Q compensation study at Thunder Horse field, Gulf of Mexico

Gherasim, Mariana; Crider, Richard; Davis, Stan; Shoshitaishvili, Elena; Quist, Yan; Trout, Matt

doi:10.1190/1.2792446

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Seismic velocities and the quality factor can drastically vary in 3D, and only using 1D or 2D Q-compensation will not be sufficient to produce an optimal image. Q-compensation can also been applied after migration (Gherasim, 2010). Better results can be obtained by performing the seismic migration and Q compensation simultaneously (Dai et al, 1994;Yu et al, 2002;Traynin et al, 2008;Xie et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use Q‐RTM to Image Beneath Gas Hydrates in Alaminos Canyon, Gulf of Mexico

Chen

Huang

2010

SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts 2010

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Gas hydrates buried in the shallow sediments below the ocean cause amplitude attenuation, wavelet phase distortion, and frequency loss in the seismic reflection data beneath them. This can make reservoir evaluation based on the deeper seismic image difficult. The distortion can be compensated by using pre-stack inverse Q-filtering, or by a more sophisticated Q-migration. While inverse Q-filtering (amplitude and phase) is a traditional method to correct these problems, it is not sufficient to compensate for localized image distortion resulting from complex overburden structures. A dataset in Alaminos Canyon, Gulf of Mexico was used to perform a 3D Q-tomographic inversion. The derived Q-model of the gas hydrates was used in Q-Reverse Time Migration (Q-RTM) (Zhang et al, 2010) to improve the imaging around complex geological structures. The results show that Q-tomography can generate a reliable Q-model from the surface seismic data, and that Q-RTM can reduce the energy loss and image distortion caused by the shallow gas hydrates. Altogether, Q-tomography and Q-RTM provide an improved structural definition and more uniform amplitude distribution for a more accurate and interpretable seismic section.

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