Technical Content

Least-squares depth migration approximates the inverse of the forward modeling. We show two real data applications of a single iteration (non-iterative) Kirchhoff least-squares depth migration process, generically referred to as migration deconvolution, to highlight the benefits of this process. Our first example demonstrates improved ...

The Wolfcamp reservoir of the Permian Basin has recently generated interest for its potentially vast oil and gas reserves. Imaging this reservoir using seismic data is challenging despite the uncomplicated geology at reservoir depth, because the near-surface in this region is complex. In this ...

The Campos Basin, offshore Brazil, features complex shallow geology in the forms of pronounced seabed canyons and paleo-canyons. The rapid variations in the velocity field due to these complex shallow geologic features can be difficult for ray-based tomography techniques to resolve, resulting in distorted ...

Seismic inversion transforms seismic reflection data into quantitative rock-property descriptions of a reservoir. Seismic data bandwidth is limited by signal-to-noise ratio, absorption, source wavelet, and shot and receiver ghosts. A typical deterministic seismic inversion workflow fills the low frequencies by extrapolating or interpolating existing ...

Least-squares migration (LSM) can potentially provide better amplitude fidelity, higher image resolution, and fewer migration artifacts than standard migration. Conventional LSM is often solved iteratively through linearized inversion, and therefore is often referred to as iterative LSM. In recent years, various single-iteration LSM approaches ...

The oil-bearing fractured granite basement rocks form a very important and complicated hydrocarbon reservoir in Cuu Long basin offshore Vietnam. However, the poor fractured basement imaging in the conventional tow streamer data makes it hard for detailed interpretation and future well placement. To improve ...

DALLAS–The great land grab in the Midland Basin has resulted in an exponential increase in acreage prices, with buyers paying up to $60,000 an acre in some cases. In this competitive environment, oil and gas companies–particularly smaller independents–are starting to look for prospective areas ...

Deblending shallow water OBC data can be challenging. High blending fold, strong early arrivals, shear wave energy, and background noise all add to the complexity of the problem. Using an offshore Trinidad OBC survey, including dual and triple sources, we demonstrate the effectiveness of ...

Complex overburdens often distort reservoir images in terms of structural positioning, stratigraphic resolution, and amplitude fidelity. One prime example of a complex overburden is in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, where thick and irregular layers of remobilized (i.e., allochthonous) salt are situated above prospective ...