Marine sources poised for breakthroughs

摘要

Long overshadowed by 'sexier' technology, marine sources are starting to get the attention they deserve. Within the past decade, exploration technology advances have really ramped up. One area that has seen vast improvement is the area of marine seismic acquisition, and it was there that Society of Exploration Geophysicists Honorary Lecturer Nick Moldoveanu chose to devote his 2013 lecture. Titled "Evolution of marine acquisition technology after wide azimuth," Moldoveanu's lecture examined some of the amazing acquisition breakthroughs that have taken place since BP shot the first wide-azimuth survey on its Mad Dog field in 2006. But what I found most intriguing was his list of "coming up next" technologies that are not that far in the future. Moldoveanu noted that the airgun, invented in 1960, has never been the ideal marine source due to issues in reliability; lack of power; and narrow bandwidth, particularly at lower frequencies. To date, only the reliability issue has been addressed.