SEISMICS

Reducing 3D Seismic Turnaround

Imagine breaking your leg and having an X-ray, only to be told that the image won’t be ready for interpretation

for a year or more. Until recently, seismic surveys suffered from similar delays. But thanks to breakthroughs

in acquisition, processing and communication, 3D seismic turnaround time—time from the first shot to the

beginning of interpretation—has been reduced from years to weeks.

Chris Beckett There are two main reasons oil and gas pro- tion. Unlike 2D seismic, which grew from
Tim Brooks ducers worry about the time spent on 3D the exploration market into development,
Gregg Parker seismic acquisition and processing, called 3D seismic has grown in the opposite direc-
Houston, Texas, USA turnaround time.1 First, in the oil and gas tion. Companies are discovering that early
business, as in every business, time is acquisition of 3D data reduces finding costs
Robin Bjoroy money. The more time spent on drilling, log- and overall project costs.2 Interpreted seis-
Dominique Pajot ging and well completion, the longer the mic data are essential for intelligent bidding
Paul Taylor delay in production and the lower the profit. on acreage. And some exploration contracts
Gatwick, England Add the time to acquire and interpret seis- now require a 3D survey before drilling.
mic data before drilling, and the delay in This expansion into exploration, along with
David Deitz bringing reserves to the surface may grow decreases in the cost of seismic acquisition
Unocal beyond the schedules and budgets of many and processing, has raised demand for 3D
Lafayette, Louisiana, USA production managers. seismic data.
Second, and special to the oil and gas This increased demand has forced service
Terje Flaten business, saving time can make the differ- companies to reduce turnaround time—
Lars Jan Jaarvik ence between being able to do business and without sacrificing quality. This article looks
Statoil not. Development contracts worldwide first at the dramatic improvements in marine
Stavanger, Norway require oil companies to drill within a speci- turnaround time, then at the steps being
fied time. The clock starts ticking once taken to significantly reduce turnaround in
Ian Jack acreage is licensed. A 3D seismic survey transition zone and land surveys.
Keith Nunn planned, acquired, processed and inter-
BP Exploration preted in advance arms developers with The Marine Story
Stockley Park, England tools for intelligent well placement, yielding Three years ago, a marine survey of 500 km2
higher production from fewer wells. [193 sq miles] took a year or more to be
Alan Strudley More 3D seismic surveys are also being acquired and processed. Today, through a
Robin Walker commissioned for exploration, in addition combination of new technologies, turn-
Stavanger, Norway to field development, their initial applica- around time for similar surveys can be as lit-

For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Gary Geco-Prakla, Hannover, Germany; Hal Harper, Conoco, 1. For the purpose of this article, 3D turnaround time is
Biro, Geco-Prakla, Dallas, Texas; Adrian Bligh, Scipio Midland, Texas; David Etherington-Brown, Johannes defined as the time from first shot to the end of pro-
Brook and Colin Hulme, Geco-Prakla, Gatwick, Eng- Hvidsten and Phil Selley, Geco-Prakla, Stavanger, Nor- cessing. Some companies use the term “cycle time.”
land; Helge Bragstad, Peter Canter, Olav Lindtjorn and way; Kristian Kolbjørnsen, Saga Petroleum, Sandvika, Oil companies include the survey planning before
Odd Olav Vatne, Geco-Prakla, Sandvika, Norway; Bill Norway; Bård Krokan, Norsk Hydro, Stabekk, Norway. acquisition and the interpretation after processing,
Chapman, Conoco Inc., Ponca City, Oklahoma, USA; In this article, Charisma, Digiseis-FLX, LINK, Monowing, so their turnaround time is from decision to shoot to
Kim El-Tawil, Tom Neugebauer and Mike Spradley, Olympus-IMS, TQ3D, TRILOGY, TRINAV, TRIPRO, selection of drillsite. However, planning and interpre-
Geco-Prakla, Houston, Texas; Bill Fraser and Bruce Hin- TRISOR and Voyager are marks of Schlumberger. RISC tation are often outside the responsibility of service
ton, Hunt Oil Company, Dallas, Texas; Jakob Haldorsen, 6000 is a mark of International Business Machines Cor- companies, so they remain outside the definition
Per Helgaker, Hans Klaassen, Dietmar Kluge, Claus poration. SPARCstation 20 is a mark of Sun Microsys- used here.
Schnellbacher, Tony Woolmer and Mike Worthington, tems, Inc. 2. Chisolm G: “Advances in Delivering 3D Data to
Customers,” presented at the PETEX 94 meeting on
Techniques For Cost-Effective Exploration & Produc-
tion, London, England, November 16-18, 1994.

January 1995 23
 25

20

15
Months

10

0
Surveys prior to 1992 1992 1993 1994

■ Geco Gamma towing six streamers. Inset graph shows reduction in 3D marine seismic turnaround for a 500-km2 survey.
Turnaround data from smaller or larger surveys are scaled up or down, accordingly, for the purposes of this graph. The last eight
surveys, with dramatically lower turnaround, were processed with only a subset of the data. (Graph courtesy of BP Exploration.)

■ Concurrence of tle as nine weeks (above ). Technologies

the three phases of responsible for this dramatic reduction vary
1987 marine turnaround
—acquisition, navi-
from faster acquisition capacity to high-
gation positioning speed links with shore-based computers for
1991 and processing. real-time, full-scale processing (left ).
Overall turnaround Today seismic vessels can acquire data 12
Year

has been cut as times faster than they could in the early
individual phases
1993
have been short- 1980s, thanks to multielement acquisi-
Acquisition
Aquisition ened and all tion—multiple air gun sources, multiple
Positioning
Positioning phases now occur receiver streamers and even multiple ves-
1994 Processing
Processing concurrently. Time sels. 3 Prior to 1984, vessels towed one
corresponds to
turnaround for a
source array and one 3-km [1.9-mile]
0 10 20 30 40 50 500-km2 survey. streamer (next page, bottom ). This configu-
Time, weeks ration evolved to two streamers and two
sources per vessel by 1986, quadrupling the
area covered with each traverse, and
decreasing the cost per unit area. In 1990,
streamer length started to increase, also

3. For reviews of the state of marine seismic acquisition

six years ago: Backshall l, Donohue R, Jamieson G,
Kilenyi T, Naylor R, Staughton D, and Walker C:
“Marine Seismics in Cameroon,” Oilfield Review 1,
no. 1 (April 1989): 26-34.
Hansen T, Kingston J, Kjellesvik S, Lane G, l’Anson K,
Naylor R and Walker C: “3-D Seismic Surveys,”Oil-
field Review 1, no. 3 (October 1989): 54-61.

24 Oilfield Review
 ■ Seismic vessel
decreasing costs. By 1991, there were two Monowing towing six stream-
sources firing alternately to three streamers, ers with Monowing
and by 1992, there were four streamers. In deflectors (top).
1994, the Geco Gamma acquired the Monowing towing
world’s first survey with six streamers. And technology steers
streamers and
in a continuing quest for greater capacity, reduces drag for
contractors are now building or refurbishing Air gun arrays
increased towing
seismic vessels to tow 8 to 12 streamers. efficiency and
A challenge in designing vessels for multi- safety.
streamer acquisition is to keep all the
streamers uniformly separated while main-
taining vessel speed. Streamers are sepa-
rated with a deflector, which steers outer
streamers away from their normal stream water, this “lifts” the streamers apart, and tested with five streamers at extra-wide
lines (right ). Most streamers follow angled results in a 500% increase in lift-to-drag ratio 150-m [492-ft] spacing, making the 600-m
slabs—paravanes—which deflect the compared to conventional deflectors. The [1980-ft] swath acquired in a single vessel
streamer outward, but also create drag on reduced drag increases acquisition effi- pass the widest ever.
the vessel. Each 3-km deflected streamer ciency, and also safety. The lower tension in Streamers themselves have also been
may exert up to 12 tons of drag, forcing the the lead-in, or tow cables, between the ves- upgraded. In earlier, analog streamers,
vessel to consume more fuel to maintain sel and the streamers, reduces the chance of hydrophones were wired to the streamer
speed. Eight to twelve streamers, with para- a tow cable snapping and flapping back to cables and the analog signal transmitted up
vanes deflecting the outer ones, would act hit the vessel. And unlike other deflectors, the streamer and then digitized. There may
like a sea anchor, creating enough drag to orientation of the Monowing can be con- have been signal leakage in the streamer, or
stop an ordinary vessel. One contractor, trolled remotely, to act as a rudder for the cross-talk, in which a signal from one
PGS Exploration, is designing a more pow- streamer. This allows streamer spacing to be hydrophone gets mixed with that from
erful vessel to address this problem. controlled from the vessel, and permits another. With digital streamers, the signal is
Rather than design a larger, more expen- individual streamers to be spooled in for recorded digitally so cross-talk is elimi-
sive vessel to tow more streamers, Geco- repairs. The Monowing deflector has nated. Digital streamers are also more reli-
Prakla has designed the Monowing deflector. already been deployed in the Irish Sea and able, resulting in less downtime and better
Acting like an airplane wing flying through West Africa, to tow six streamers. It is being turnaround.

■ Single-streamer and six-streamer acquisition. Single streamer (left, side view) acquires data from a narrow swath beneath the vessel.
Six streamers (right, front view) acquire six times as much data in a wide swath.

January 1995 25
 TRISOR sensors, located within one meter
of the air guns, communicate with the ves-
sel through fiber-optic connections, and are
packaged based on concepts from Anadrill’s
measurements-while-drilling (MWD) tech-
nology. In this hostile environment, near a
high-energy source and sustaining at least
500,000 shocks per year, the rugged con-
struction that ensures reliable MWD also
helps reduce seismic turnaround.
Front To maximize vessel uptime, errors such as
network a gun going off at the wrong time, or not at
all, must be detected immediately. Then
processing specialists can determine
■ Front and tail
positioning net-
whether the shot must be retaken, or
works. Geographic whether the recorded signal satisfies the
positions of every geophysical objectives of the survey. If the
seismic source and signal is sufficient, time is saved. If insuffi-
receiver in the sur- cient, time is still saved, because a seismic
vey are deter-
mined using floats line can be quickly reshot while the vessel is
instrumented with still over the survey area.
3000-m Global Positioning The second set of data that must be pro-
distance Systems (GPS), cessed between shots is survey position
acoustic range
measurements,
coordinates, called navigation data. Naviga-
compass data and tion data describe the position on the earth
bearings and of every source and receiver point in the 3D
ranges from lasers. survey. The data come from relative position
Streamer length is measurements made with every shot as the
not to scale.
vessel is in motion. The position of the ves-
Tail sel relative to satellites is determined using
network the Global Positioning System (GPS).4 Geo-
graphic positioning with GPS is a relatively
new technique, more reliable and available
than traditional radio positioning, and can
Source fix locations to within two meters. The in-
Streamer sea positions of the seismic sources and
receivers are computed using directions
Float from compasses mounted on the streamers
Compass and distance information—ranges—pro-
Gyro vided by acoustic sensors and lasers dis-
Hydrophone tributed in networks across the ends of the
streamers (left ). The TRINAV module of the
TRILOGY system collects the compass, laser
and acoustic signals, detects transit times,
processes them for range, computes the net-
work node positions, calculates source and
While multielement acquisition has To achieve minimum turnaround time, receiver positions and stores the results in a
played the leading role in reducing acquisi- two sets of data—source signature quality data base before the next shot is fired. The
tion time, it has created a new challenge in and survey position—must be processed number of sensor data measurements—
reducing overall turnaround time. Data can between shots. The source is a cluster of dif- including compass data, laser ranges and
arrive at a staggering 5 MBytes/sec and ferent-sized air guns. On Geco-Prakla ves- bearings, satellite and radio position signals
some of it must be processed before the sels the air guns are controlled by the —used in such a calculation has grown
next shot is fired—about every 10 seconds TRISOR module of the TRILOGY integrated from 15 in the days of single source and
—if the processing is to keep pace. Rising to acquisition and processing system. This single streamer, to more than 350 now with
the challenge is concurrent processing, a module fires the air guns in a sequence that dual sources and eight streamers ( next
combination of onboard processing and is tuned to their sizes. As the size of the gun page, bottom ).
high-speed communication with onshore increases, so does the time from firing to
computers and decision makers. maximum pressure. The TRISOR controller 4. For a review of applications of GPS: “Talking Satel-
lites,” Oilfield Review 4, no. 4 (October 1992): 70-72.
synchronizes the guns’ pressure maxima,
5. For a review of 3D marine seismic processing:
giving a stronger source signal. Boreham D, Kingston J, Shaw P and van Zeelst J:
TRISOR hardware also monitors source “3D Marine Seismic Data Processing,” Oilfield
output to check the quality of each shot. Review 3, no. 1 (January 1991): 41-55.

26 Oilfield Review
 Checking that the positions fall within the
project specifications is a daunting task, and
one whose automation has further reduced
turnaround time. Until recently, this was
Area of
done subjectively by navigation analysts, survey
visually checking plots and position listings.
NORWAY
Now, computed positions are quality
assured using position acceptance criteria Bergen
(PAC), automating the time-consuming task
and slashing weeks off turnaround. The PAC
are established by comparing the range in
Stavanger
question to the range of the last shot. If the
two are within a predefined threshold, the
range is accepted. Deviations are flagged by
the computer, making them easy to spot. N O R T H S E A
As recently as 1993, some contractors U. K.
made range measurements during acquisi-
tion and calculated rough initial positions, N
but waited until their return to shore to ver-
ify the calculations and link—merge, in seis-
mic-speak—the seismic data traces with the
corresponding source and receiver posi- tions. Three years ago, contracts typically
allowed six to eight weeks for this process,
Navigation Processing Turnaround but a difficult job could take six months.
14 Now, the final position data can be made
12 available in three hours (left ).
While navigation data are being collected
10 and processed, the seismic traces are begin-
ning their journey through data processing.
8
Weeks

Essentially any processing offered by

6 onshore processing centers can be supplied
onboard. The entire processing chain is too
4 elaborate to detail here. 5 But a few key
steps, and how they are being streamlined ■ Location of 3D seismic reduced-
2 turnaround pilot survey for Statoil, Saga
to help reduce turnaround, are examined in
and Mobil. The vicinity of the 3D survey
0 the following case study. (red outline) had substantial previous 2D
1992 1993 1994
Year
coverage (black lines).
A Turnaround Breakthrough
■ Evolution of navigation data In the summer of 1994, Statoil, in partner- Norwegian North Sea (above ). The area had
turnaround. Since 1994, positioning ship with Saga and Mobil, conducted a 3D already been traversed with 2D lines. The
data can be fully processed onboard. turnaround pilot project in block 33/6 of the acreage covered in the 3D survey was an
extension of a play concept that had proven
Navigation Sensor Data Per Shot prolific to the south—the oil basin contains
the Statfjord field, estimated at more than 3.5
350 ■ Number of sensor
measurements used billion barrels of recoverable oil, and the
* = Two-vessel acquisition *
300 * in marine position- Snorre field. The 33/6 area will be part of
ing calculations for concession round 15, recently announced
different acquisition by the Norwegian government. With this
Sensor readings

250
scenarios. The cal-
* culation must be survey already acquired, processed and
200
made between interpreted, the oil companies, acting indi-
150 shots—about every vidually, can make better decisions about
ten seconds—for how to bid for acreage.
100 onboard processing The goal of the pilot project was to turn
to keep pace with
50 acquisition. Acqui- around the 313-km2 [120-sq mile] survey
sition scenarios in seven weeks. With conventional tech-
0 range from 2D to
2D 1x1 1x2 2x2 2x2 2x3 3x3 2x4 2x5 2x6 2x6 2x7 2x8
nology, such a survey would take 18
dual sources with
First number is number of sources per vessel. eight streamers.
Second number is number of streamers per vessel.

January 1995 27
 Low-frequency Noise High-frequency Noise
weeks: 6 for acquisition, then at least
0 ■ Examples of low- another 12 for processing. Executing such
frequency (left)
and high-frequency a tightly constrained survey requires exact
noise (right) detected planning. Survey design, acquisition
with onboard pro- parameter selection and choice of process-
cessing. Low-fre- ing chain were given special attention by
1000
quency noise is
caused by ocean Statoil and Geco-Prakla geophysicists. In
swells during bad addition to these standard steps, during the
weather. High-fre- planning phase it was recognized that to
quency noise is minimize turnaround time, both Statoil and
caused by reverber- Geco-Prakla would have to reevaluate
2000 ations between sea
surface and sea accepted working practices: Statoil agreed
bottom, enhanced to hold decision-response time to 12
Two-way time, msec

at particular water hours, and Geco-Prakla agreed to increase

depths. computer and communication resources
3000 that would allow more rapid acquisition
and processing.
The Geco-Prakla vessel, Geco Gamma,
was equipped with the latest technology for
the job. Gamma had the TRILOGY system
4000 for onboard navigation and seismic data pro-
cessing, and access to INMARSAT, the inter-
national marine satellite system. Three IBM
RISC 6000s were installed to handle the near
real-time processing, reproducing the soft-
5000 ware and hardware of an onshore processing
center. The data would travel directly from
the acquisition system to the memory of the
TRIPRO onboard processing system. The
plan called for crucial data to be transmitted
6000 via satellite and land lines to the Statoil
Trace number Trace number office in Stavanger, Norway, where a work-

Raw Root Mean Square Noise Filtered Root Mean Square Noise
40 40

35 35

30 30
Sail-line number

25 25

20 20

15 15

10 10

5 5

1 1
400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 1 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 1
Shot number Shot number

■ Noise level of survey data, before (left) and after filtering (right). High-level
noise related to bad weather appears as red and orange bands along sail lines.
-128 0 127
Noise concentrated in one area, but spanning several lines (yellow upper left), is Amplitude
generated by a change in subsea topography. After filtering (right), the noise is
still apparent, but within acceptable limits.

28 Oilfield Review
 Unfiltered Stack Poststack Filtered Stack Prestack Filtered Stack
station was installed with the same process-
ing and interpretation software.
The first shot was fired on June 22, 1994, 3500
with the vessel towing two air gun clusters
and four 3000-m [9840-ft] streamers spaced
75 m [246 ft] apart. The survey was 11 km
[6.9 miles] wide and was completed in 38
vessel passes, making 293 lines. Some of
the first lines were shot in bad weather,
which created low-frequency swell noise,

Two-way time, msec

above the tolerance level set in the presur- 4000
vey plan (previous page, top ). When that
level is exceeded, many oil companies
choose to shut down acquisition, and the
vessel stands by, at up to $30,000 per day,
waiting for weather to calm. But onboard
processing showed that the noise could be
filtered out, though the filtering would have
to be done prestack (right ).6 By monitoring
signal quality onboard, and processing the 4500

acquired, subspecification data in real time,

Geco-Prakla geophysicists were able to
decide that the processing scheme would
tolerate the noisier data (previous page, bot-
tom ). This eliminated the need to reshoot
five or six lines, saving $70,000. The savings 600 550 600 550 600 550
Trace number Trace number Trace number
paid for the added cost of equipping the
vessel with the RISC 6000s, and cut two ■ Testing effect of noise reduction after and before stacking. Stacked section of
days off the turnaround. unfiltered data (left) shows noisy portion near center. Filtering the section post-
Early in the planning, the team considered stack (middle) retains much of the same noise. Prestack filtering (right) cleans up
undertaking onboard processing of reduced- the noise and produces an acceptable stacked section.
fold data. But tests conducted prior to
acquisition indicated that the reduced fold 4-fold Stack
would give inadequate imaging of subsur-
face reflectors, so full, 30-fold data were
processed onboard (right ).
Time, msec

3500
One of the crucial phases of the survey
was the construction of the earth velocity

4000
6. Stacking is the summing of traces with reflections that
have a common subsurface point. The number of
traces summed is called fold. Stacking reduces the 12-fold Stack
amount of seismic data by a factor of the fold and
increases signal-to-noise ratio. Processing takes longer
when performed on prestack data, because of the
greater data volume.
Time, msec

3500

■ Effects of fold—the number of traces

summed to create one stacked trace—on
stack quality. In the survey design stage,
Statoil and Geco-Prakla geophysicists 4000
considered processing lower-fold data to
speed turnaround, but tests showed that 30-fold Stack
only full-fold data would give acceptable
results. Stack processing run on test lines
shows that 4-fold stacking gives low sig-
nal-to-noise ratio and unclear reflections
Time, msec

3500
(top). Increasing the stack to 12-fold
improves the visibility of reflections, but
does not adequately suppress reverbera-
tions, called multiples, in the lower part
of the section (middle). Full-fold, or 30-
4000
fold stacking, produces a high-quality
section (bottom).
600 800 1000 1200 1400
Common depth point number
January 1995 29
 Onboard Velocity Picking and Quality Control

A B C D
1545

1000

velocity, m/sec
1000 2000
Time, msec

3000

3500
2000 4000

1000 2000 3000 4000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Velocity, m/sec Velocity function Common depth point number

■ Onboard velocity picking and quality control. Stacking velocities computed by onboard processing are displayed as contours, the
peaks of which can be identified in an interactive velocity picking window (A, black squares). Picks from the previous location are
white squares, and picks from the next location are pink squares. Seven time-velocity curves, called velocity functions, are plotted
as black curves. The picked velocities, applied to one common midpoint gather before stacking, yield flat reflections (B). The seven
velocity functions are applied to one gather, yielding seven panels. The velocities are correct when they give clear, flat reflectors (C).
Overlaying the stacked section on a color plot of the velocity field provides a quality check: changes in velocity coincide with major
reflections (D).

model that would be used to stack and later Fasttracks and Quicklooks
to migrate the data.7 Geco-Prakla geophysi- Migrated Zero offset Reduced-turnaround surveys are evolving
cists analyzed velocities on 18 seismic lines trace trace rapidly, and the amount of processing that
selected at 500-m [1640-ft] intervals, and Source Midpoint goes into each survey varies.9 Specialists
transmitted their results via satellite to Sta- trace Receiver divide reduced-turnaround surveys into two
vanger (above ). Statoil geophysicists loaded categories: fasttracks and quicklooks. Fast-
the data on workstations in their offices and tracks are fast, fully processed surveys, like
worked weekends to monitor data quality Statoil’s 33/6. Quicklooks are surveys that
and relay decisions on the quality of the process a subset of the full data set—called
velocity picks back to the vessel. A velocity low-fold—or that simplify processing, such
MIG
model for the 3D volume was then built as skipping dip moveout processing.
DMO
onboard. Quicklooks give interpreters a head start
The last major step before stacking—3D on interpretation, allowing earlier explo-
NMO
dip moveout processing (DMO)—was also ration or development decisions and identi-
completed onboard for the 30-fold data. fying areas that deserve more detailed pro-
This process corrects for the reflection point cessing. BP Exploration has conducted four
smear that results when events from dipping such surveys offshore Vietnam with Geco-
reflectors are stacked (right ). The final stack Original Prakla, using onboard processing of naviga-
volume was being built as soon as the last data tion, low-fold data and widely spaced
shot was fired, and inline migration begun streamers to speed turnaround. In one case,
while the vessel was steaming back to port. NMO –Normal moveout correction BP had farmed into a prospect—taken over
The computers and processing specialists DMO–Dip moveout processing a license relinquished by another opera-
were flown to Stavanger, where the final MIG–Migration tor—with only two years remaining. At the
processing was completed three weeks later. time, the planned 3D survey would have
Data quality was equivalent to that of a nor- ■ Effect of dip moveout (DMO) processing. taken six months for full-fold processing,
mal onshore processing job, and no imme- In the case of a dipping reflector, DMO compared to 11 weeks for a low-fold
processing is required to correctly posi-
diate reprocessing was scheduled. Seven tion a reflection signal. DMO is applied interim data cube. By getting the data ear-
weeks after the first shot was fired, a after normal moveout (NMO) correction lier, BP interpreters were able to spend more
Charisma workstation-ready tape was pro- and before migration (MIG). [Adapted
duced, waiting to be interpreted (next page ).8 from Sheriff RE: Encyclopedic Dictionary of
Exploration Geophysics. Tulsa, Oklahoma,
USA: Society of Exploration Geophysicists
(1991): 89.]

30 Oilfield Review
 time understanding the prospect before the fewer tapes created, and speed data transfer pared. In the relatively constant marine
spud date deadline. wherever tapes are required.10 The wider environment, where every survey has
Quicklooks can be considered preliminary availability of high-speed communication roughly the same sources, receivers, subsur-
or intermediate results, with potential to ben- links such as LINK 100, which enabled the face and acquisition geometry, surveys of
efit from later reprocessing. One example is fast turnaround of the Statoil 33/6 survey, different sizes and from different areas can
a 700-km2 [270-sq mile] exploration survey will make shorter turnaround the norm be scaled up or down for the purposes of
shot and processed onboard by Geco Reso- rather than the news. Geco-Prakla’s LINK keeping statistics. However, on and near
lution for Mobil in Papua New Guinea. Only 100 telecommunication service uses very land, every survey is different, and
portions of the survey were processed with small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite tech- turnaround comparisons from one area to
full fold, saving some of the exploration nology to transmit data to office-based users another may be meaningless. The environ-
money for drilling and development. via leased land lines or SINet, the Schlum- ment may vary from swamp to arctic tundra,
Today, quicklooks and fasttracks alike are berger Information Network.11 However, the from desert to jungle. Sources, receivers and
possible only if the onboard processing greatest potential for improvement in 3D acquisition geometries come in as many
sequence is nearly set in stone during turnaround, lies not in marine seismic, but combinations as there are environments.
presurvey planning with tests on prior 2D in land and shallow-water, or transition But in spite of the absence of statistics, land
data. If acquisition conditions require pro- zone (TZ), environments. and TZ turnaround are improving.
cessing modifications, some, such as noise Paralleling improvements in marine
attenuation, can be accommodated during The Onshore Challenge turnaround, TZ and land surveys are seeing
the survey. Today, turnaround for 3D land and TZ sur- more reliable acquisition hardware, faster
Further reductions in turnaround will veys can be only unfairly compared with acquisition through multiple sources and
come from improvements in all stages of that for marine surveys. The main difference more receivers, and real-time verification of
acquisition and processing. Geco-Prakla is in acquisition, which in some cases may source and receiver positions. The following
researchers are looking into improved algo- take 50 times longer on land than at sea. two sections describe case studies—first
rithms for navigation and seismic data pro- There is also little formal data on the transition zone, then land—to demonstrate
cessing. New, high-density data storage trends in turnaround for land and TZ sur- some of the latest techniques to shorten
media now being introduced will mean veys, because no two surveys can be com- turnaround.

327
7. Migration is a processing step that uses earth
427 velocity information to position reflections at their
ber true locations.
m 527
u
en
8. A Charisma workstation is one of GeoQuest’s seis-
Inlin 627 mic interpretation systems. For more information on
interpreting seismic data: James H, Tellez M, Schaet-
727 zlein G and Stark T: “Geophysical Interpretation:
From Bits and Bytes to the Big Picture,” Oilfield
827 Review 6, no. 3 (July 1994): 23-31.
941 9. Hardy R and Haskey P: “The Changing Role of On-
Board Processing,” paper B029, presented at the
56th EAEG Meeting and Technical Exhibition,
Vienna, Austria, June 6-10, 1994.
2896
Johnson DT, Bradshaw DG, Early RG and Done WJ:
“Processing Marine 3D Seismic Data on Board Dur-
ing Acquisition,” paper B028, presented at the 56th
3144 EAEG Meeting and Technical Exhibition, Vienna,
Two-way time, msec

Austria, June 6-10, 1994.

Taylor P and Keggin J: “Onboard Processing Can Be
3392 Done,” The Leading Edge 13 (November 1994):
1103-1105.
Thornton RI, Reilly JM, Millard P and Johnson ML:
3640
“Real Time Offshore 3D Processing—A Case His-
tory,” paper B030, presented at the 56th EAEG Meet-
ing and Technical Exhibition, Vienna, Austria, June
3888 6-10, 1994.
10. Helical-scan magnetic tape—also known as VHS-
format video tape—can store 25 GBytes on a car-
4136 tridge, and will soon be able to store 365 GBytes.
11. SINet is managed by Omnes, a joint venture
4352 between Schlumberger and Cable & Wireless.
3007 2759 2511 2263 2015 1767 1519 1271 1023
Crossline number

■ Final 3D-migrated seismic data volume. The data

cube is shown with a “chair” cut on a Charisma work-
station. High-amplitude reflections are displayed in
red and blue.

January 1995 31
Transition Zone water. Processing such surveys takes extra page, top ). Up to 1536 channels have been
The North Freshwater Bayou in southern steps to account for the different responses of recorded in real time without reaching the
Louisiana, USA, was the site of a 3D survey the various receiver types. limits of the system. This large number of
demanding exceptional turnaround (right ). The hydrophones used in the North Fresh- channels allows for flexibility in arranging
The acreage covered leases operated by water Bayou were attached to the Digiseis- source-receiver combinations, often without
Unocal and Exxon. Unocal was drilling at FLX system, a new, flexible transition zone moving the DAUs. Seismic data are trans-
the time of the survey, and planned at least acquisition system developed by Geco- mitted to the acquisition boat using radio
one additional well. Drillers, heading for a Prakla ( bottom ). Each Digiseis-FLX data frequencies that can be adapted to avoid
deep target below 4.0 sec two-way travel acquisition unit (DAU) is a floating instru- conflict with other radio activity.
time, wanted to confirm the location of the mented tube, tethered to an anchor and The Digiseis-FLX system presents advan-
target before reaching total depth. The chal- connected to four hydrophone groups (next tages over other TZ equipment, called bay
lenge was to complete acquisition between
the July 15 end of the alligator breeding sea- ■ Location of North
CANADA
son and the October 15 start of duck migra- Freshwater Bayou
3D transition zone
tion—a 13-week window of opportunity. (TZ) survey.
Survey planners designed a 79-sq mile

N
[200-km2] survey to be processed in two

CEA
phases. Processing began on an 18-sq mile

IC O
[46-km2] priority area, while acquisition UNITED STATES
continued over surrounding acreage.

ANT
The shallow-water environment allowed

ATL
an all-hydrophone acquisition. Some TZ sur-
veys cross the line between water and land,
and require a combination of receivers—

River
geophones on land and hydrophones in the MEXICO
Alabama
Louisiana

ppi
Mississippi

Mississi
Texas

3D survey
area

EX ICO
OF M
LF
GU

cable. Bay cable consists of a 1/3-in. [0.8-

cm] diameter instrumented cable, two to
three miles long, that lies on the sea bottom.
The cable can shift with currents, and can
be damaged by boat propellers and sharp
coral. While radiotelemetry avoids these
problems, the added flexibility creates a
new problem, synchronization: each unit
must record at exactly the same time. The
Digiseis-FLX system uses a patented syn-
chronization method, achieving an accu-
racy significantly higher than other
radiotelemetry systems.
■ Data acquisition units (DAUs). Each DAU consists of an instrumented tube, a square Another innovation that contributes to the
floatation pad and an antenna. DAUs are maintained and transported on the floating speed of the survey is the method with
base camp.
which the source explosives and the
hydrophones are emplaced. The tech-
nique—ramming—is like using a hypoder-
mic needle to inject a source or receiver into
the earth. Ramming sources in soft transition
zone cuts down on the time required to drill

32 Oilfield Review
source holes. On land, drilling crews typi-
cally drill 100- to 180-ft [30- to 55-m] deep
shot holes in advance of the acquisition
crew. Equivalent results are obtained with
40- to 50-ft [12- to 15-m] deep ram holes.
Ramming not only takes less time, but it also
costs less. Deep holes cost about $300 per
hole to drill, while ramming costs about $75
per hole. Ramming hydrophones to a uni-
form depth of 20 ft [6 m] below sea level
results in better receiver coupling and higher
quality data. The main limitation of ramming
is the restriction to unconsolidated earth.
Not all the North Freshwater Bayou
turnaround speed came from fast acquisi-
tion. Geometry verification—much like
navigation data processing in the marine
environment—carried out in the field, cut
weeks off the normal processing time.
Geometry verification, a feature of the Voy-
ager mobile data processing system, checks
that the source and receiver positions
attributed to every shot record are correct.
Usually this is checked back at the office ■ Transition zone
after acquisition has been completed and crew deploying
DAU from environ-
the crew has left, but fixing errors after the mentally-friendly
fact is time-consuming. In some cases, air boat.
entire land surveys have had to be
reshot—a turnaround nightmare.
One error typically encountered in geom-
etry verification is a mistake in the identifi-
cation of shot-point location. This can occur
when the source, say a vibrating truck (vibro
for short) is at the wrong location, can’t get
to the right location, or if the location is mis-
surveyed. It can also occur if receiver loca-

tions are missurveyed, or if the wrong

receivers are active.
These mistakes can be detected quickly by
applying some simple processing at the base
camp, after the day’s acquisition (left ). The
process is called linear moveout, or LMO.
LMO compares arrival times recorded for a
given source-receiver geometry to those
expected for the same geometry, assuming a
constant velocity subsurface. If the source
and receivers are in the right places, the

■ Floating base
camp. The camp
can be towed
between locations.
Not having to dis-
mantle and set up
camp every day
speeds turnaround.

January 1995 33
LMO process yields seismic traces with first Reducing Turnaround on Land be identified and minimized to reduce
arrivals aligned in time. Any other pattern of Three-dimensional surveys on land turnaround. In the following examples of
first arrivals indicates a mistake in the encounter many of the same difficulties as 3D land surveys in Texas, such bottlenecks
source-receiver geometry (below ). in transition zones, with the added prob- were identified during presurvey planning
This technique was used in the Unocal lems of access, topography and extreme and circumvented in novel ways.
survey to quickly verify geometry in the temperatures. All of these make for longer
field. Catching errors with the crew still on acquisition campaigns and more difficult Rough Terrain Turnaround
site permits corrective action. Shot and processing. Under fair marine conditions, The Val Verde basin in Texas, USA is at the
receiver locations can be resurveyed if nec- multielement acquisition can collect more edge of the Sierra Madre mountains that
essary to revise the location data base. than 75 km2 [29 sq miles] per day. Under extend north from Mexico ( next page,
Without this field verification, errors may be extreme land conditions, such as −40° C bottom ). The basin is a hot play for gas, with
detected weeks or months later. Then, pro- [−40° F] arctic surveys, acquisition may pro- some wells in the region producing more
cessing specialists would have to test several ceed at less than 1 km2 [0.4 sq mile] per than 7 MMcf/D. The terrain is extremely
possible geometries in hopes of discovering day. Land surveys of 1500 km 2 [586 sq rough, with steep-edged mesas and incised
what really happened, spending time and miles] have taken up to 4 1/2 years for acqui- canyons (next page, top ). Several 3D sur-
adding uncertainty. Verifying the geometry sition. The potential for improvement in veys in the area have contributed to the
in the field saves up to four weeks in the land 3D turnaround is undisputed.12 continuous improvement of field operating
office. In land surveys more than other types, procedures.
With much of the time-consuming work presurvey planning is the key to minimizing In one case, Conoco joined forces with
out of the way, the computing center pro- turnaround. 13 Time spent planning and Hunt Oil to acquire the Geaslin survey in the
ceeded with the rapid disk-to-disk process- designing is more than compensated by summer of 1994. Both companies had a
ing on a Sun SPARCstation 20. The fully pro- time saved acquiring data. With a given set short fuse: they had to evaluate their leases
cessed 3D cube was ready three weeks after of equipment, say a certain number of geo- and make decisions for an early 1995 drill
acquisition, in time for interpreters to use. phones and people, one plan might achieve date. The survey design specified the num-
Interpretation of the seismic volume sig- 150 to 200 shots a day, while a suboptimal ber and location of shot points, but the short
naled drillers that their target would be pro- plan with different shot and receiver line turnaround and high cost ruled out dynamite
ductive. Unocal interpreters were able to spacing may collect only 100 shots a day. as a source, because too much time would
use the seismic data to confirm the quality The most time-consuming tasks in acqui- be taken to drill shot holes. Vibro sources
of their next well location and plan at least sition—be they laying out receivers, drilling were available—four vibrating trucks at
one additional deep well at greater than shot holes, repairing damaged cables or 12.5-m [41-ft] spacing constitute one
20,000 ft [6090 m]. advancing to the next vibro location—must source—but the terrain presented mind-bog-
gling logistics: in some cases it would take
Geometry Error four hours for a vibro trip up and down a
0 mesa (next page, middle ). The solution was
to use two sets of buggy vibros, or eight in
Two-way time, sec

0.1
all, similar to a dual-source marine survey.14
0.2
While one set was shaking in the valley, the
other set would work its way up a mesa.
0.3 Similar dual-source vibro operations have
been extremely successful in desert areas,
0.4
such as Egypt and Oman, where there are no
Corrected Geometry Error
obstructions. In this case they allowed acqui-
0
sition of 60 sq miles [153 km2] in 65 days.
Two-way time, sec

0.1 As in all land jobs, darkness presents too

many hazards, so the crew operates only
0.2
during daylight hours. Evenings were well
0.3
spent, though, running geometry verification
on the day’s acquired data. One of the goals
0.4 of the next shift was to have that day’s
■ Field processing for source and receiver geometry verification. Linear move-
geometry checked and attached to the seis-
out (LMO) processing, applied immediately after the day’s shooting, detected mic traces, usually by midnight. That way,
an error in the position of the shot fired to four receiver lines, as indicated by geometry problems could be fixed the next
warped first arrival times (top). The next day, the shot point was resurveyed, day, before the receivers were moved.
and the new location input to LMO processing. The flat arrival times indicate
correct geometry (bottom).

12. Jack I and Nestvold W: “3D Seismic—The Next 14. Buggy vibros are vibros equipped with wider than
Step,” Keynote Address at PETEX 94 meeting on normal tires. This allows access to rugged terrain
Techniques For Cost-Effective Exploration & Produc- while causing less damage to the environment.
tion, London, England, November 16-18, 1994.
13. For a review of 3D seismic survey planning: Ashton
CP, Bacon B, Mann A, Moldoveanu N, Déplanté C,
Ireson D, Sinclair T and Redekop G: “3D Seismic
Survey Design,” Oilfield Review 6, no. 2 (April
1994): 19-32.

34 Oilfield Review
■ Rough terrain of Geaslin survey. The challenge of moving
equipment on and off mesas was met by use of two sets of
vibrator sources.

CANADA
AN
CE
IC O

UNITED STATES
ANT
ATL

■ Buggy vibrator source—vibro for short.

Four such trucks shake in series to create
New
Mexico a single source. Each vibro weighs
MEXICO
50,000 lbs [22,700 kg], is 30 ft [9 m] long
Louisiana

Texas
and 10 ft [3 m] wide.

3D survey
area

GULF OF
MEXICO MEXICO

■ Location of 3D land surveys Val Verde

County, Texas.

January 1995 35
 Processing the data from the Geaslin sur- What’s Coming to Land etry verification and further processing
vey proved to be a great challenge. Val Keeping track of all the information perti- steps. The Olympus-IMS system will be
Verde basin is notorious for bad data. High- nent to a land survey is often the most time- available in Australia and Texas by the mid-
velocity carbonates near the surface deflect consuming job, and steps are being taken to dle of 1995.
much of the source energy away from shorten it and make fuller use of all the Further improvements in land turnaround
deeper layers; receiver and source coupling information available. The Olympus-IMS will come from improvements in hardware
to the surface varies with location; and the information management system, now in and communication. In the most adverse
rugged relief introduces high residual stat- use by Geco-Prakla in Germany, is designed conditions, a good crew may spend as little
ics—differences in seismic travel time to do just that. as two to three hours shooting out of ten
through surface topography. After four The Olympus-IMS system colocates in a spent in the field. In these circumstances, a
months of testing and processing, including single data base the many types of data that small amount of time spent trouble-shoot-
3D DMO and migration, the processing was must be handled in a land survey. Previ- ing equipment faults can have a consider-
complete. The next step is interpretation, in ously, every type of data had its own data able impact on turnaround. Geco-Prakla
preparation for a possible 1995 drill date. base: the planned survey layout, the actual engineers are developing more reliable
In the nearby Brown Bassett survey for surveyed receiver and source point loca- hardware, to reduce the amount of time
Mobil, acquisition time was further short- tions, shot hole drilling data, shooting spent looking for and repairing flaws in geo-
ened by the use of helicopters to move schedule data and the recorded seismic phones, cables and connectors. Today, each
cables, recording boxes and geophones up trace data were handled by different soft- receiver point marked on a map consists of
and down the mesa and canyon walls. ware. The new integrated system minimizes up to 72 individual geophones, whose sig-
Three hundred “helibags”—net bags for the number of data handling steps, reducing nals are combined to yield a less noisy sig-
transporting material—helped the crew errors and improving turnaround. The sys- nal at a central location, or source point
complete the 60-sq mile [153-km2] acquisi- tem will also link directly with processing ( below ). Up to 140,000 geophones will
tion in significantly less time than usual. software to allow field processing for geom- have to be repeatedly picked up, put down

Windmill Receiver Array Areal Source Array Linear Source Array

Pos 1 Pos 1 Pos 1 Pos 1

Vibro 1 x x x x
2.5 m
12.5 m

120° 13 Vibro 2 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
.75
m Source point Source point
3.125 m

Receiver Vibro 3 x x x x
point 46.875 m

Vibro 4 x x x x
12.5 m

■ Typical patterns for receiver and source arrays. When geophysicists talk about a receiver or source position,
they nearly always mean the central position of an array of receivers or sources. Arrays are designed to atten-
uate surface noise. Up to 72 receivers can be arrayed around the central position, and up to 20 individual
source positions can be summed to make one source point.

36 Oilfield Review
and maintained in the course of a 3D sur- The Role of Integrated Services in For marine, transition zone and land 3D
vey. Efforts are also underway to find new Reducing Turnaround survey turnaround, the journey is not fin-
ways to acquire the same amount and qual- Marine, TZ and land 3D surveys are sure to ished, but the direction is clear. Marine sur-
ity of data with fewer receivers, cutting sur- find further turnaround improvement in the veys are in the lead, having made tremen-
vey time. common ground of integrated services. In an dous progress in the last three years by
Improved communications will also cut integrated-service survey, planning, acquisi- converting acquisition, positioning and pro-
turnaround time. Increased use of GPS is tion, processing and project management cessing to a set of parallel tasks. Some
decreasing the time spent surveying posi- are delivered by one service company. Tradi- marine surveys that would have taken 10
tions for land source and receiver points. tionally, the oil company plans the survey, years to acquire and process using 1980s
Surveying with GPS is faster and easier to then one contractor acquires the data and technology are now completed in months.
check than traditional theodolitic surveying, another processes it. Time is wasted transfer- Some say marine turnaround is no longer an
and leaves less room for human error. Plac- ring data and responsibility between parties. issue, that any marine survey can now be
ing GPS units on vibro sources helps keep Geco-Prakla has developed an integrated turned around within any explorationist‘s
track of actual source locations and reduces service for 3D surveys called TQ3D—Total time constraint.
location error. Quality 3D. Larger in area than most sur- Land and transition zone surveys, while
For arctic land surveys, snow streamers veys, TQ3D projects can cover leased and lagging their marine counterparts, have
have been developed in collaboration with open blocks. A TQ3D project may be oper- made inroads with field processing, innova-
Norsk Hydro as substitutes for hand-placed ated from 100% proprietary to 100% nonex- tive sources and survey designs that opti-
geophones in an effort to increase acquisi- clusive, or anywhere in between. Data mize available equipment. These and further
tion efficiency. Geco-Prakla engineers have acquired on a proprietary basis become the improvements will contribute to minimizing
tested snow streamers in six programs, property of the operator. Large projects can turnaround time, allowing oil companies to
acquiring 1200 km [750 miles] of 2D data. involve several operators. Data acquired on spend less time waiting for information and
Efforts are also underway to minimize envi- a nonexclusive basis become the property of more time using it. —LS
ronmental impact, which in arctic environ- Geco-Prakla, and may be licensed.
ments must be included as part of The turnaround improvement achievable 15. For more on arctic surveys: Meyer H, Read T,
turnaround—a single drop of oil spilled through integrated services is remarkable. A Thomas J, Wedge M and Wren M: “Environmental
Management in the Arctic,” Oilfield Review 5, no. 4
must be recovered before the crew moves.15 mixed proprietary-nonexclusive TQ3D for (October 1993): 14-22.
Connecting land crews via satellite to BP in UK block 47/10 was started and com-
SINet, the Schlumberger Information Net- pleted in November 1994. Geco Topaz
work, will give better day-to-day contact acquired the 230-km2 [89-sq mile] survey in
with office bases, speeding equipment and three weeks. While full-fold data were being
supply requests and allowing interaction acquired, a 20-fold data volume was par-
with processing centers. The first such satel- tially migrated onboard, and processing was
lite link has been made in Venezuela, and completed onshore. Processed data were
others are planned. sent to the GeoQuest Data Services group
Moving more processing to the field will via SINet, and converted to Charisma work-
further reduce turnaround for both land and station format. Total project time was four
transition zone surveys. Parameter testing, weeks. Thirty-four such marine surveys have
noise attenuation and velocity picking can been completed, and 21 more are in
be done with today’s field processing tools. progress, covering a total of 43,000 km2
But full concurrent processing, as performed [16,800 sq miles].
in marine surveys, is still a dream for land. Integrated services are also reducing land
Land acquisition, more so than marine, is a survey turnaround. Land surveys, with their
three-dimensional problem: sources are not difficult logistics, benefit from the approach
aligned with receiver lines, and more time is a committed team brings to a project. In
needed to acquire enough seismic traces to addition to survey design, acquisition and
process one part of the 3D volume. At best, processing, land surveys require obtaining
processing through to stacking could lag permission to access an area from those
acquisition by a few weeks, but the difficult who own and live on the land. The project
task of computing residual statics before can run more smoothly when a single con-
stacking cannot begin until all the data are tractor coordinates every phase. One such
in. Advances may come from taking a new project in Africa turned around a 50-km2
view of 3D land surveys—planning, acquir- [20-sq mile] survey in seven months, from
ing and processing with a truly three-dimen- planning through installation of processed
sional view—rather than simply repeating a data onto an interpretation workstation. Two
series of two-dimensional snapshots. other projects are in the survey design stage.

January 1995 37