Seismic Data Acquisition

(Marine)
Oil Exploration and Seismic

Seismic API

 Acquisition
 Processing
 Interpretation
Principles of Seismic Reflection
 Artificial seismic
disturbance is created
by different energy
sources.

 The source pulse has

to undergo various
processes before it is
tapped by the
receiver.
 Application of Seismic Waves in Oil
Exploration:

 Seismic exploration consists of generating

seismic waves and measuring the travel times from
the sources to a series of geophones.

 Knowledge of travel times and velocities is utilized

to generate the image of sub-surface from the
earth’s vibration recorded by geophones..
 Seismic Acquisition

On Land
 Acquisition OBC
Offshore
2D

3D

4D
 SEISMIC DATA ACQUISITION - 2D

Receivers
Shots

Seismic Source On Land : Dynamite or Vibrator

Offshore : Air Gun
Seismic Receiver On Land : Geophone
Offshore : Hydrophone
 Depth & Time
receivers
Shot surface
0

Layer-1 Arrival
time
Layer-2

Layer-3

Terms we use :
Shot and shot co-ordinates
Rec and rec co-ordinates
CMP and CMP co-ordinates
 Offset  Offset

Time

A Shot Record
 GATHERS OF DIFFERENT TYPES

receivers
Shot

Common shot gather

 GATHERS OF DIFFERENT TYPES

receiver
Shots
Mid Point

Common Mid Point gather

Marine data acquisition
Seismic Imaging in Offshore
 MV SAGAR SANDHANI
(DEPARTMENTAL SEISMIC SURVEY VESSEL)
 ENERGY SOURCE & SENSORS

STREAMER 1

TAILBUOY 1

SOURCE1

Ref
100m

SANDHANI SOURCE2

STREAMER 2 TAILBUOY 2

PINGERS
COS CFG

COMPASS
Data Acquisition at Sea
 MARINE SEISMIC DATA ACQUISITION - 3D

Ac
dir quis
ect itio
ion n

ect t
dir rren
ion
Cu
• Cable feathering makes
midpoint distribution irregular

• Proper Binning strategy is required to

regroup the dispersed mid points
 MARINE SEIMIC SOURCE
 MARINE RECEIVERS
 NAVIGATION & POSITIONING
 2D SURVEYS
 3D SURVEYS - MULTISTREAMER
 Marine acquisition of seismic reflection data is
generally accomplished using large ships with
multiple airgun arrays for sources.
 Airguns are deployed behind the seismic vessel
and generate a seismic signal by forcing highly
pressurized air into the water.
 Receivers are towed behind the ship in long
streamers that are several kilometers in length
 Marine receivers are composed of piezoelectric
hydrophones, which respond to changes in water
pressure.
 Because of sensitivity and noise issues,
responses from a group of 5 to 50 hydrophones
are summed to produce a single seismogram,
and the group is considered a single receiver.

 There are hundreds of such groups in one

streamer. Seismograms produced by all
receivers for each shot is called shot record or
common shot gather.
 MARINE SEISMIC SOURCE
 DESIRABLE CHARECTERISTICS
 MAXIMUM-OUTPUT S/N RATIO
 HIGH OUTPUT ENERGY
 HIGH RESOLUTION
 MINIMUM DISTURBANCE TO ENVIRONMENT
 LOW CAPITAL & MAINTENANCE COST
 CONVENIENCE OF RESUPPLY
 RELIABILITY
 AIR GUN
 It is a simple mechanical device that stores compressed
air and releases it through small ports when a firing
command is released.
 The ports are opened by either an external movable
piece called a sleeve or an internal movable piece called
a shuttle.
 When an airgun fires, the energy contained in escaping
compressed air is converted to sound, thereby
generating a seismic signal that travels in to the earth.
 Air reservoir ranges from 30 to 800 cubic inch.
AIR GUN (Shuttle type)
 AIR GUN
 The Bubble Effect.
 Explosion causes a gas bubble to form.
 Outgoing exploding wavefront provides the pulse of energy.
 But the bubble expands until its gas pressure is less than the
hydrostatic pressure of water head around it.
 Bubble then begins to collapse, compressed by hydrostatic
pressure and reaches to almost same level as the pressure
created at initial level.
 The oscillating bubble slowly rises in the water because of the
differential water head around it.
 The result is a sequence of pulses – a primary followed by many
bubble pulses
AIR GUN
 AIR GUN
 The Source Signature.
 The shape of the pressure signal created by an
airgun is called its signature
 Theair gun signature has three main
components
 Direct arrival peak
 Source Ghost
 Bubble pulse
 AIR GUN
 Properties of Source Signature
 Source strength (peak-peak strength)
 Bubble Period

 Relation of Gun Signature & Gun

Parameters:
 S V1/3 V = Volume of gun
 S P P= Firing Pressure
 AIR GUN ARRAYS
 Single guns are not used for reflection survey
 Source strength is too weak to produce good
S/N ratio at greater depths.
 The signature of air gun is far from the ideal

impulsive seismic wavelet

 Tuned air gun array are used, in which many
air guns of different carefully selected volumes
are fired simultaneously
 AIR GUN ARRAYS
 An array is thus a collection of suitably tuned air guns
that are fired simultaneously.
 An array may consists of 2-6 sub-arrays, each being a
linear alignment of 4-8 individual guns
 Direct arrival from individual guns are summed
coherently
 On the other hand, sounds from bubble pulses add up
incoherently, as the different chamber sizes produce
different bubble responses, thereby attenuating them
relative to the direct arrival
AIR GUN ARRAYS
AIR GUN ARRAYS
AIR GUN ARRAYS
AIR GUN ARRAYS (signature)
AIR GUN ARRAYS (amp spectrum)
SEISMIC SOURCE SYNCHRONIZER
 The Source Synchronizer
 Issues the firing signal to the guns
in a synchronized manner so that
all guns fire within an acceptable
time window on instructions from
INS.
 maintains firing sequence in flip-
flop shooting.
 Provides Graphic display of Gun
performance, Source signatures,
individual gun status.
 Provides Real time QC, Autofire
detection, Alarms
 Provides Data logging for QC
purpose. Line QC and Statistical
report.
 MARINE RECEIVERS
 HYDROPHONES
 SEISMIC STREAMER
 ASSOCIATED DEVICES
 DIGITIGING MODULES
 LEAD-IN CABLE
 STRETCH SECTION
 TAIL BUOY
 DEPTH CONTROLLER BIRD
 RECOVERY DEVICE
 STREAMER NOISE
 HYDROPHONES
 Hydrophone is an electro acoustic transducer.
 Converts pressure pulse in to voltage by means
of an piezoelectric crystal.
 Acceleration due to tow is cancelled out and
only orthogonal component of compression
produces signal.
 This helps to provide better S/N ratio
 Hydrophones are summed in series to improve
their voltage output
 STREAMER
 Streamer cable is formed by connecting together
subunits called sections.
 A section is typically 12.5 m to 100m long with end
connector couplings.
 In each section 15 to 100 hydrophones are connected to
form 2 to 8 receiver groups
 Steel wire stress members join plastic bulk heads
together and hydrophones are suspended between the
bulk heads in a light kerosene oil.
 Each streamer section is housed in a clear PVC skin.
 Total streamer length can be as long as 12 km
STREAMER
STREAMER
STREAMER
STREAMER
STREAMER
 STREAMER

 Lead-in section.
 Lead in connects the
streamer to the cable reel.
 Lead-in section has a solid
core.
 A flexible metal sheath
provides protection against
damage from vibration and
rubbing where the lead-in
contacts the ship stern, back
deck and cable reel.
 The lead-in is also capable
of withstanding high
pressure.
 STREAMER
 Digitizing Modules.
 In-sea electronic modules.
 Fixed between two/more streamer
sections.
 Analog-to-digital conversion and
extensive use of Digital Signal
Processing (DSP) technology
allow digital filtering and signal
processing functions to be carried
out in the module.
 24 bit digitization is in use.
 Each module can take 8-12
channels.
 STREAMER
 Stretch section.
 One or more stretch sectons (50 to
150m) are installed behind the lead-
in cable.
 Attenuate cable noise caused by
the vibration and jerk from the ship.
 The stretch section has a vinyl
jacket and contains kerosene.
 Uses ropes instead of wire stress
members.
 STREAMER

 Tail Buoy.
 The principal purpose of the tailbuoy is to
provide a reference on the cable position.
 A flasher is attached to it for an indication
of the tail end of the streamer.
 Used to ensure cable has straighten out.
 It may also help indicate cable drift
(feathering)
 Now GPS is being fixed on tailbuoy to
ascertain the position of tail end of the
cable.
 Tail buoy also serves as a marker for
vessels passing astern
 Also aids in retrieving the cable if it is cut.
 STREAMER

 Neutral Buoyancy
 Kerosene is lighter then sea water.
 A streamer filled with enough kerosene to
counter its weight can be placed at a
particular depth and will remain there.
 Ideally the cable should be neutrally
buoyant such that a mechanism may
guide the streamer to the required depth.
 STREAMER

 Depth Control
 Streamer is towed at a particular depth say 7-8 mtr.
 The depth is controlled by attaching a winged device called ‘birds’
controlled by spring tension preadjusted to make them operate at
a particular depth.
 At the particular depth the water force on wings is balanced by the
spring tension.
 If cable drops to lower depth or there is decrease in cable depth,
the angle of wings change accordingly to bring the streamers
back at the target depth.
 The birds contain active control element. The wings are attached
to a water piston, tension spring mechanism.
 The desired depth is also controlled individually by a command
transmitter in ship’s instrument room.
 The birds are powered by rechargeable/alkaline/lithium batteries
 STREAMERS

A Depth Controller bird

 STREAMER
 Recovery Device (SRD)
 Operation of the device is simple and effective
 recovery devices are installed at regular intervals along the
streamer (300 meters maximum recommended).
 If a streamer is severed or becomes detached from the tow
vessel and sinks, the recovery device automatically activates at
30-35 meters of seawater and releases compressed CO2 into
a flotation bag.
 After the SRD bag inflates, the buoy floats the streamer to the
surface for recovery
STREAMER
 STREAMER NOISE
 Depth Controller Noise
 Water flow turbulence along the streamer.
 Birds are placed away from live hydrophones
 Poor Ballast Noise
 If streamer is poorly ballasted, the birds will tilt their wings to
maintain the desired depth. As a result local turbulence is
generated to produce noise.
 Rough Sea Noise
 Sea swells cause up-welling and down-drafting of volumes of sea
water. This turbulence raise up or drops down the live streamer
sections.
 Individual live sections are moved relative to adjacent sections.
 High amplitude noise bursts are observed due to this
phenomenon.
 STREAMER NOISE

 Ship Propeller Noise

 Propeller noise may travel horizontally
through the water column and be
recorded by the cable.
 Alternatively, if a shallow hard seabed
exists, a propeller beat frequency can be
setup by the pressure wave from the
propeller being reflected back to the
surface.
STREAMER DEPLOYMENT
 DATA RECORDING SYSTEM
 Data recording system is part of entire data
acquisition system, i.e., Streamers, Digitizing
modules and recording system.
 Digital telemetry systems are used.
 Telemetry is an act of transmitting signals from
remote locations to a central receiving point
either by cable (coaxial or fibre optic) or radio.
The data is digitized either at acquisition point or
for a group of some acquisition points and then
sent in a stream, eventually feeding the
recording unit.
 DATA RECORDING SYSTEM
 Some major features of recording systems are as
follows.
 Multi streamer support.
 Channel capacity of 9000+
 Support for a number of variants of recording format, i.e, SEG-D
8015, 8036, 8048. 8058
 Sampling interval of 0.5, 1,2,4 ms
 Record length selectable in 0.5/1 second increments upto 18s or
more.
 IBM 3590 tape sub system with cartridge capacity of 10Gb/20GB
 Real time displays of shot record, faults and observer QC
 Plotting facility of monitor records.
 2-D MARINE SURVEYS
 2D surveys are carried out along preplanned lines.
 Usually the data is collected on a regular grid of
orthogonal lines to cover the prospect area.
 The line interval varies widely depending upon the
objective.
 Lines are usually oriented in the direction of general dip
and strike.
 A plan of such lines along with end coordinates is called
pre-plot.
2-D MARINE SURVEYS
 2-D MARINE SURVEYS
 2D Marine acquisition of seismic reflection data is
generally accomplished using large ships with airgun
array for sources.
 Airguns are deployed behind the seismic vessel and
generate a seismic signal by forcing highly pressurized
air into the water.
 Receivers are towed behind the ship in long streamer
that are several kilometers in length.
 The airguns are fired at a predefined interval along the
preplots.
 Each shot provides a shot record which is collection of
responses of all receivers to a particular shot.
 2-D MARINE SURVEYS
 Parameters to be defined.
 Near Offset
• The distance from the Shot Point to nearest live
receiver.
• Ideally Near Offset
Hnear < Depth of Shallowest horizon

• The near offset should be made as small as noise

conditions allow.
 2-D MARINE SURVEYS
 Parameters to be defined.
 Group interval
• Group interval is basic sampling of earth. The group interval
is distance on the surface between receiver groups.
 Largest spatial sampling is given by the formula
Gm = 0.5*(Vmin/Fmax)/sinΘ

Vmin = minimum velocity, Θ = maximum dip of the target

Fmax = Maximum frequency expected
As dip increases, Group interval decreases
• In a streamer minimum group interval available these days is
6.25 m. 2 or 4 groups can be joined to make a group of
12.5m or 25m
 2-D MARINE SURVEYS

 Parameters to be defined.
 Fixing of Near Offset, Group interval and Maximum offset
automatically fixes the number of channels or receiver
groups per spread.
 Fold
• Fold = 0.5*N*GI/SI
 Max fold is possible for SI=GI
• The effect of fold on the S/N is F1/2. How much fold is
required depends on how noisy the data is – a subject
of field testing.
 Shot interval
• Unless the group interval is too short, the SP interval
can be can be taken same as receiver interval.
Maintaining SP same for Short Group interval may not
be possible in view of minimum speed requirement and
cycle time required to charge the guns
2-D MARINE SURVEYS
2-D MARINE SURVEYS
2-D MARINE SURVEYS
 3-D MARINE SURVEYS
 3D reflection seismology differs from 2D profiling (as shown above)
by the fact that data is gathered over a surface and not along a line.
The data is processed into a cube, subdivided into bins formed by in
lines and cross lines.
 Modern 3D surveys are carried out using dual source and multiple
streamers.
 For 3D surveys, the CMP becomes two dimensional and is termed a
bin.
 Pre-plots are prepared in view of number of streamers, sources and
bin size. Sail lines and receiver lines are defined.
 The data is acquired by running the source on pre-plots (sail lines).
 3-D MARINE SURVEYS
 Parameters
 Bin Size
x = V /(4*f*sin b)
V= velocity at target horizon
f= maximum frequency
b = dip in degrees
 3-D MARINE SURVEYS
 Pre-plots
3-D MARINE SURVEYS
3-D MARINE SURVEYS
 3-D MARINE SURVEYS
300 m

90..5 m 158.95 m

3 STRETCH
Streamer 5000
STREAMER 1 mts.
(4600 mtrs)

50.55m
10m

100m
50 m

ANTENNA 10m

3 STRETCH Streamer
STREAMER 5000 mts.
2 (4600 mtrs)

COS
 3-D MARINE SURVEYS
300 m

90..5 m 158.95 m

3 STRETCH
Streamer 5000
STREAMER 1 mts.
(4600 mtrs)

50.55m
10m
CMP Line 3
100m
50 m

ANTENNA 10m

CMP Line 1
3 STRETCH Streamer
STREAMER 5000 mts.
2 (4600 mtrs)

COS
 3-D MARINE SURVEYS
300 m

90..5 m 158.95 m

3 STRETCH
Streamer 5000
STREAMER 1 mts.
(4600 mtrs)

CMP Line 4
50.55m
10m

100m
50 m

CMP Line 2
ANTENNA 10m

3 STRETCH Streamer
STREAMER 5000 mts.
2 (4600 mtrs)

COS
 3-D MARINE SURVEYS
 Each trace (seismogram for one source-
receiver pair) is assigned to a particular
bin.
 The vessel is run in such a way that all
bins are filled with desired foldage and
acceptable offset distribution.
 3-D MARINE SURVEYS
 Shooting 3D streamer survey
3-D MARINE SURVEYS
3-D MARINE SURVEYS
3-D MARINE SURVEYS

Example – Time section

 NAVIGATION & POSITIONING
 Navigation & Positioning is essentially required
 To navigate the vessel on pre-plotted line.
 To be able to fire the guns at shot locations
 To be able to perform real time computations to give source
receiver positions for each shot so that the traces could be
assigned to bins and real time monitoring of bin coverage be
possible.
 To be able to maneuver the vessel for optimum coverage
 To be able to locate the in-sea equipment.
 For Navigation & Positioning data logging in Industry standard
format.
 To be able to analyse and process the nav data if required.
 To be able to perform QC on nav data.
 NAVIGATION & POSITIONING
 Integrated Navigation System
 An integrated navigation system is most crucial element of an
seismic survey operation.
 It takes input from a number of navigation and position sensors
and communicates with vessel’s navigation, Source
Synchronizer and Data recorder.
 The following sensors are used for INS
• Gyro Compass
• DGPS
• rGPS (guns, tailbuoys, rescue boat)
• Cable compass
• Acoustic pingers
• Echo sounder
 NAVIGATION & POSITIONING
 Positioning
 Vessel position : DGPS
 Vessel Heading : Gyro
 Guns : GPS, Acoustic network
 Streamer/receivers : Acoustic network, Cable Compass, Head &
Tail GPS
 Cable depth : Echo sounder
NAVIGATION & POSITIONING
 NAVIGATION & POSITIONING
 Streamer Positioning
 In the mid-1980’s, the standard technology for streamer
positioning was based on tangent measurements (provided by
magnetic compasses) at discrete points along each cable.
 This allowed for an estimate of the cable shape (and hence an
estimate of the receiver locations) at the time of each shot.
 In the 1990’s, the ability to place limited acoustic networks near
the front, middle and tail end of the streamers led to a significant
improvement in positioning accuracy.
 The next step in this evolution in streamer positioning techniques
is the arrival of third generation acoustic systems, capable of
providing full acoustic cross bracing along the entire length of
the cable.
NAVIGATION & POSITIONING
NAVIGATION & POSITIONING
 TYPES OF NOISE
Coherent Noise (Ground roll, backscatter, multiples)
 Methods of reduction :
 - Multi channel filtration in t-x, f-k, tau-p domains
 - Model based filtering (WEMA,SRME)
 Cultural Noise
 Methods of reduction :
 - Auto-editing
 - Manual editing
Random Noise
 Method of reduction
 - CMP stacking,
 - Predictive decon in f-x domain
 Issues of Concern in seismic survey
 Currents
 Currents of variable magnitude are found in all parts
of sea.
 The currents push far the cable from its desired
position during the survey, i.e., rigidly in-line, trailing
the vessel.
 An angular and circular bend is imposed on the cable.
 This is called feathering of the cable.
 Feathering causes smearing of data in 2D and makes
it difficult to cover the area uniformly with all offsets.
 Issues of Concern in seismic survey

 Waves
 Waves are variable in amplitude, direction
and period
 Waves are part of environment noise and can
be hazard.
 Obstacles
 Sea structures like oil rigs and platforms
cause a big gap in coverage and may require
undershooting.
 Issues of Concern in seismic survey
 Fishing
 Fishing activity, particularly with nets, is a nightmare
for any seismic operation.
 Any entanglement of streamer with fishing gear may
create a number of problems
• It may completely damage the streamer by skinning off or
entanglement or snapping of streamer.
• It may puncture the skin of streamer sections and electric
leakage may develop.
• Loss of in-sea electronics like compass birds, acoustic
pingers etc.
• Entanglement with spreading devices may be hazardous for
the vessel or the fishing boat.
 Issues of Concern in seismic survey

 Bathymetry
 Due to spreading devices, heavy lead-in,
towed guns and streamers, it is not feasible
for large 3D vessels to operate in shallow
waters (say<25m).
 Sudden shallow patch in sea bottom may be
hazardous for in-sea equipment.
 Issues of Concern in seismic survey

 Sea Traffic
 As the survey vessel can not stop or reduce the
speed suddenly, it is necessary that there is no sea
traffic ahead of the seismic vessel.
 It needs to be ensured that no vessel crosses the
streamer as the propeller of a vessel with 6-7m draft
may cut the streamer.
 Any anchoring vessel near the operating area should
also be avoided as rubbing of streamer with anchor
chain may damage the streamer.