Compared detectable limitations of hydrocarbon exploration by different marine CSEM methods in shallow water

Abstract

During the past ten years, there has been a rapid development of the marine controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) method for hydrocarbon exploration. In shallow water environment two CSEM data acquisition systems which are called SeaBed Logging (SBL) system and towed streamer Electromagnetic (EM) system are developed in recently years. The purpose of this study is to compare SBL and towed streamer EM on detectable limitation by transverse resistance method for evaluating inversion result of marine CSEM data. As a result, towed streamer EM has an advantage at a shallow reservoir depth. It is not able to get a good resistivity image by Occam inversion. By contrast, SBL data acquisition system has an advantage in deep reservoir. In shallow water case, SBL system can also collect CSEM data for inversion. The inversion results have very high transverse resistance ratio even though in the deep reservoir case.