Seismic Survey Design, Acquisition and Processing (May 2021)

Module II: Seismic Survey Design and Data Acquisition

Instructor:                    Dr. Mangat R. Thapar

Course Length:            5 Days

Course CEUs:   2.0

Course Description:

The appropriate design and acquisition of 3-D seismic survey is vital to the success of any oil and gas exploration or development program. This course emphasizes the importance of proper design and acquisition for producing a 3-D seismic survey that will effectively impact drilling success.  Exercises and case histories are utilized to teach fundamental principles and explain limitations and pitfalls. Live demonstrations of design using OMNI, and acquisition using Cirrus Board I/O Sensors (wherever possible) are included to help participants grasp the subject matter in survey design and seismic data acquisition.  By the end of the course, participants will be able to contribute to the effective planning, execution, and quality control of survey design and seismic data acquisition.

Description of fundamentals of P, S, and R waves with intuitive illustrations.

• Understand aliasing in time and 2-D, and its effect on seismic data.
• Important steps and parameters in data acquisition in the field.
• Thorough discussion of vibroseis and dynamite as energy sources, and ground positioning methods for source/receiver stations.
• Estimation of SNR and its importance.
• Important steps in designing and setting parameters for marine data acquisition, including discussion of airgun arrays, and positioning methods for source/receiver locations.
• A systematic, step by step procedure is presented for designing a 2-D or 3-D survey including most of the available templates and array designs.

Exercises:

Exercises designed to further the understanding of basic principles in survey design and data acquisition include:

• How to relate useable offsets, fold, and critical angle for major horizons?
• Design Vibroseis sweep and calculate related parameters to avoid harmonics interference with data.
• Measure ground roll velocity and frequency from field records to design array patterns and filters?
• Calculate Aliasing frequency due to sampling and due to dip.
• Calculate Migration aperture for dipping horizons.
• Design 2-D crossing lines over a structure and calculate all required parameters.
• Design a 3-D survey over a prospect, and calculate template parameters related to the sources and receivers.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understanding of sources in seismic data acquisition, shot arrays, vibroseis sweep generation and its parameters, and airgun arrays
• Array patterns for sources and receivers
• Design 2-D and 3-D surveys for land and marine.
• Quality control of acquisition.
• Selection of acquisition and processing parameters for AVO and seismic attributes.
• Overcome limitations and pitfalls in acquisition.

Who Should Attend?

Geologists, geophysicists, engineers, supervisors, executives and managers involved in the design, execution and monitoring of seismic data acquisition and processing

Prerequisites:

Participants should have taken a Basic Geophysics course prior to attending.

Course Content

·                     Fundamentals of P, S, and R waves

·                     Acoustic impedance, reflectivity, amplitudes, and diffractions

·                     Data acquisition field work, operations and survey

·                     Source and receiver array patterns

·                     Marine sources and Vibroseis sweeps

·                     3-D survey design formulae, patterns

·                     Recording geometry, CMP method NMO velocity and stacking, aliasing

Participants are encouraged to bring data examples or displays related to this course.