A new approach to offshore drill‐bit reverse vertical seismic profiling (RVSP)

Abstract

Seismic while drilling (SWD) is a tool that can be used to optimize drilling at offshore areas and to reduce the related risks. Different while-drilling vertical seismic profiling (VSP) technologies that use seismic receivers located in fixed positions can be considered for offshore 2-D investigations with short–medium offset and in limited water depth. We introduce a new approach using conventional towed streamers to extend the offshore SWD measurements to large-offset, 3-D, and deepwater applications, where conventional technology has limitations. This technology may not only replace other SWD methods but could also integrate them.