Assessing the need for repeatability in acquisition of time-lapse data

There are several factors that affect the repeatability of 4D(time-lapse) seismic data. One of the most significant factors is the repeatability of the acquisition, particularly the locations of the sources and receivers. It is important to repeat the source-receiver locations, used during the baseline survey, in the monitor or repeat survey. Also, it is essential that the stacked data volumes used for time-lapse analysis are created using the same offset ranges for each survey. This condition is crucial in order to be able to produce an image of the same location over a period of time and enhances proper reservoir characterization. The cost of repeating the seismic acquisition is very expensive, as often times, the receiver array has to be left at the same location over the period for which the data will be acquired. In other words, it is important to repeat the acquisition geometry as much as possible. In this talk, we investigate the results of changing the acquisition geometry, by a random placement of the receivers for both the baseline surveys and newer (monitor) surveys. Results show that we are still able to observe any time-lapse effects from the proposed acquisition geometry. Our experiments have been performed on a synthetic model.

https://slim.gatech.edu/Publications/Public/Conferences/CSEG/2013/oghene...