Offset footprint analysis for selecting candidate lines for seismic survey

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10156652-B2
Application number	US-201514790795-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 2, 2015
Priority date	May 23, 2012
Publication date	Dec 18, 2018
Grant date	Dec 18, 2018

Abstract

An analysis is proved to determine a candidate line for at least one vessel to traverse in a 3D seismic survey to achieve desired coverage either along a planned line or a new infill line. The analysis can also be used in a 4-D survey to determine the coverage of a candidate line relative to the baseline survey previously conducted. The analysis determines a coverage footprint of the common midpoint lines, at given offsets, so the user or automated system can select a candidate line to achieve the best coverage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A seismic surveying method, comprising:
obtaining developed data related to acquisition of seismic data acquired by sailing at least one vessel towing streamers on a streamer spread along one or more developed sail lines of an acquisition plan, each of the developed sail lines having a developed footprint of the developed data, each of the developed footprints tracing common midpoints lines of the seismic acquisition of outer ones of the streamers on the streamer spread towed by the at least one vessel;
predicting a first candidate footprint for acquiring first candidate data along a first candidate sail line adjacent one or more of the one or more developed sail lines, each of the first candidate footprints tracing candidate common midpoints lines at at least one offset of outer ones of the streamers on the streamer spread towed by the at least one vessel;
comparing the first candidate footprint with respect to the adjacent one or more developed footprints;
quantifying the comparison for an operator in terms of overlap, gap, and unique acquisition between the first candidate footprint with respect to the adjacent one or more developed footprints to maximize coverage;
receiving an instruction from the operator for sailing the at least one vessel based on the quantified comparison; and
acquiring seismic data by sailing the at least one vessel with the streamer spread in accordance with the instruction received.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein predicting the first candidate footprint comprises: determining at least one common midpoint footprint for the first candidate footprint along the first candidate sail line and determining the at least one offset for the at least one predicted common midpoint footprint.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one offset comprises an in-line offset, a cross-line offset, and/or a radial offset.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein predicting the first candidate footprint comprises defining the first candidate footprint by the common midpoint lines, at the at least one offset, of the streamer spread of seismic equipment towed by the at least one vessel under observed and/or predicted conditions.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein predicting comprises modeling acquisition of the first candidate data along the first candidate sail line based on at least one factor impacting the acquisition.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the at least one factor comprises one or more of: environmental information, weather information, sea current information, acquisition geometry, feather, offset, obstruction, operational restriction, observed condition, and predicted condition.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first candidate sail line comprises a planned sail line in the acquisition plan, an infill sail line, a new sail line added to the acquisition plan, or a sail line in the acquisition plan of a 4-D survey of an existing baseline survey.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein comparing comprises spatially displaying first information representative of the one or more developed footprints and second information representative of the first candidate footprint.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein comparing comprises determining the overlap of at least one attribute between the developed data in the one or more developed footprints and the first candidate data in the first candidate footprint.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein comparing comprises determining the gap of at least one attribute between the developed data in the one or more developed footprints and the first candidate data in the first candidate footprint.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein comparing comprises determining the unique acquisition of at least one attribute of the first candidate data in the first candidate footprint that is unique compared to the developed seismic data in the one or more developed footprints.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the at least one attribute comprises an area of a bin grid having an extent of seismic data, a coverage of a bin grid, quality control information, repeatability, a Root Mean Square (RMS) of a seismic signal, and a RMS of noise.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein quantifying the comparison comprises generating one or more metrics on at least one attribute between the first candidate footprint with respect to the adjacent one or more developed footprints.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein comparing and quantifying comprises tracing the first candidate footprint with respect to the adjacent one or more developed footprints in a visual display; spatially displaying the overlap, the gap, and the unique acquisition as an outline trace; and incorporating the one or more metrics on the at least one attribute in the visual display.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the one or more metrics comprises a statistic on the at least one attribute.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein, before receiving the instruction, the method comprises:
predicting at least one second candidate footprint for acquiring second candidate data along at least one second candidate sail line relative to the adjacent one or more developed sail lines;
comparing the at least one second candidate footprint with respect to the adjacent one or more developed footprints; and
quantifying the comparison for the operator.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein predicting the at least one second candidate footprint comprises using the at least one offset used for the first candidate footprint.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the operator is a user, an automated system, or both.

19. The method claim 1 , wherein the developed data related to the acquisition of the seismic data acquired by sailing along the one or more developed sail lines of the acquisition plan further comprises data that is one or more of stored, pre-existing, baseline, modeled, predicted, planned, generated, gathered, acquired, processed, and simulated.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the developed data further comprises at least one of:
sailing the at least one vessel according to the acquisition plan and gathering seismic data with seismic equipment for the developed data;
planning the one or more developed sail lines for the acquisition plan and modeling the developed footprint in the developed data for the one or more planned sail lines;
predicting the one or more developed sail lines for the acquisition plan and modeling the developed footprint in the developed data for the one or more predicted sail lines;
accessing the developed data from storage; and
accessing the developed data from an existing baseline survey.

21. A programmable storage device having program instructions stored thereon for causing a programmable control device to perform a seismic surveying method of a subsurface volume according to claim 1 .

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein predicting the first candidate footprint comprises using the predicted first candidate footprint to infill missing data; and wherein quantifying the comparison to maximize the coverage comprising maximizing the unique acquisition of the first candidate footprint used to infill the missing data and reducing the overlap and the gap of the first candidate footprint relative to the adjacent one or more developed footprints.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein predicting the first candidate footprint comprises using the predicted first candidate footprint to replace the developed data of one

Assignees

• Ion Geophysical Corp

Inventors

• Bowman David Robert
• Tomlinson Michael Bernard
• Styles Angus Macgregor

Classifications

• G01V1/003 Primary

  Seismic data acquisition in general, e.g. survey design (G01V1/3808, G01V1/42 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01V1/3808 Primary

  Seismic data acquisition, e.g. survey design · CPC title

• G01V2200/14

  Quality control · CPC title