Quantifying the Effects of Near-Surface Viscosity on Seismic Acquisition Geometry: A case study from Chepaizi Exploration Area, Junggar Basin (NW China)

The Chepaizi Exploration Area,Junggar Basin(NW China)holds substantial importance for seismic exploration endeavors,yet it poses notable challenges due to the intricate nature of its subsurface and near-surface conditions.To address these challenges,we introduce a novel and comprehensive workflow tailored to evaluate and optimize seismic acquisition geometries while considering the impacts of near-surface viscosity.By integrating geological knowledge,historical seismic data,and subsurface modeling,we conduct simulations employing the visco-acoustic wave equation and reverse-time migration to produce detailed subsurface images.The quality of these images is quantitatively evaluated using a local similarity metric,a pivotal tool for evaluating the accuracy of seismic imaging.The culmination of this workflow results in an automated optimization strategy for acquisition geometries that enhances subsurface exploration.Our proposed methodology underscores the importance of incorporating near-surface viscosity effects in seismic imaging,offering a robust framework for improving the accuracy of subsurface imaging.Herein,we aim to contribute to the advancement of seismic imaging methodologies by providing valuable insights for achieving high-quality seismic exploration outcomes in regions characterized by complex subsurface and near-surface conditions.

Controlled illumination and seismic acquisition geometry for target-oriented imaging

The conventional method of seismic data acquisition geometry design is based on the assumption of horizontal subsurface reflectors, which often is not suitable for complex structure. We start from a controlled illumination analysis and put forward a method of seismic survey geometry design for target-oriented imaging. The method needs a velocity model obtained by a preliminary seismic interpretation. The one-way Fourier finite-difference wave propagator is used to extrapolate plane wave sources on the target layer to the surface. By analyzing the wave energy distribution at the surface extrapolated from the target layer, the shot or receiver locations needed for target layer imaging can be determined. Numerical tests using the SEG-EAGE salt model suggest that this method is useful for confirming the special seismic acquisition geometry layout for target-oriented imaging.

Research of CRP-based irregular 2D seismic acquisition

Seismic exploration in the mountainous areas of western Chinese is extremely difficult because of the complexity of the surface and subsurface, which results in shooting difficulties, seismic data with low signal-to-noise ratio, and strong interference. The complexity of the subsurface structure leads to strong scattering of the refl ection points; thus, the curved-line acquisition method has been used. However, the actual subsurface structural characteristics have been rarely considered. We propose a design method for irregular acquisition based on common refl ection points（CRP） to avoid difficult-to-shoot areas, while considering the structural characteristics and CRP positions and optimizing the surfacereceiving line position. We arrange the positions of the receiving points to ensure as little dispersion of subsurface CRP as possible to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the seismic data. We verify the applicability of the method using actual data from a site in Sichuan Basin. The proposed method apparently solves the problem of seismic data acquisition and facilitates seismic exploration in structurally complex areas.

Seismic Acquisition in the Beach of the Shengli Oilfield

The beach of the Shengli oilfield, as the prospect for steady continuous development of the Shengli oilfield, has a large area, special geographic and geological conditions, and other technical difficulties so that exploration has been slow. Seismic acquisition methods in the beach area and very shallow water have been investigated and, with the introduction of new equipment, given rise to more sophisticated acquisition geometries. A series of improved seismic exploration methods in the beach area and very shallow water are established by analyzing different shot and receiver parameters. As a result, S/N ratio and resolution of seismic data have been improved significantly to identify subsurface structures, improve reservoir description, and increase reserves and production.

Purposeless repeated acquisition time-lapse seismic data processing

In China, most oil fields are continental sedimentation with strong heterogeneity, which on one side makes the reservoir prospecting and development more difficult, but on the other side provides more space for searching residual oil in matured fields. Time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring technique is one of most important techniques to define residual oil distribution. According to the demand for and development of time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring in China, purposeless repeated acquisition time-lapse seismic data processing was studied. The four key steps in purposeless repeated acquisition time-lapse seismic data processing, including amplitude-preserved processing with relative consistency, rebinning, match filtering and difference calculation, were analyzed by combining theory and real seismic data processing. Meanwhile, quality control during real time-lapse seismic processing was emphasized.

Wide/narrow azimuth acquisition footprints and their effects on seismic imaging

Acquisition footprint is a new concept to describe the seismic noise in three-dimensional seismic exploration and it is closely related to geometry and observation shuttering. At present, the study on acquisition footprints has become a hot spot. In partnership with the Dagang Oilfield, we used the channel sand body seismic physical model to study the characteristics of wide/narrow azimuth acquisition footprints and analyzed and compared the two types of footprints and their effects on target imaging. In addition, the footprints caused by data processing of the normal moveout offset （NMO） stretching aberration were discussed. These footprints are located only in the shallow or middle layer in the time slice, and possibly affect the imaging of shallow target layers, and have no influence on deep target imaging. Seismic physical modeling has its advantages in the study of acquisition footprints.

Seismic Acquisition on the Buried-Hill Faulted Zone of the Jiyang Sag

The pattern of the subtle traps, in which oil and gas accumulated, in the buried-hill faulted zone in the Jiyang sag is very complicated, and very hard to prospect. The paper analyses the main difficulties in exploring the complicated buried-hill faulted zone of the area from a point of geology.The typical pattern of the buried-hill zone in the Jiyang sag is studied using the forward modeling.Target-orient layout design and full 3-D seismic technology, which are useful for oil and gas exploration on the zone, are put forward. Taking the exploration for oil and gas traps on the zone as an example, certain technologies and the effect of their applications about the design for target acquisition,acquisition on a wide-azimuth, point sources and point receivers are discussed.

Analysis of acquisition parameters and geometry quality

High-quality seismic geometry is the key to obtain high-quality seismic data, and can affect the accuracy of data processing and imaging. Based on the analysis of the relationship between the quality of the geometry and the four acquisition parameters(the number of traces, shot line spacing, and the space and number of receiver lines), a quality evaluation method of the geometry based on comprehensive quality factor(CQF) is proposed, and the relationship between the geometry quality and the four parameters is given. We use field data collected in an oil field in Western China with complex geology: First we use a wide azimuth geometry. Then, we calculate the relationship curve between geometry and data quality by varying each parameter while keeping the rest fixed. and the analysis results are given by using the CQF evaluation method. The results show that the shot-line spacing has the greatest effect on the quality of the geometry, and the increase of the receiver line spacing can appropriately improve the quality of the geometry, and the increase of the number of receiving traces can improve the geometry quality. The different acquisition parameters have different effects on the imaging quality of shallow and deep events. The model forward and prestack depth migration are used to generate prestack depth migration profiles with different acquisition parameters. The imaging results are consistent with the above calculated results. According to the depth of the target layer, the quality factor evaluation method is applied to guide the design of the geometry and optimize the acquisition parameters to improve the imaging accuracy of seismic data.

Multi-hole joint acquisition of a 3D-RVSP in a karst area:Case study in the Wulunshan Coal Field,China

Conventional surface seismic exploration in areas with complex surfaces such as karst landforms has been faced with the problem of poor excitation and reception conditions.RVSP(reverse vertical seismic profile)seismic exploration adopts a geometry in which the sources are downhole and receivers are on the ground which can reduce the influence of complex surfaces on seismic wave propagation(to some extent).Through numerical simulations and real data analysis,it was noted that in areas with complex surfaces and large numbers of underground karst caves,seismic waves generated in shallow boreholes are easily affected by various surface and multiple waves as well as by scattering from karst bodies.Therefore,the quality of the reflected seismic data is extremely low.Also,it is difficult to improve the signal to noise ratio(SNR)with conventional noise filtering methods.However,when the source depth is increased,the quality of the reflected waves can be improved.This is exactly what the RVSP method accomplishes.Besides,for the RVSP method,due to its particular geometry,the apparent velocities of the reflected waves and most interference waves are quite different,which can help to filter most noise to further improve the SNR of the reflected signals.In this study,a 3 D-RVSP exploration study using 8-hole joint acquisition was conducted in a typical karst landform.The results show that the 3 D-RVSP method can obtain higher quality seismic data for complex surface conditions that have large numbers of underground karst caves.Furthermore,multi-hole joint acquisition for 3 D-RVSP has higher data collection efficiency and better uniformity of underground coverage.Therefore,in this study,38 faults were accurately revealed and at high resolution based on the 3 D-RVSP imaging results.

Strains Recorded Using a Seismometer Data Acquisition Unit

A seismometer data acquisition unit has been used in the Changping seismic station to record the output of a strainmeter. The output of a strainmeter was sampled at a rate of l00/sec by seismometer acquisition from the original rate of 1 per minute. Plenty of high frequency sampled data was recorded. The minute value curve calculated from the seismometer acquisition are consistent with that of the original data sampled by the strain acquisition system. More complete waveforms were recorded with a higher sampling rate, and seismic phase parameters calculated by using higher sampling rate strain seismic waves are also in consistency with the results of its predecessors. Spectra of the strain seismic waves are compared with that of seismic waves recorded by a seismometer in the Shisanling seismic station, and their trends are almost the same. Besides, some lower frequency components still exist in strain seismic waves.

Resolution assessment of the three-dimensional acquisition geometry of the Anhui experiment in"Geoscience Yangtze Plan"

According to the actual observation conditions of the Yangtze River valley from Anqing city to Maanshan city,we designed the 3D acquisition geometry,and applied the multi-scale checkerboard semblance analysis to assess the preliminary resolution of the designed observation.The checkerboard semblance tests use the refraction and reflection travel-time simultaneous inversion algorithm to quantitatively provide both resolution assessment of velocity structure and Moho topography.The multi-scale checker-board semblance recovery results show that while the chec-kerboard semblance threshold value is 0.5,the preliminary resolution of the designed acquisition geometry is better than 10 km in the upper crust(the depth is less than 10 km),around 15 km in the mid-crust(the depth is 10?25 km),and better than 20 km in the lower crust(the depth is 25?33 km).The preliminary tomographic resolution for the Moho topography is about 20 km in the ray-path coverage area beneath the acquisition geometry.While the checkerboard semblance threshold value is 0.75,the preliminary resolution is 20 km in the upper crust,around 20?25 km in the mid-crust and 25 km in the lower crust.And the preliminary tomographic resolution for the Moho topography is better than 30 km in the ray-path coverage area beneath the acquisition geometry.These non-linear checkerboard tests reveal that the designed acquisition geometry is suitable to image the crustal velocity structure of the Yangtze River valley in the Anhui province.

A new type of fiber Bragg grating based seismic geophone

Aimed at the poor performance of conventional geophones in exploration for deeper and complex targets, we present the principle and theoretical design of a new geophone based on the optical fiber Bragg grating （FBG） sensing technology. The important parameters such as response functions are calculated theoretically. Because of the advantages of FBG sensing technology, the new FBG geophone has a high dynamic range of 94dB at （10-200 Hz）. This new generation of geophones will have wide use in seismic prospecting due to its higher sensitivity, lighter weight, and lower cost.

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.

Reconstruction method of irregular seismic data with adaptive thresholds based on different sparse transform bases

Oil and gas seismic exploration have to adopt irregular seismic acquisition due to the increasingly complex exploration conditions to adapt to complex geological conditions and environments.However,the irregular seismic acquisition is accompanied by the lack of acquisition data,which requires high-precision regularization.The sparse signal feature in the transform domain in compressed sensing theory is used in this paper to recover the missing signal,involving sparse transform base optimization and threshold modeling.First,this paper analyzes and compares the effects of six sparse transformation bases on the reconstruction accuracy and efficiency of irregular seismic data and establishes the quantitative relationship between sparse transformation and reconstruction accuracy and efficiency.Second,an adaptive threshold modeling method based on sparse coefficient is provided to improve the reconstruction accuracy.Test results show that the method has good adaptability to different seismic data and sparse transform bases.The f-x domain reconstruction method of effective frequency samples is studied to address the problem of low computational efficiency.The parallel computing strategy of curvelet transform combined with OpenMP is further proposed,which substantially improves the computational efficiency under the premise of ensuring the reconstruction accuracy.Finally,the actual acquisition data are used to verify the proposed method.The results indicate that the proposed method strategy can solve the regularization problem of irregular seismic data in production and improve the imaging quality of the target layer economically and efficiently.

Broadband seismic illumination and resolution analyses based on staining algorithm

Seismic migration moves reflections to their true subsurface positions and yields seismic images of subsurface areas. However, due to limited acquisition aperture, complex overburden structure and target dipping angle, the migration often generates a distorted image of the actual subsurface structure. Seismic illumination and resolution analyses provide a quantitative description of how the above-mentioned factors distort the image. The point spread function （PSF） gives the resolution of the depth image and carries full information about the factors affecting the quality of the image. The staining algorithm establishes a correspondence between a certain structure and its relevant wavefield and reflected data. In this paper, we use the staining algorithm to calculate the PSFs, then use these PSFs for extracting the acquisition dip response and correcting the original depth image by deconvolution. We present relevant results of the SEG salt model. The staining algorithm provides an efficient tool for calculating the PSF and for conducting broadband seismic illumination and resolution analyses.

Full wave seismic exploration technology

Reflected wave seismology has the following defects:the acquisition design is based on the assumption of layered media,the signal processing suppresses weak signals such as diffracted wave and scattered wave,and the seismic wave band after the image processing is narrow.They limit the full utilization of broadband raw data.The concept of full wave seismic exploration is redefined based on the idea of balanced utilization of reflected wave,diffracted wave and scattered wave information,its characteristics and adaptive conditions are clarified.A set of key technologies suitable for full wave seismic exploration are put forward.During seismic acquisition period,it is necessary to adopt multi geometry,i.e.embed small bin,small offset and small channel interval data in conventional geometry.By discretizing of common midpoint(CMP)gathers,small offset with high coverage,the weak signals such as diffracted wave and scattered wave in the raw seismic data can be enhanced.During seismic processing,the signal and noise in the original seismic data need to be redefined at first.The effective signals of seismic data are enhanced through merging of multi-geometry data.By means of differential application of data with different bin sizes and different arrangement modes,different regimes of seismic waves can be effectively decomposed and imaged separately.During seismic interpretation stage,making the most of the full wave seismic data,and adopting well-seismic calibration on multi-scale and multi-dimension,the seismic attributes in multi-regimes and multi-domains are interpreted to reveal interior information of complex lithology bodies and improve the lateral resolution of non-layered reservoirs.

Study on Anti-Disturbance and High-Resolution Shallow Seismic Exploration of Active Faults in Urban Regions

The significance of detection of urban active faults and the general situation concerning detection of urban active faults in the world are briefly introduced. In a brief description of the basic principles of anti-disturbance and high-resolution shallow seismic exploration, the stress is put on the excitation of seismic sources, the performance of digital seismographs, receiving mode and conditions, geometry as well as data acquisition, processing and interpretation in the anti-disturbance and high-resolution shallow seismic exploration of urban active faults. The study indicates that a controlled seismic source with a linear or nonlinear frequency-conversion scanning function and the relevant seismographs must be used in data acquisition, as well as working methods for small group interval, small offset, multi-channel receiving, short-array and high-frequency detectors for receiving are used. Attention should be paid to the application of techniques for static correction of refraction, noise suppressing, high-precision analysis of velocity, wavelet compressing, zero-phasing of wavelet and pre-stacking migration to data processing and interpretation. Finally, some cases of anti-disturbance and high-resolution shallow seismic exploration of urban active faults are present in the paper.

准噶尔盆地深层油气勘探地震采集关键技术及效果

准噶尔盆地目前4 500 m以深的深层油气探明率较低,近年来深层油气勘探目标成为该地区勘探发现的战略接替区。为了查清地下深层结构,重新构建和部署了准噶尔盆地二维地震格架线,利用以往采集资料和重新采集的新资料拼接形成了数十条线组成的二维格架网。基于“两宽一高”技术体系,采用一系列采集关键技术,如“高激发密度、高接收密度、高覆盖密度和长排列”的“三高一长”采集技术,解决了准噶尔盆地深层油气勘探地震采集面临的深层目标地震信号“能量低、干扰强、成像差和不成像”等难题。新采集并经后期处理后的资料成像效果显著提高,为建立盆地石炭系-二叠系统一的地层格架、明确石炭系隆凹格局、查清富烃凹陷下组合地层及烃源岩展布特征提供了良好的资料基础,为下一步深层油气勘探工作提供了有效指导。

渝东南复杂构造区常压页岩气地球物理勘探实践及攻关方向

中国南方常压页岩气资源潜力大,主要分布于四川盆地周缘构造复杂区及盆外褶皱带,具有地表、地下双复杂地质条件,地震采集品质差、成像精度低、甜点参数变化规律不清。本文系统总结了渝东南地区常压页岩气地震采集、成像处理、储层预测等方面的研究成果与技术进展:①形成了变密度三维观测系统设计技术、灰岩地表复杂山地地震激发接收技术,确保复杂地下构造反射波场充分采样,提升采集资料品质,提高施工效率。②完善了复杂山地地震叠前预处理技术、盆缘过渡带复杂构造成像技术、盆外褶皱带向斜构造成像技术,成果剖面信噪比高,有效频带宽,构造成像精度高。③基于岩石物理特征研究,实现优质页岩厚度、地层压力系数、脆性的定量预测;基于统计岩石物理,实现页岩有机碳含量、含气量、孔隙度的定量预测;利用有限元应力场模拟技术,揭示古应力场演化,实现多期构造改造叠加作用形成裂缝的定量预测;采用组合弹簧模型今应力场预测技术,明确今地应力场分布规律。通过攻关研究,有效指导了常压页岩气甜点预测与勘探开发,为南川常压页岩气田的发现提供了依据。下步应重点攻关基于5G无线节点接收的更加科学合理的地震采集技术、复杂山地高陡构造高精度自动化成像处理技术,以及“地质—工程—经济”一体化的甜点地震评价方法。