Publications

The first dual-sensor bottom cable 3-D seismic survey in Southeast Asia was acquired from November 1994 through January 1995 over an area of 189 square kilometers in ARCO Indonesia's prolific oil producing B-Field in the ONWJ. Because of the many obstructions within the field (platforms, buoys, tanker moorings, etc.), conventional streamer techniques were deemed prohibitively expensive and unable to provide an accurate shallow seismic image under the obstructions. A 3-D design, utilizing a ",Patch", configuration, was used to record continuous data under the obstructions. Dual-sensor technology, recording co-located hydrophone and gimbaled geophone data, was utilized to remove the receiver ghost and reverberations, common problems in bottom-referenced surveys.All precautions were taken to ensure the safety of personnel, as well as to prevent damage to facilities, such as pipelines, among the platforms. Small boats were used to lay the bottom cables as near the platforms as needed. Detailed sidescan sonar data were collected to map the exact locations of all pipelines and a specific mooring plan was designed to allow safe operations. Even with these challenges, careful planning and field crew management resulted in a seismic production rate of approximately 4 square kilometers per day throughout most of the survey.The seismic data were processed in the field and provided a quick-look at part of the survey for the placement of a new platform and to verify new bottom-hole locations. The data quality was excellent, giving ARCO its highest quality, sea-bottom gimbaled geophone data recorded anywhere in the world.