Introduction to this special section: Subsalt exploration

Abstract

Salt basins occur worldwide (Figure 1), and large hydrocarbon deposits are often associated with the presence of salt structures due to favorable conditions for accumulation and trapping of oil and gas. Because of the cost and difficulty of drilling subsalt, it is important to be able to image subsalt prospects correctly. However, the large velocity contrast between the salt and sediments, and the complexity of many salt bodies, make subsalt imaging a difficult task. A step-change in technology is therefore required, and two recent workshops have been held to address the issues. The “Workshop on Subsalt Imaging Problems: Practical Problems Seeking Solutions” was held at the Colorado School of Mines in 2005, during which presenters from oil and service companies focused on the difficulties of subsalt imaging (Leveille et al., TLE 2005). The 2006 SEG/EAGE Summer Research Workshop on “Subsalt Exploration and Development: Imaging, Interpretation, and Drilling—What have we learned?” covered a wide range of sal...