data processing & interpretation 35
and graphics cards, suitable for seismic interpretation been able to learn important information on the subsalt
workgroups, to very large hybrid clusters located in data structure from this eastern Gulf of Mexico data.
centre, which Bull is already delivering to government and Following these results, the company also tested the
energy customers. WEM technique on its 'Big Wave' Phase 1 multi-client
Mostly Aberdeen-based FFA’s domain expertise and project and concluded that it showed clear potential to
involvement with a large number of major oil and gas improve the imaging of the Florida escarpment and the
companies’ petrotechnical users combined with Bull’s base of salt definition.
expertise in hybrid systems is expected to provide a Remaining in Houston and staying on the subsalt/
fast-track for innovation and improved turnaround times pre-salt theme, in April, ION Geophysical said it had
within 3D interpretation and modelling workflows. successfully completed the first phase of its BrasilSPAN
FFA specialises in the development and application seismic data programme and delivered the processed
of automated interpretation and modelling tools that are data, seismic images, and an integrated interpretation.
capable of plugging into established 3D interpretation and According to ION, BrasilSPAN as the first
modelling workflows. That means they can make use of comprehensive, presalt geophysical study of Brazil’s
more scalable and powerful technologies of the kind built prolific offshore hydrocarbon basins in which several
into Bull’s 'extreme' computing systems. multi-billion bbl discoveries have been announced in
According to the duo, these outperform the traditional recent years.
commodity platforms currently in use within the BrasilSPAN comprises 12 000km of seismic data
oil industry and are expected to deliver significant that images the entire crustal section in Brazil’s Santos,
productivity advantages to those who adopt them.” Campos, and Espirito Santos hydrocarbon basins. ION
Crossing the Atlantic to Houston, Spectrum has said it worked closely with regional experts to design the
reported that it has achieved impressive results in survey and tie the acquired seismic data lines to critical
processing a 28 000km US Gulf of Mexico seismic survey wells in the basins of interest.
using Wave Equation Migration (WEM) techniques to The program was acquired with long offsets (a
reveal subsalt geology. relatively successful technique for imaging subsalt and
This is an important step forward as subsalt offers through basalt), long listen times, and imaged with
considerable future potential in terms of major new proprietary reverse time migration (RTM) technology
hydrocarbons discoveries, with ness the Jack find by from ION’s GX Technology seismic imaging subsidiary to
Chevron and strong of massive subsalt (pre-salt) finds provide improved resolution in the presalt and salt flanks
offshore Brazil by Petrobras and others. of these prolific hydrocarbon basins.
Spectrum said that the 2D survey was processed BrasilSPAN was planned in partnership with ION’s
at the company’s newly refurbished Houston data AfricaSPAN customers in order to address questions of
processing and imaging facility using both Kirchhoff and great interest to global exploration teams, including how
wave equation depth migration processing. the conjugate ties between West Africa and Brazil affect
The company’s data interpreters first processed the the exploration potential along the continental margins
seismic using Kirchhoff eikonal pre-stack depth migration on both sides of the present-day Atlantic Ocean. Not only
(PSDM), which produced reliable data and revealed detail have huge subsalt hydrocarbons discoveries been made
about the complex geology in the Gulf of Mexico. They offshore Brazil, BP has located several subsalt fields on
then considered applying wave equation migration and it block 31 offshore Angola.
is this has paid off by revealing clearer subsalt definition. The regional, conjugate, and interpretative studies that
This is an important breakthrough as subsalt is are part of the BrasilSPAN program are said to assist in
notoriously difficult to image through and data is often of an understanding of the mechanism for the break-up of
questionable quality. the continents, help develop and de-risk exploration play
WEM embraces multiple arrivals of seismic waves in concepts, and provide a framework to characterise the
the subsurface, so overcoming the limitations of standard hydrocarbon potential along the offshore margins of both
Kirchhoff PSDM which takes into account only the first West Africa and Brazil.
arrival of seismic waves. Heading further westward and completing this
According to Spectrum, compared to normal Kirchhoff brief tour of the latest in data interpretation, Nvidia
migrations, the wave equation method increases the Corporation of Santa Clara, California and the Chinese
focusing of seismic images in areas with complex velocity geophysical services provider GeoStar have unveiled a
models and excels in imaging below geology that is new hardware and software solution that draws upon the
traditionally difficult to penetrate with seismic signals, processing power of NVIDIA Tesla GPUs to dramatically
such as salt formations. accelerate the performance of complex seismic data with
Kirchhoff and WEM processing are both valuable tools GeoStar’s seismic software suite.
because they help reveal different geological features. According to GeoStar general manager, Liu Qin, said
However, the workflow is quite different because the input the computation of large datasets can be achieved in
for WEM consists of shot gathers. smaller, more power and efficient GPU-based systems as
Using both techniques Spectrum says it has has compared to CPU-only based clusters. l
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