Solving subsalt imaging challenges in Green Canyon using OBN and FWI imaging

Liu, Jianlei; Yang, Min; Deeds, Jacob; Luckow, Joel; Cheriyan, Thomas; Ariston, Pierre-Olivier; Yang, Zhenlin; Mei, Meisen; Zhang, Zhigang

doi:10.1190/segam2021-3583443.1

Cited by 3 publications

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Innovative application of full-waveform inversion applied to extended wide-azimuth marine streamer seismic data in a complex salt environment

et al. 2022

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We demonstrated the application of full-waveform inversion (FWI) guided velocity model building to an extended wide-azimuth towed streamer (EWATS) seismic data set in the Gulf of Mexico. Field data were collected over a historically challenging imaging area, colloquially called the “grunge zone” due to the formation of a compressional allosuture emplaced between two colliding salt sheets. These data had a poor subsalt image below the suture with conventional narrow-azimuth data. Additional geologic complexities were observed including high-velocity carbonate carapace near the top of salt and multiple intrasalt sedimentary inclusions. As such, improved seismic imaging was required to plan and execute wells targeting subsalt strata. Significant improvements to the velocity model and subsalt image were evident with wide-azimuth towed streamer and later EWATS data using conventional top-down velocity model building approaches. Then, high-impact improvements were made using EWATS data with an FWI velocity model building workflow; this study represented an early successful application of FWI used to update salt body geometries from streamer seismic data, in which many past applications were limited to improving sedimentary velocities. Later petrophysical data verified the new FWI-derived model, which had significantly increased confidence in the structural and stratigraphic interpretation of subsalt reservoir systems below the grunge zone.

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