Research on seismic survey design for doubly complex areas

The complex geological conditions in doubly complex areas tend to result in difficult surface survey operations and poor target layer imaging in the subsurface which has a great impact on seismic data quality. In this paper, we propose an optimal crooked line survey method for decreasing the surface survey operational difficulties and improving the sub-layer event continuity. The method concentrates on the surface shooting conditions, first, selecting the proper shot positions based on the specific surface topographic features to reduce the shot difficulties and then optimizing the receiver positioning to meet the prerequisite that the subsurface reflection points remain in a straight line. Using this method cannot only lower the shooting difficulty of rough surface condition areas but also overcome the subsurface reflection point bending problem appearing in the traditional crooked line survey method. On the other hand, we use local infill shooting rather than conventional overall infill shooting to improve sublayer event continuity and uniformity with lower survey operation cost. A model has been calculated and processed with the proposed optimal crooked line survey and local infill shooting design method workflow and the results show that this new method can work for seismic surveys in double complex areas.     

Rapid inversion of data from 2D resistivity surveys with electrode displacements

Resistivity monitoring surveys are used to detect temporal changes in the subsurface using repeated measurements over the same site. The positions of the electrodes are typically measured at the start of the survey program and possibly at occasional later times. In areas with unstable ground, such as landslide‐prone slopes, the positions of the electrodes can be displaced by ground movements. If this occurs at times when the positions of the electrodes are not directly measured, they have to be estimated. This can be done by interpolation or, as in recent developments, from the resistivity data using new inverse methods. The smoothness‐constrained least squares optimisation method can be modified to include the electrode positions as additional unknown parameters. The Jacobian matrices with the sensitivity of the apparent resistivity measurements to changes in the electrode positions are then required by the optimisation method. In this paper, a fast adjoint‐equation method is used to calculate the Jacobian matrices required by the least squares method to reduce the calculation time. In areas with large near‐surface resistivity contrasts, the inversion routine sometimes cannot accurately distinguish between electrode displacements and subsurface resistivity variations. To overcome this problem, the model for the initial time‐lapse dataset (with accurately known electrode positions) is used as the starting model for the inversion of the later‐time dataset. This greatly improves the accuracy of the estimated electrode positions compared to the use of a homogeneous half‐space starting model. In areas where the movement of the electrodes is expected to occur in a fixed direction, the method of transformations can be used to include this information as an additional constraint in the optimisation routine.     

Fidelity and repeatability of wave fields reconstructed from multicomponent streamer data

Wave field reconstruction – the estimation of a three‐dimensional (3D) wave field representing upgoing, downgoing or the combined total pressure at an arbitrary point within a marine streamer array – is enabled by simultaneous measurements of the crossline and vertical components of particle acceleration in addition to pressure in a multicomponent marine streamer. We examine a repeated sail line of North Sea data acquired by a prototype multicomponent towed‐streamer array for both wave field reconstruction fidelity (or accuracy) and reconstruction repeatability. Data from six cables, finely sampled in‐line but spaced at 75 m crossline, are reconstructed and placed on a rectangular data grid uniformly spaced at 6.25 m in‐line and crossline. Benchmarks are generated using recorded pressure data and compared with wave fields reconstructed from pressure alone, and from combinations of pressure, crossline acceleration and vertical acceleration. We find that reconstruction using pressure and both crossline and vertical acceleration has excellent fidelity, recapturing highly aliased diffractions that are lost by interpolation of pressure‐only data. We model wave field reconstruction error as a linear function of distance from the nearest physical sensor and find, for this data set with some mismatched shot positions, that the reconstructed wave field error sensitivity to sensor mispositioning is one‐third that of the recorded wave field sensitivity. Multicomponent reconstruction is also more repeatable, outperforming single‐component reconstruction in which wave field mismatch correlates with geometry mismatch. We find that adequate repeatability may mask poor reconstruction fidelity and that aliased reconstructions will repeat if the survey geometry repeats. Although the multicomponent 3D data have only 500 m in‐line aperture, limiting the attenuation of non‐repeating multiples, the level of repeatability achieved is extremely encouraging compared to full‐aperture, pressure‐only, time‐lapse data sets at an equivalent stage of processing.     

Design,modelling and imaging of marine seismic swarm surveys

Autonomous marine vehicles instrumented with seismic sensors allow for new efficient seismic survey designs. One such design is the swarm survey, where a group, or swarm, of slow moving autonomous marine vehicles record seismic data from shots fired by a source vessel sailing around circles within the swarm. The size of the swarm is dictated by the maximum offset requirement of the survey, and it can be shaped to acquire wide‐ and full‐azimuth data. The swarm survey design equation describes the relationship between the source and receiver positions of the survey and the subsurface coverage or fold. It is used to adapt the swarm to the seismic survey requirements and to calculate survey duration time estimates as function of available equipment. It is shown that a survey conducted by a slowly moving swarm requires six times fewer shots than an equivalent seabed node survey conducted over 85.5 km². Swarm surveys can also be adapted to efficiently conduct infill surveys and replace multi‐vessel undershoots. The efficiency of the survey can further be increased when the autonomous marine vehicles are towing short streamers with multiple receivers. Synthetic tests show that the seismic images for swarm surveys are comparable to those from streamer surveys, while little variation in image quality is found when reducing the number of autonomous marine vehicles but equipping them with a short streamer with multiple receivers.     

Noise transfer in variable‐depth streamer deghosting

Single‐component towed‐streamer marine data acquisition records the pressure variations of the upgoing compressional waves followed by the polarity‐reversed pressure variations of downgoing waves, creating sea‐surface ghost events in the data. The sea‐surface ghost for constant‐depth towed‐streamer marine data acquisition is usually characterised by a ghost operator acting on the upgoing waves, which can be formulated as a filtering process in the frequency–wavenumber domain. The deghosting operation, usually via the application of the inverse Wiener filter related to the ghost operator, acts on the signal as well as the noise. The noise power transfer into the deghosted data is proportional to the power spectrum of the inverse Wiener filter and is amplifying the noise strongly at the notch wavenumbers and frequencies of the ghost operator. For variable‐depth streamer acquisition, the sea‐surface ghost cannot be described any longer as a wavenumber–frequency operator but as a linear relationship between the wavenumber–frequency representation of the upgoing waves at the sea surface and the data in the space–frequency domain. In this article, we investigate how the application of the inverse process acts on noise. It turns out that the noise magnification is less severe with variable‐depth streamer data, as opposed to constant depth, and is inversely proportional to the local slant of the streamer. We support this statement via application of the deghosting process to real and numerical random noise. We also propose a more general concept of a wavenumber–frequency ghost power transfer function, applicable for variable‐depth streamer acquisition, and demonstrate that the inverse of the proposed variable‐depth ghost power transfer function can be used to approximately quantify the action of the variable‐depth streamer deghosting process on noise.     

Importance of borehole deviation surveys for monitoring of hydraulic fracturing treatments

During seismic monitoring of hydraulic fracturing treatment, it is very common to ignore the deviations of the monitoring or treatment wells from their assumed positions. For example, a well is assumed to be perfectly vertical, but in fact, it deviates from verticality. This can lead to significant errors in the observed azimuth and other parameters of the monitored fracture‐system geometry derived from microseismic event locations. For common hydraulic fracturing geometries, a 2° deviation uncertainty on the positions of the monitoring or treatment well survey can cause a more than 20° uncertainty of the inverted fracture azimuths. Furthermore, if the positions of both the injection point and the receiver array are not known accurately and the velocity model is adjusted to locate perforations on the assumed positions, several‐millisecond discrepancies between measured and modeled SH‐P traveltime differences may appear along the receiver array. These traveltime discrepancies may then be misinterpreted as an effect of anisotropy, and the use of such anisotropic model may lead to the mislocation of the detected fracture system. The uncertainty of the relative positions between the monitoring and treatment wells can have a cumulative, nonlinear effect on inverted fracture parameters. We show that incorporation of borehole deviation surveys allows reasonably accurate positioning of the microseismic events. In this study, we concentrate on the effects of horizontal uncertainties of receiver and perforation positions. Understanding them is sufficient for treatment of vertical wells, and also necessary for horizontal wells.     

Directional interpolation of multicomponent data

A method for interpolation of multicomponent streamer data based on using the local directionality structure is presented. The derivative components are used to estimate a vector field that locally describes the direction with the least variability. Given this vector field, the interpolation can be phrased in terms of the solution of a partial differential equation that describes how energy is transported between regions of missing data. The approach can be efficiently implemented using readily available routines for computer graphics. The method is robust to noise in the measurements and particularly towards high levels of low‐frequent noise that is present in the derivative components of the multicomponent streamer data.     

Sea surface shape derivation above the seismic streamer

The rough sea surface causes perturbations in the seismic data that can be significant for time‐lapse studies. The perturbations arise because the reflection response of the non‐flat sea perturbs the seismic wavelet. In order to remove these perturbations from the received seismic data, special deconvolution methods can be used, but these methods require, as input, the time varying wave elevation above each hydrophone in the streamer. In addition, the vertical displacement of the streamer itself must also be known at the position of each hydrophone and at all times. This information is not available in conventional seismic acquisition. However, it can be obtained from the hydrophone measurements provided that the hydrophones are recorded individually (not grouped), that the recording bandwidth is extended down to 0.05 Hz and that data are recorded without gaps between the shot records. The sea surface elevation, and also the wave‐induced vertical displacement of the streamer, can be determined from the time‐varying pressure that the sea waves cause in the hydrophone measurements. When this was done experimentally, using a single sensor seismic streamer without a conventional low cut filter, the wave induced pressure variations were easily detected. The inversion of these experimental data gives results for the sea surface elevation that are consistent with the weather and sea state at the time of acquisition. A high tension approximation allows a simplified solution of the equations that does not demand a knowledge of the streamer tension. However, best results at the tail end of the streamer are obtained using the general equation.     

Dual sensor streamer technology used in Sleipner CO2 injection monitoring

CO₂ has been injected into the saline aquifer Utsira Fm at the Sleipner field since 1996. In order to monitor the movement of the CO₂ in the sub‐surface, the seventh seismic monitor survey was acquired in 2010, with dual sensor streamers which enabled optimal towing depths compared to previous surveys. We here report both on the time‐lapse observations and on the improved resolution compared to the conventional streamer surveys. This study shows that the CO₂ is still contained in the subsurface, with no indications of leakage. The time‐lapse repeatability of the dual sensor streamer data versus conventional data is sufficient for interpreting the time‐lapse effects of the CO₂ at Sleipner, and the higher resolution of the 2010 survey has enabled a refinement of the interpretation of nine CO₂ saturated layers with improved thickness estimates of the layers. In particular we have estimated the thickness of the uppermost CO₂ layer based on an analysis of amplitude strength together with time‐separation of top and base of this layer and found the maximum thickness to be 11 m. This refined interpretation gives a good base line for future time‐lapse surveys at the Sleipner CO₂ injection site.     

测震仪器定向方法探讨

测震仪器架设前须确定符合规范精度要求的NS向方位线,由于条件制约,以前NS向方位线基本借助罗盘确定,受磁偏角及外界干扰因素影响,定向精度较差。对目前使用的罗盘、寻北仪及波形相关性定向方法进行对比分析,探讨实际操作中各种定向方法的实用性。     

An automated cross‐validation method to assess seismic time‐to‐depth conversion accuracy: a case study on the Cooper and Eromanga basins,Australia

Selecting a seismic time‐to‐depth conversion method can be a subjective choice that is made by geophysicists, and is particularly difficult if the accuracy of these methods is unknown. This study presents an automated statistical approach for assessing seismic time‐to‐depth conversion accuracy by integrating the cross‐validation method with four commonly used seismic time‐to‐depth conversion methods. To showcase this automated approach, we use a regional dataset from the Cooper and Eromanga basins, Australia, consisting of 13 three‐dimensional (3D) seismic surveys, 73 two‐way‐time surface grids and 729 wells. Approximately 10,000 error values (predicted depth vs. measured well depth) and associated variables were calculated. The average velocity method was the most accurate overall (7.6 m mean error); however, the most accurate method and the expected error changed by several metres depending on the combination and value of the most significant variables. Cluster analysis tested the significance of the associated variables to find that the seismic survey location (potentially related to local geology (i.e. sedimentology, structural geology, cementation, pore pressure, etc.), processing workflow, or seismic vintage), formation (potentially associated with reduced signal‐to‐noise with increasing depth or the changes in lithology), distance to the nearest well control, and the spatial location of the predicted well relative to the existing well data envelope had the largest impact on accuracy. Importantly, the effect of these significant variables on accuracy were found to be more important than choosing between the four methods, highlighting the importance of better understanding seismic time‐to‐depth conversions, which can be achieved by applying this automated cross‐validation method.     

Three‐dimensional inversion of towed streamer electromagnetic data

A towed streamer electromagnetic system capable of simultaneous seismic and electromagnetic data acquisition has recently been developed and tested in the North Sea. We introduce a 3D inversion methodology for towed streamer electromagnetic data that includes a moving sensitivity domain. Our implementation is based on the 3D integral equation method for computing responses and Fréchet derivatives and uses the re‐weighted regularized conjugate gradient method for minimizing the objective functional with focusing regularization. We present two model studies relevant to hydrocarbon exploration in the North Sea. First, we demonstrate the ability of a towed electromagnetic system to detect and characterize the Harding field, a medium‐sized North Sea hydrocarbon target. We compare our 3D inversion of towed streamer electromagnetic data with 3D inversion of conventional marine controlled‐source electromagnetic data and observe few differences between the recovered models. Second, we demonstrate the ability of a towed streamer electromagnetic system to detect and characterize the Peon discovery, which is representative of an infrastructure‐led shallow gas play in the North Sea. We also present an actual case study for the 3D inversion of towed streamer electromagnetic data from the Troll field in the North Sea and demonstrate our ability to image all the Troll West Oil and Gas Provinces and the Troll East Gas Province. We conclude that 3D inversion of data from the current generation of towed streamer electromagnetic systems can adequately recover hydrocarbon‐bearing formations to depths of approximately 2 km. We note that by obviating the need for ocean‐bottom receivers, the towed streamer electromagnetic system enables electromagnetic data to be acquired over very large areas in frontier and mature basins for higher acquisition rates and relatively lower cost than conventional marine controlled‐source electromagnetic methods.     

地磁偏角实时自动修正技术在油田定向钻井中的应用

在油田定向钻井的磁导向定位系统中，地磁偏角校正是一个不可缺少的基本要素，同时在磁偏角校正值精度直接影响定向井的导向定位精度。因此，作者提出了提高地磁偏角校正值精度的方法，并试图将地磁偏角实时自动修正技术引入我国油田定向钻井领域。     

Rough seas and statistical deconvolution

The rough‐sea reflection‐response varies (1) along the streamer (2) from shot to shot and (3) with time along the seismic trace. The resulting error in seismic data can be important for time‐lapse imaging. One potential way of reducing the rough‐sea receiver error is to use conventional statistical deconvolution, but special care is needed in the choice of the design and application windows. The well‐known deconvolution problem associated with the non‐whiteness of the reflection series is exacerbated by the requirement of an unusually short design window – a requirement that is imposed by the non‐stationary nature of the rough‐sea receiver wavelet. For a synthetic rough‐sea data set, with a white 1D reflection series, the design window needs to be about 1000 ms long, with an application window about 400 ms long, centred within the design window. Although such a short design window allows the deconvolution operator to follow the time‐variation of the rough‐sea wavelet, it is likely to be too short to prevent the non‐whiteness of the geology from corrupting the operator when it is used on real data. If finely spatial‐sampled traces are available from the streamer, the design window can be extended to neighbouring traces, making use of the spatial correlations of the rough‐sea wavelet. For this ‘wave‐following’ approach to be fruitful, the wind (and hence the dominant wave direction) needs to be roughly along the line of the streamer.     

Rapid secular variation recorded in thick Eocene flows from the Absaroka Mountains of northwest Wyoming

Stable reversed remanence carried by pseudo-single-domain magnetite shows systematic direction changes in three thick ( 70m) Eocene basalt flows from the Absaroka Mountains of Wyoming. Three cores were collected at each of 24 sites in the lower flow, 26 sites in the middle flow, and nine sites in the upper flow. Cores in the two lower flows were oriented by sun compass and in the upper flow with a magnetic compass. Although remanent directions do not change smoothly through the entire thickness of the flows, portions of the record indicate that the field direction was changing as rapidly as 0.5° per year during remanence acquisition. Rough paleointensity estimates suggest that this behavior occurred while the field was in a stable reversed state rather than during a transitional period. Paleomagnetic studies of flows should avoid sampling the upper parts, because the declination record may be distorted by rotations of portions of the crust.     

DEGHOSTING USING A TWIN STREAMER CONFIGURATION1

A processing method is presented to attenuate the surface ghost using marine twin streamer data. It is an extension to the dephase and sum method which corrects for the phase of the ghost in both streamer outputs and then adds them in an attempt to fill the notches in the amplitude spectrum. The method presented corrects both the phase and the amplitude effect of the surface ghost by combining both signals as a weighted sum. This method is applicable to all types of twin streamer data, ranging from deep exploration data to very shallow high-resolution surveys. Both the synthetic and real data examples shown are of the high-resolution type, using frequencies above 2 kHz and short streamers (active sections of the order of one metre). Both the dephase and sum method and the weighted sum method are applied to synthetic high-resolution data and the results are compared. This has been done for noise-free data, data with a high noise level and data with strong geometrical spreading on the ghost reflections. From these test results it can be concluded that in general the weighted sum method gives better results. The improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio appears to be the same, due to the additive character of both methods. In the case of high-resolution twin streamer data recorded in shallow water, the delay time of the ghost reflection can be of the same order of magnitude as the traveltime of the primary. For this situation, geometrical spreading can have a considerable effect on the amplitude of the ghost reflection. If no correction can be made for the spreading function, it might be better to use the dephase and sum method. Both methods are also applied to a real data set recorded in a high-resolution survey. Because the ghost delay is of the same order of magnitude as the arrival time of the primary, the ghost reflection is strongly affected by geometrical spreading. Since the spreading function of the source is unknown, it cannot be corrected for. This causes the result of the weighted sum method to be less reliable compared to the case where no spreading is involved.     

The interaction of positive streamers with charged and uncharged water drops in vertical electric fields

Investigation was carried out to study the interaction of positive streamers with charged and uncharged drops in a vertical electric field configuration. Results obtained for vertical and horizontal positions of the photographic films show that streamer interactions with neutral and negative drops are similar and further confirmed earlier results byPhelps (1972). It showed that indirect streamer interaction with droplets is effected by branches being sent to the drops from the main channel. The visibility of the branches on the Lichtenberg figures and the degree of interaction of streamers with drops depend on the drop size, its initial charge and shape, and/or the separation of the drops from the main channel. Suppression of streamer propagation among the positively charged drops was observed.     

乌鲁木齐地磁台标志方位角的测定

介绍了乌鲁木齐地磁台测量标志方位角的方案、测量方法、原理。利用已有的观测成果,采用几何转换的方法精密测量了新建成观测室内的6个观洲墩相对于2个方位标志的方位角,成功的将旧观测室原标准墩方位角数据迁移到新观测室内各观测墩上,观测精度符合技术规范的要求,使新观测设施能够及时投入到观测工作中。并对地磁观测环境改造完成后的全面测量工作作出规划,在知识、技术上都做好了准备。     

The Impact on the Positioning Accuracy of the Frequency Reference of a GPS Receiver

Despite the pervasive use of the global positioning system (GPS) as a positioning technology for its high efficiency and accuracy, several factors reduce its performance. This study examines to which extent the frequency offset and the frequency stability of the internal quartz oscillator or of an externally supplied rubidium oscillator have an influence. Observations were made at the Taiwan Ching Yun University (TCYU) tracking station, where a quartz oscillator and a rubidium oscillator were applied alternatively on a monthly basis throughout a 16-month period. Moreover, the accuracy of the local oscillator used in this study was calibrated by the National Standard Time and Frequency Laboratory, Taiwan. The frequency offset and frequency stability calculated via the remote method at the TCYU station were compared with values (uncertainty is 3.0E?13) measured directly at the National Standard Time and Frequency Laboratory, Taiwan. Analytical results show that the two methods vary by 1.4E?10 in terms of frequency offset and by 6.5E?12 in terms of frequency stability, demonstrating that the remote method can yield computational results almost as accurate as direct measurement. Positioning precision results also show that rubidium oscillator accuracy improved by 5, 11, and 15 % for short-, medium-, and long-baseline positioning, respectively, indicating that clock quality is more influential for long-baseline GPS relative positioning and that the frequency stability of a receiver clock is far more critical than the frequency offset. On the other hand, the positioning performance noted is essentially independent (max. 15 % change) of the reference frequency stability, which indeed differed by 4 orders of magnitude.     

A comparision of interpolation methods for producing digital elevation models at the field scale

Digital elevation models have been used in many applications since they came into use in the late 1950s. It is an essential tool for applications that are concerned with the Earth's surface such as hydrology, geology, cartography, geomorphology, engineering applications, landscape architecture and so on. However, there are some differences in assessing the accuracy of digital elevation models for specific applications. Different applications require different levels of accuracy from digital elevation models. In this study, the magnitudes and spatial patterning of elevation errors were therefore examined, using different interpolation methods. Measurements were performed with theodolite and levelling. Previous research has demonstrated the effects of interpolation methods and the nature of errors in digital elevation models obtained with indirect survey methods for small‐scale areas. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the size and spatial patterning of errors in digital elevation models obtained with direct survey methods for large‐scale areas, comparing Inverse Distance Weighting, Radial Basis Functions and Kriging interpolation methods to generate digital elevation models. The study is important because it shows how the accuracy of the digital elevation model is related to data density and the interpolation algorithm used. Cross validation, split‐sample and jack‐knifing validation methods were used to evaluate the errors. Global and local spatial auto‐correlation indices were then used to examine the error clustering. Finally, slope and curvature parameters of the area were modelled depending on the error residuals using ordinary least regression analyses. In this case, the best results were obtained using the thin plate spline algorithm. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.