Multisensor streamer recording and its implications for time-lapse seismic and repeatability

Abstract

Effective time-lapse, or 4D, processing seeks to extract the 4D signature with minimal background noise to help understand reservoir behavior in the production phase and to optimize producer and injector well placement. Nonrepeatability of source and sensor positions in the presence of overburden heterogeneity limits our ability to repeat seismic data and to deliver 4D signals with low background noise levels. To compensate for imperfect receiver repositioning, wavefield-regularization techniques can enable wavefield matching on a grid common to both data vintages. Often there is a trade-off between reducing the receiver-positioning mismatch and crossline interpolation error from wavefield spatial aliasing. Through the use of towed multisensor marine seismic streamers that record collocated pressure (P) and acceleration measurements (Y and Z) and the application of a matching-pursuit interpolation technique, a 3D dealiased, reconstructed, and deghosted pressure wavefield can be obtained on a densely sampled grid that permits wavefield matching to prior positions in a highly effective way. From analysis on field multisensor streamer data, implications for time-lapse seismic and repeatability are investigated.