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Sub-Salt Imaging Using Depth Migration WS2.6

Zhiming Li* and Greg Ball, Unocal Corp.

The main impediments we have encountered

in imaging sediments below salt bodies
are a low signal-to-noise ratio, complex
raypaths, the presence of compressional-
wave anisotropy, and model building,
including the challenge of incorporating
the geologic contstraints. The relative
importance of these varies with the
problem at hand. Our presentation
focusses on tackling the problems caused
by complex raypaths and the presence of
anisotropy.
Complex raypaths are often handled
inadequately by conventional wavefield-
extrapolation depth migration. This
leads to migration artifacts which
obscure the image of the sediments
truncated against, or under, the salt
bodies, especially when the signal-to-
noise ratio of the input data is low.
However, this limitation can be
partially overcome by using prestack
depth migration incorporating
controlled-directional imaging and
accurate ray tracing.
When the surrounding sediment exhibits
significant compressional-wave
anisotropy it is necessary to estimate
the nature and magnitude of the
anisotropy and honor it in the
migration. This can be particularly
important since the salt is isotropic.
Neglecting to incorporate the anisotropy
can lead to a severely degraded depth
image and incorrect spatial positioning.

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