Publications

Reprocessing of legacy seismic data occurs in cycles, benefitting from the continuous development of new processing and/or imaging algorithms. Over the last few years we observe rapid development of broadband acquisition and processing techniques, with various benefits for subsurface imaging and seismic inversion. Broadband acquisition is becoming common place for modern seismic surveys, and many different types of 1D/2D/3D broadband processing technologies have begun to be presented in the literature. While most of these new processing algorithms have been designed to include modern slant streamer or dual sensor acquisition, some may also be applied to legacy towed streamer datasets (i.e. acquisition using hydrophone only, flat-towed streamers, towed at moderate cable depths). The case history outlined in this abstract describes how a conventional streamer survey shot in 1997 was reprocessed in 2013, at a 2ms sampling interval with deghosting, to deliver a short offset 3D volume in Berau Bay (Papua Barat province). Through careful processing to remove noise, and the inclusion of an appropriate deghosting technology, in this case Single Streamer Deghosting (SSD), we demonstrate a much improved bandwidth for our legacy seismic data, especially at the low frequency end. The success of this case study has resulted in reprocessing the full survey area (1450km2) and may indicate routine future application.