Simultaneous Long Offset (SLO) towed streamer seismic acquisition

Abstract

An innovative 3D towed streamer project in offshore Gabon used a dual-vessel continuous long offset streamer configuration to acquire 0-12 km offsets with ten dual-sensor streamers. Streamer control for the 6 km streamers was robust and avoided operational complications or logistical penalties. Simultaneous shooting maximized inline shot density for long record lengths, thus capturing unaliased deep target reflections from rugose base-salt and sub-salt horizons. Survey design benefited from prior 2D survey experiences with a variety of broadband source and streamer technologies, and the use of 2D streamers as long as 12 km. 3D illumination modelling further suggested that offsets as long as 16 km could be expected to yield useful base-salt and sub-salt reflections. Wavefield separation processing yielded full receiver-side deghosting onboard, followed by an inversion-based separation of simultaneous shots onshore. The ultra-long 12 km offsets combined with strong amplitudes of deghosted low frequencies have yielded encouraging sub-salt and pre-salt imaging.