The upstream oil and gas exploration and production industry is looking for ways to reduce costs while minimizing emissions, water use and other environmental impacts. Near-field exploration and development enables producers to leverage already depreciated costs in operating infrastructure and extend the life of a declining field by accessing new or previously bypassed reservoirs.

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Full azimuth angle domain imaging provides an alternate way to map events in structurally complex areas. Information about continuous surfaces can be derived from specular gathers, while diffraction gathers are used to derive information about discontinuity i.e., faults and small-scale fractures.

This paper presents a method for maximizing fault information from depth migrated narrow-azimuth as well as full-azimuth seismic data. The study demonstrates that depth domain diffraction imaging can be used to generate higher resolution fault definition than conventional reflectivity volumes, or their derivative post-stack attributes.

The latest advancements in seismic processing and imaging, such as geostatistical interval velocity derivation and full-azimuth imaging, have improved many geologically complex and structurally deeper sediments.

High-quality subsurface images are critical for uncovering geological and geophysical aspects of the subsurface. Much vintage data was acquired in areas where no new surveys are available for a variety of reasons, so that reprocessing existing data may be the only option. The reprocessing results discussed in this paper have tremendously improved image quality and increased the interpreter’s confidence by resolving depth issues, fault positioning and reservoir connectivity.

Natural and induced fractures play a vital role in determining hydrocarbon producibility in basement exploration. An accurate understanding of fracture networks is critical for optimizing development in naturally fractured reservoirs, since the intensity and orientation of fractures significantly affect fluid flow in the reservoir rocks. Assorted techniques are available to characterize these fractures.

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Upstream companies today must achieve operational excellence by reducing emissions and utility demands, improving production at existing assets and replacing and expanding reserves while exhibiting capital discipline.

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