4D Ocean Bottom Node Decimation Study over the North Sea Golden Eagle Field

Using a dense North Sea 4D dataset over the Golden Eagle field, we demonstrate the impact of OBN density on both the 3D and 4D seismic image by migrating progressively sparser node configurations. It is shown that 4D image quality is more sensitive to changes in node density than is the 3D image, and an acceptable sparse survey for 3D imaging may be inadequate for 4D. Mitigating the effects of reduced node density via processing shows partial success, but the tests highlights the importance of node density in 4D survey design for North Sea OBN data.