Depth Imaging of Complex Geological Structures using the RTM Technique in Order to Reduce Exploration Costs

Abstract

This work aims to perform a comparison of depth imaging results using values not commonly used for source and receiver intervals to prove that it is possible to obtain good results, in terms of the quality of seismic sections, with less data, which can significantly reduce petroleum exploration costs. Bidimensional acoustic modeling with a finite difference scheme was applied to a slice of the 3D SEG/EAGE Overthrust model to generate the synthetic seismograms. These seismograms were generated comparing 25 m for shot and receiver intervals, which is a common interval for a seismic acquisition process, with 200 m for shot and receiver intervals, which is not a common value. A reverse time migration (RTM) technique was applied to perform the depth migration of the generated pre-stack seismic data, and the migrated shots were stacked to create the seismic section. In addition, suggestions related to seismic illumination studies and visibility analyses are discussed to improve the results and to contribute to exploration and production (E&P) cost reduction. In these cases, the SEG/EAGE Salt Dome model and the Sigsbee model from the SMAART JV project were used to illustrate the discussion.