FAULT PLANE RESOLUTION USING THE LOW-FOLD 3D SEISMIC TECHNIQUE OVER WOODADA GAS FIELD, PERTH BASIN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Abstract

During August 1984, a conventional 2D seismic line and a single fold 3D seismic survey were recorded over the Woodada Gas Field, North Perth Basin, Western Australia. This survey was a joint venture between the Allied Geophysical Laboratories at the University of Houston and the Exploration Seismology Centre's Field Research Laboratory at the Western Australian Institute of Technology. Previous seismic data were so poor that there was confusion about fault orientation and structure in the survey area. In addition, the fault strike direction and extent were unknown at this location. Consequently, 3D seismic acquisition and processing techniques appeared highly applicable to this geological problem.

In general, progressive development of seismic data acquisition methods has been towards higher channel, higher multifold 2D and 3D surveys. However, at the Allied Geophysical Laboratories, processing techniques for single-fold 3D data have been developed using model tank data. This processing technique — LO-FOLD 3D — was used to field trial the method, and to test its ability to define faulting between the gas producing well Indoon 1 and dry step-out well Woodada 9. Previous usage of the single-fold 3D survey method was to delineate reefal structures in the Michigan Basin. Beyond this, no published articles discuss the method.

With single-fold data, velocity analysis and coherent noise are a problem. Consequently, 2D bin lines through the 3D volume of data were processed in order to improve the signal to noise ratios. The objective was to delineate the fault orientation in the Carynginia Formation, located between 1.3 and 1.5 seconds. Fault delineation was determined from 2D bin lines and time slices, and is interpreted to run diagonally between the two wells.