Illuminating the reservoir with traditional marine seismic marine methods has always been a challenge. Much of that challenge has to do with the variation, or lack of it, in the azimuths of the seismic raypaths.
It has been long recognized that azimuthal variation is a fundamental issue in the quality of depth migration. Novel acquisition techniques such as multiazimuth (MAZ), wide azimuth (WAZ), and rich azimuth (RAZ) are recent innovations aimed at addressing the illumination problems inherent in traditional narrow-azimuth marine seismic technology.
The following sketches of different acquisition techniques and their related rose plots showing the level of 'hits' from different azimuths, aptly illustrate the possible advantages of the techniques depending on the challenge being faced.
Q-Marine Technology Enables Improved Operational Efficiency Apart from the inherently superior data quality of Q-Marine technology, improvements in operational efficiency such as those listed below are enabled by aspects of the technology
- No infill
- No line change time (recording during turns)
- Reduction in run-in / run-outs (use turn data for aperture)
- Reduction of weather down time (single-sensor recording)
All of the above improvements bring about timely seismic information that is relevant, material, and economic. Q-Marine technology, by providing a fundamentally better measurement, solves complex imaging issues as well as resolving fine details within the reservoir.
WesternGeco has vast experience in these major new and novel acquisition techniques (MAZ, WAZ, RAZ), spanning many of the world's major basins in both hemispheres. Contact us to find out more.
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