismic data.
"We enjoyed working with Explor! Their high calibre team openly shared ideas to further improve the STRYDE system and how to advance land seismic as a whole. This type of open collaboration is something we hold dear at STRYDE – we believe it is essential in allowing us to continue to advance land seismic as a whole."
