3D penta-source marine seismic acquisition: an innovative approach to address the sampling challenge

Abstract

Penta-source acquisition is the latest addition to modern 3D Marine Seismic Acquisition Methods, a step ahead of the conventional dual and the more recent triple source acquisition methods. In the recent years, it has increasingly become popular due to its ability to deliver higher quality data enabled by finer cross-line sampling. This has been demonstrated through the Baxter Case Study (Hager et. all, 2016) where the 3D survey was successfully acquired and processed though the study area was relatively small. We present a case study from offshore Malaysia where penta-source acquisition method was adopted for the first time for a large 3D survey (~7000 sq.km) to enhance the data quality without compromising the acquisition efficiency. The survey was designed using a robust workflow to optimize acquisition parameters to meet the geophysical objectives, and executed safely and efficiently.