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A truly integrated velocity model building method has been developed and applied for seismic imaging. Geophysical basin modeling is designed to mitigate seismic data limitations and constrains the velocity model building by taking advantage of information provided by geologic and geophysical input. The information from geologic concepts and understanding is quantified using basin model simulations to model primary control fields for rock properties, temperature, and effective stress. Transformation of the basin model fields to velocity is made by universally calibrated rock models. Applications show that high-quality seismic images are produced in areas of geologic complexity, where it is challenging to define these properties from seismic data alone. This multidisciplinary operation is of high value in exploration because it offers a significant reduction in the time and effort required to build a velocity model, while also improving the resulting image quality.

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Recent advances in marine seismic acquisition, e.g. and full azimuth, are providing data sets in the deep Gulf of Mexico that were uneconomical a decade ago. Seismic processing techniques and technologie developing to keep pace with the advances in acquisition. A recent trend in the Gulf of Mexico is to build and image complex salt areas with tilted transverse velocity models and imaging algorithms capable of handling extreme velocity complexity. This paper summarizes the results from a TTI model building and complex imaging project in the central Green Canyon area. Imaging improvements and velocity field convergence (as demonstrated by well ties) were achieved with the TTI workflow. This case study also shows the benefits from using multiple, fit-for-purpose imaging algorithms through the model building process.

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