3D modeling of a staggered ultra-long offset and full-azimuth acquisition

摘要

Though impressive imaging advances in the Gulf of Mexico have been made with the surge in availability of wide azimuth data, modeling studies have shown that, for exceptionally complex geological regions, the next step-change improvement will happen with both longer offsets and more complete azimuthal coverage. To study the benefits of a new staggered acquisition design that provides longer offsets and greater azimuth coverage than conventional wide azimuth (WAZ) configurations, we perform an acoustic 3D forward modeling. We perform this 3D finite-difference modeling using a modified SEG SEAM model. Reverse Time Migration (RTM) results from the modeled synthetic shot gathers demonstrate that the staggered acquisition produces a better image than conventional WAZ.