Application of 3D high density seismic acquisition with high efficiency: a case study
Zhang Meng, Li Min*, Wang Qingeng, Zhou Hongyuan and Guan Min, Sichuan Geophysical Company, CNPC;
Li Xianmin, Xinjiang Oilfield Limited Company, CNPC
Summary
Since seismic acquisition, especially 3D high density
seismic acquisition, is a costly and time-consuming task, it
has always been one of the most concerning point to
improve efficiency and reduce cost in industrial
prospection. For high density seismic acquisition in
mountain areas, drilling source wells and positioning and
relocating survey lines are key factors influencing working
efficiency. This abstract introduces a 3D high density
seismic acquisition case in southern margin of Junggar
basin. By using source with small explosive quantity in
shallow well and point receiver, efficiency of the 3D high
density seismic acquisition was improved significantly, and
acquired seismic data has higher quality to image complex
structure and minor faults more clearly than the old seismic
data.
Introduction
H structure is a key exploration target of the southern
margin of Junggar basin which is located in the
northwestern China. It is in the transition zone between
Junggar basin and Tianshan Mountain, thus terrain of the
survey area fluctuates drastically and near-surface
condition is complex, which may cause strong secondary
interferences and make it difficult to position and relocate
equipment. According to former research, H structure is a
fault block reservoir controlled by slippage thrust faults and
recoil fractures. There have been several 2D seismic
surveys and one 3D seismic survey carried out in this area.
According to existing seismic interpretation result, several
test wells have been drilled, among which one well in the
west of the survey area is a high-yield well while the other
wells fails to show indication of oil or gas. This is mostly
because imaging of H structure using existing seismic data
is not clear enough, due to rough surface conditions and
complex underground structures, to complete a reliable
seismic interpretation. To characterize structure and trap
more clearly and accurately, this 3D high density seismic
survey was planned.
With the development of technology and equipment, high
density seismic exploration has been put into practice
gradually. Peng Xiao et al. (2006) introduced application of
2D high density seismic exploration in hinterland of
Junggar basin. Even though high density geometry has
many advantages (Vermeer, 2002), efficiency of high
density seismic acquisition is still an important concerning
point, especially for 3D high density seismic acquisition.
Here the first 3D high density seismic acquisition in
© 2015 SEG
SEG New Orleans Annual Meeting
mountain area of the southern margin of Junggar basin with
high efficiency is introduced.
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Method
The dynamite source, which explodes in source well, is
usually applied for seismic exploration in mountain areas.
In 3D high density seismic acquisition, there are large
numbers of source wells to be drilled, hence, a key factor to
influence working efficiency. Besides, because of complex
terrain, positioning and relocation of equipments will also
influence working efficiency greatly. The main idea to
improve working efficiency of the 3D high density seismic
acquisition is to reduce time for drilling source wells and
positioning/relocating equipment by using source with
small explosive quantity in shallow well (SEQSW) and
point receiver. SEQSW uses smaller source well depth and
less explosive quantity compare to conventional source. It
will sacrifice some energy and signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio
of shot gathers because energy generated by SEQSW is
weaker than conventional source while energy of ambient
noise remains the same. Meanwhile, the use of point
receiver instead of geophone array will also affect S/N ratio
of shot gathers because it records data without any noise
elimination which geophone array does by averaging all
individual geophones in a geophone array. However, in 3D
high density seismic survey, sacrifices mentioned above
will not affect the final seismic section much because shot
and trace density is much higher which enables more
reflective energy to be received, and sampling interval is
much smaller which can help to eliminate noise more
thoroughly. In fact, using of smaller explosive quantity and
point receiver is also beneficial to widen frequency band of
seismic data.
Table 1: Main interferences in the survey area.
Dominate
Interference Velocity(m/s) Wavelength(m)
Frequency(Hz)
Surface
550-900 3-20 27.5-300
wave I
Surface
1200-1650 3-20 30-550
wave II
Refracted
4000-4350 10-50 80-435
wave
Scattered
550-900 3-30 20-300
wave
Geometry Design
Bin size is a key parameter because: firstly, as the use of
SEQSW and point receiver will affect S/N ratio of shot
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 Application of 3D high density seismic acquisition with high efficiency

gathers, adequate bin size determines adequate sampling
interval of signal and noise which is essential to improve
S/N ratio in processing stage. Secondly, to image small
faults and complex structures more clearly and accurately,
adequate lateral resolution determined by bin size is crucial.
Table 1 lists main interferences in the survey area
according to analysis of old seismic data. The minimum
areas with different surface conditions were determined
according to analysis of the test data. Here they are listed
along with source parameters of the old 3D survey and the
latest 2D survey in table 3. Compare to old surveys, source
parameters for the 3D high density survey are much smaller,
so time for drilling was cut down greatly, and cost of
drilling and explosive was also reduced extremely. Beyond

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wavelength of noise in table 1 is 20m which means
sampling interval should be no larger than 10m to
adequately sample the noise. Besides, to guarantee fine
seismic attribute, receiver line interval and source line
interval were made equal to each other.
that, SEQSW has two additional benefits: 1. it brings
weaker interferences such as near-source noise and surface
wave which conventional dynamite source usually brings; 2.
smaller explosive quantity can generate wavelet with wider
frequency band.

Detailed geometry design study was conducted on the basis 6m×3kg 23.7m×12kg
of analysis of existing data and theoretical computation,
and the final geometry parameters are given in table 2
along with the geometry parameters of the old 3D survey
and the latest 2D survey. Here we can see the shot and trace
density of the new geometry is 14,400,000 per km2, which
is nearly 100 times higher than that of the old 3D survey.

Table 2: Geometry parameters of the 3D high density seismic

survey, the old 3D seismic survey and the latest 2D survey in the
survey area.
Geometry The 3D high The latest
The Old 3D Figure 1: Shot gathers in SEQSW test: shot gather with
parameter density 2D
smaller source well depth and explosive quantity (the left)
Bin size 5m×5m 20m×40m 10m and shot gather with larger source well depth and explosive
Receiver line quantity (the right) record same reflections.
interval/source 200m/200m 160m/360m
Table 3: Source parameters for different surface conditions of the
line interval
3D high density seismic survey, the old 3D seismic survey and the
Maximum offset 6456m 5445m 8390m latest 2D survey in the survey area.
folds 360 60 560 The 3D
78.125 Surface
Shot density 500 shot/km2 high The Old 3D The latest 2D
shot/km2 condition
density
Shot and trace 14,400,000 150,000 Northern
density traceskm2 trace/km2 3kg/6m 18-20kg/21m
farming area
Northern loess 3m below the low
SEQSW test 4kg/6m 18-20kg/21m
gravel area velocity layer/20kg
There are two key parameters for SEQSW –depth of source 3m below the low
well and quantity of explosive. As SEQSW means using Mountain area 4kg/8m 16kg/21m
velocity layer/12kg
smaller source well depth and explosive quantity, how Southern loess 3m below the low
small the source well depth and explosive quantity should 4kg/6m 18-20kg/21m
gravel area velocity layer/20kg
be? Field tests about source well depth and explosive Southern
quantity were carried out in areas with different surface 4kg/6m 18-20kg/21m
farming area
conditions to determine the optimum source parameters. As
shown in Figure 1 which is an example of the test, shot Point receiver
gather generated using source with well depth of 6m and In conventional seismic acquisition, geophone array is
explosive quantity of 3kg can record valid reflections
mostly used to suppress interferences. However, as shown
recorded by shot gather generated using source with well
in table 1, wavelength of main interferences varies from
depth of 23.7m and explosive quantity of 12kg. In Figure 1, 20m to 550m, while the largest array base distance ever
S/N ratio of the shot gather on the left is apparently lower. used in this area is only 33m, which means geophone array
But that will not be a problem because after in-door cannot suppress main interferences effectively. As
processing, noise can be eliminated effectively and valid mentioned above, high density geometry samples noise
reflections will stand out. The final source parameters for
more adequately, noise attenuation could be finished well

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 Application of 3D high density seismic acquisition with high efficiency
in processing stage, so point receiver can be used to replace
geophone array. Besides, point receiver can avoid
perturbations caused by simple averaging of all individual
geophones in a geophone array (Baeten et al., 2000), and
will be more convenient to position and relocate in areas
with complex terrain.
Result
The average efficiency of the 3D high density seismic
acquisition is 1848 shots per day, which is about 3-6 times
higher of the latest conventional 2D (275 shots per day) and
3D (546 shots per day) seismic acquisition in similar areas
of southern margin of Junggar basin.
Figure 2 shows a shot gather acquired in the 3D high
density survey. The raw data before noise attenuation has
very low S/N ratio as expected. However, S/N ratio of high
density seismic data has been improved extremely after
noise elimination in processing stage because of adequate
sampling of signal and noise.
Figure 2: Shot gather before (the left) and after (the right)
noise attenuation.
Figure 3 shows seismic sections of H structure of the old
3D survey and the 3D high density survey. According to
Figure 3, in the main portion of H structure, small faults
and strata contact relationships are more clearly
characterized, and continuity of seismic events is better on
seismic section of the 3D high density seismic survey.
© 2015 SEG
SEG New Orleans Annual Meeting
Figure 4 shows spectral and S/N ratio analysis results of the
3D high density seismic section and the old 3D seismic
section. It indicates that S/N ratio of the 3D high density
seismic section is always higher than that of the old 3D
seismic section in the frequency band from 0Hz to 100Hz,
especially between 0Hz and 10Hz. Spectrum of signal and
noise of the old 3D section looks better, but noise energy of
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the old 3D section turns to be stronger than signal energy
above 50Hz, while signal energy of the 3D high density
seismic section is always stronger than noise energy from
0Hz to 100Hz. This can partly explain the contradiction
that resolution of the old 3D section looks better but
characterization of structure details is not as clear as the 3D
high density section.
As the 3D high density data characterized structure details
much clearer, the reliability of seismic interpretation has
been improved significantly. Based on the seismic
interpretation of the 3D high density seismic survey, a well
was suggested and has been drilled. According to drilling
records, the depth error of the top of target stratum between
drilling and seismic interpretation is 10m, which
demonstrates the high imaging quality and accuracy of the
3D high density seismic survey.
Conclusions
It can effectively improve working efficiency of 3D high
density seismic acquisition by using SEQSW and point
receiver, because it reduces plenty of time for drilling and
positioning/relocation of equipment. Even though the use
of SEQSW and point receiver sacrifices some energy and
S/N ratio of shot gathers, high shot and trace density can
compensate the loss of reflective energy on shot gathers,
and adequate sampling of signal and noise can bring better
noise attenuation in in-door processing stage. Thus,
imaging quality of seismic data can be improved.
Since seismic data acquired characterized target structure
with high quality and accuracy which has been proved by
drilling records, and seismic acquisition was complete with
much higher working efficiency compares to the latest 2D
and 3D seismic acquisition in similar areas, this survey was
a successful case of application of 3D high density seismic
acquisition with high efficiency.
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Figure 3: Seismic sections of the old 3D survey (the left) and the 3D high density survey (the right).

Figure 4: Spectrum and S/N ratio analysis of the 3D high density seismic section and the old 3D seismic section (500ms –
4000ms time window).

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 EDITED REFERENCES
Note: This reference list is a copyedited version of the reference list submitted by the author. Reference lists for the 2015
SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts have been copyedited so that references provided with the online metadata for
each paper will achieve a high degree of linking to cited sources that appear on the Web.

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