Introduction to Seismic

Method

Ranjan Sinha,
April, 2024
Seismic Methods – Global vs Exploration

Global Seismology Exploration Seismology

• Passive method – Natural source • Active method – Artificial source
• Used in understanding Earth’s internal • Used in prospecting hydrocarbons, minerals and
structure groundwater
• Helps in studying earthquakes and tremors
• Helps in shallow geology and geotechnical studies
2
 Basics of seismic
• Seismic Waves & Propagation of Seismic Energy
 Seismic Waves
• The two main types of waves are body waves and surface waves. Body waves can travel through the earth's
inner layers, but surface waves can only move along the surface of the planet like ripples on water.
Earthquakes radiate seismic energy as both body and surface waves.

P-Wave S-Wave Love Wave Rayleigh Wave

Body Waves Surface Waves

[Link]
Seismic Wave: Propagation & Attenuation

Spherical Spreading/

Scattering and Rubbing (Inelastic Attenuation)

Spherical Wavefront
P-Wave(Compressional) & S-Wave(Shear)
For shear velocity there is just one component to the elasticity: the rigidity µ. For the compressional velocity there are two: the rigidity again (the resistance to
change of shape) and the bulk modulus k (the resistance to change of volume). The rigidity asks: How difficult to shape? The bulk modulus asks: How difficult to
compress?

Compressional Velocity (Vp) =

Shear Velocity (Vs) =

Reflection & Refraction of P-Wave
Reflection and Refraction
• There are two paths b/w source and receiver-
[Link]
[Link]
 How Geophysics (Seismic) help in Hydrocarbon Search?
Mean Sea Level

Sea Bed

Cap Rock/ Seal

Earth 9

Properties
Geology Geophysics
[Link]
Geophysics is the study of the Earth using physics to determine Earth properties.
Seismic Method – Ultrasound Analogy
Like in Ultrasound scans body to monitor growth of
a baby, the Geophysical technique scans Earth to
understand what lies beneath

the seismic method works by generating sound waves and

recording their reflections to depict internal structure
What and Why of Seismic Survey
 Why need seismic survey ?
• To know tectonic and sedimentation details of the subsurface for HC exploration
• In the oil industry -to reduce the risk of drilling dry
• Reserve Accretion
• Discovery Of New Oil Pools
• More Oil From Known Fields
• Enhanced Oil Recovery
 What type of information ?
• Faults, structural features, layering of units etc.
 What type of technique ?
• Refraction (for shallow information)
• Reflection (for deep information)
 What are common data Acquisition types ?
• Onshore
 Dynamite energy source used to record reflections with multiple sensors (Geophones) spread along a designed geometry. Sensors are velocity sensitive
 Vibroseis mechanical source used where dynamite can’t be used – Inhabited area and sandy area
• Offshore
 Sources-Airgun and dynamite, depend on water depth .
 For depths > 10m Airgun is used.
 In shallow waters & marine land transition zones, both dynamite and Airgun are used with specific configurations
 Sensors are hydrophones and acceleration sensitive
The Seismic Method

Video Clip 12
 The Seismic Method
1) Sound waves are generated at the ground surface that propagate into the subsurface
2) Subsurface geology is generally layered; sound waves are reflected whenever they encounter
a rock layer with different Acoustic Impedance (AI)
3) Reflected sound waves are collected by sensors (receivers) placed at the ground surface;
these reflection arrival times at multiple surface receivers measure the structure of the
subsurface

Seismic data is a reflection record of the subsurface, that measures

subsurface impedance changes
Acoustic Impedance = V*ρ
V1 ρ 1 Reflection Coefficient (RC):
V = rock velocity, ρ
V2*ρ2 – V1* ρ1 = rock density
V2*ρ2 RC =
V2*ρ2 + V1* ρ1

Layered subsurface geology

Seismic method; from source to sensor
Recording truck
Seismic source:
S • geophone Receivers Receiver
▼ ▼
Earth’s surface
*
Direct wave
Reflected waves Groundroll
Shale

2- Reflection
Reflector 1
way
time
1

Refraction
Sand
Deep Reflection

reflection
2
Reflector 2 Seismic ‘wiggle’ traces
Steps in Seismic Exploration
• Geological surveys identify the prospective sedimentary basins for exploration

• Gravity and magnetic survey yields major tectonic elements and sedimentary thickness and define
the scope of seismic surveys

• Seismic surveys are of three types:-

• Regional
• To delineate Tectonic elements
• To get initial information about subsurface layers
• Mostly 2D and Coarse grid

• Semi-Detailed (2D & 3D)

• To identify Geological structural features
• Medium grid

• Detailed
• To delineate individual structural elements (HC Reservoirs)
• To delineate / develop identified reservoirs
• Mostly 3D and Fine grid
Seismic survey design & Data
Acquisition
Seismic Survey Design
• Survey planning starts with identification of the area and the detail required. Basic question to be asked :-

1. Meets technical / business objectives

2. Is cost effective for the projected shelf shelf-life of the data

3. Quality is often sacrificed to lower cost.

• The fundamental factors that go in to seismic survey design are:-

1. Depth of investigation

2. Horizontal Resolution

3. Vertical Resolution

4. Structural and stratigraphic changes of the subsurface

5. Environmental factors, safety

6. Equipment limitations / availability

Good Acquisition begins with a good design
19
GENERAL WORK FLOW OF SEISMIC SURVEY OPERATIONS
JULY AUGUST SEPETEMBER OCT.
[Link]. Activity Description 111111111122222222223 1111111111222222222233 11111111112 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3
123456789 123456789 123456789 123456
012345678901234567890 0123456789012345678901 01234567890 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

1 Mobilization Mobilization of Subcontractor Mobilization

HSES Project
2 Preparation
Plan

3 Permitting Intimation to Govt. Authorities Permitting

Topographic
4 Pegging
Surveying

Geophysical equipment,
5 Technical Audit
vibrators, etc.

6 HSES Audit Camp, Camp facilities, vehicles

Mobilization
7 Full Mobilization
completed

First day of
8 First VP
Recording
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Permit and Compensation Process

• Intimation to the Govt. Authorities

• Pre agreed crop and other damage rates with the help of Local t Authorities (2 months before start of
operation)
• Survey team will go along with the PRO’s
• Identify land owners with the help of local Patwari
• Permit agreement slip shall be distributed to each land owner (Photographs of standing crop will be
taken)
• Survey team will put wooden small sticks on the ground at equal interval to mark the location
• After 2 weeks, recording operation will start
• Layout of Cables and Geophones on the each picket
• Connect the cables to main recording instrument
• Vibroseis start working
• Recording Seismic Data
• After recording Pickup cables, geophones from the ground.
• Within 7 days assessment of compensation will be done
• Disbursement will be done by contractor as per agreed rate (in presence of local authorities Sarpanch /
Patwari)

21
Seismic Acquisition: Land
Seismic Acquisition: Land

Source Receiver Source Receivers

Sound waves

Rock layers

1. Vibrator trucks thump the ground sending seismic shock waves through the earth.

2. When the waves reach a boundary between two rocks of different density they
reflect some of their energy back to the surface. This is picked up and recorded by
the geophones.
EQUIPMENT – TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEY
• DGPS
• TOTAL STATION
• HANDHELD GPS

GPS Trimble

GPS Handheld
Total Station
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EQUIPMENT – RECORDING
• GEOPHONES
• CABLES
• GROUND ELECTRONICS
• RECORDING TRUCK
Vibroseis
Receivers
• The geophone is the unit in direct contact with the earth which converts the
motion of the earth resulting from the shot into an electric signal.
• Planted on the Surface coupled Vertically to the surface
• At many places (100s in 2D to 1000s in 3D) in a regular grid surrounding the
Source (Shot Point) Location to catch reflected signals from multiple layers
• A pair of source-receiver generates a “Seismic Trace”
• The Distance between Source and Receiver is Called “Offset”
• Offsets ranging from zero to 5000-6000 mt. (or more) at intervals of 30 / 40 mt.
are covered
• Thumb rule : Maximum offset equal to the Target depth
Land Seismic Acquisition - Layout
Planting of sensors (Geophones)
HIGHLY SENSITIVE GEOPHONES ARE PLANTED AT REGULAR INTERVALS AT THE PRE -
SURVEYED LOCATIONS, TO PICK UP THE ACOUSTIC WAVE REFLECTED BY THE
SUBSURFACE FORMATIONS.
GEOPHONE PLANTED IN GROUND
Shot Hole Drilling by Manual Methods
After Laying Cables and Geophones on the ground, Shooting team loading Explosives
HSE: Seismic Operations Hazards!

Courtesy Adam Turnbull, Cairn Consultant

Geophysicist

34
Some Videos
• Shot Hole Drilling and Shooting
[Link]

• Vibroseis Operations
[Link]

• Shot Hole Drilling

[Link]

• Seismic Acquisition PPT

[Link]
Seismic Acquisition: Marine
Vessel towing 8 streamers
2D SEISMIC
• TWO DIMENSIONAL IMAGE OF THE SUB SURFACE
 FIRST DIMENSION : X (DISTANCE ALONG THE LINE)
 SECOND DIMENSION : T (TRAVEL TIME)
 RECONNAISANCE SEISMIC SURVEYGRID : 8 KM X 12 KM
 SEMI DETAILED SEISMIC SURVEYGRID: 4 KM X 4 KM
 DETAILED SEISMIC SURVEYGRID : 1KM X 1KM
2D Seismic Survey Layout
3D SEISMIC
 THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGES OF THE SUBSURFACE
 FIRST DIMENSION : X (ALONG THE LINE)
 SECOND DIMENSION : Y (ACROSS THE LINE)
 THIRD DIMENSION : T (TRAVEL TIME)

3D Seismic Survey Layout

48
Seismic Survey Types
What are the differences?

Well Well

Prospect Prospect

2-D Survey 3-D Survey

 Shot on single line of receivers  shot within grid of multiple lines of receivers
 Wide spacing, kilometers  Dense spacing, few meters
49
Seismic Data Processing
 Elements of Seismic Processing
Receivers Shot

Reflector
Shot spread Shot gathers
Receivers Shots

2-way
time

Reflector .
Common Midpoint (CMP) spread
Migrated Stack
CMP gathers

Raw seismic data are noisy and bear little resemblance to geology; the objective of seismic processing
is to clean up the noise and produce seismic images that facilitate visualization of geology

51
Challenges in Seismic Processing
Processing Flow
Raw Data (Input)

Navigation Merge

Frequency Analysis

Time Frequency Domain Denoising/F-K Filtering

Vel Analysis

Radon Velocity Filtering

Stack

Predictive Decon

Post Stack Migration

Final Section (Output)

 Basic Processing Flow- Land & Marine

 Reformat from SEGD/SEGY  Amplitude scal Spherical divergence removal

Reformat from SEG-D/SEGY
 Geometry Update  Common-offset-vector binning
Navigation merge, Low cut filter , Designature Velocity Model building
 phase conversion  3D/5D-Interpolation
 Time gain correction  Offset/OVT Denoise Gun and cable statics compensation PSTM/PSDM
 Ground roll attenuation  Velocity Model Building Spherical divergence
 Other noise attenuation  PSTM/PSDM High density velocity analyses
Swell noise attenuation
 Statics  Stacking Velocity analysis Radon demultiple
 Demultiple  Azimuthal anisotropic correction Linear/Other noise attenuation

 First pass - Velocity analysis,  Radon demultiple Gathers flattening

Tidal statics application
 First pass - Residual statics  Residual Denoise
Shallow water Demultiple (SWD) Mute and stack
 Second pass - Velocity analysis  Trim Statics
SRME (2D/3D) Angle stack generation
 Second pass –residual statics  Generation of Angle Stacks
 Random noise attenuation  Stack with outer mute Deconvolution
Post stack Processing
 Removal of Time Gain Function  Post-stack processing Deghosting (For BROADBAND ONLY)
 Final stack Noise & multiple attenuation
3D/5D regularization
Scaling/AGC
Residual noise & multiple attenuation

Final Stack
Type of Migration: PSTM-Kirchoff , PSDM- Kirchoff, Beam, RTM, Full Azimuthal Imaging

Type of Migration: PSTM-Kirchoff , PSDM- Kirchoff, Beam, RTM, Full Azimuthal Imaging

Land Marine
Shot Record from Field

Offset Shot Offset

Field Record (Land)
-6.0 -4.8 -3.6 -2.4 -1.2 0.0 1.2 2.4 3.6 4.8 6.0 km
0

Direct wave

1
ReflectionRefracted signal
time (s)

2
Reflected signals from layers

3
Velocity Analysis
Seismic Processing - Ensemble Balance (EB)

Flip with the next slide

Seismic Processing - Offset Amplitude Recovery (OAR)

Flip with the next slide

58
Seismic Processing - Denoise

Flip with the next slide

59
Seismic Processing - Decon & Refraction

60
Comparison between Field processed brute stack vs Processing Center final stack

Brute stack Final stack

 2D Reprocessing

 Improved structural details along with fault definition

Vintage Reprocessing
1. Noisy stack Applied key processes
2. Smeared fault definition  Tomographic static
3. Poor Structural definition  Noise attenuation
 Detailed velocity analysis
 3D : Reprocessing

Improvement in fault plane imaging & event continuity

New Algorithms & Workflows

 3D tomographic static
 Model based denoise
 5D interpolation,OVT binning & anisotropic velocity model building
 3D Reprocessing

Improved Structural continuity

Vintage PSDM Reprocessed PSDM

New Algorithms & Workflows

 Merge processing (OBC & Marine seismic)
 Model based denoise
 5D interpolation,OVT binning & velocity analysis
Seismic Data interpretation
From a Geologic Section to a Seismic Section
1 meter

Our scale Increase in Impedance Decrease in Impedance

Reflections occur at the boundaries between rock layers

Basic Philosophy of Seismic Interpretation

Structural Interpretation Stratigraphic Interpretation

[Link] variation/Edge
[Link] & Fault Interpretation
understanding (Amplitude,
in time & Depth
frequency & phase variation)
2. Main Objective is to get a 3D
2. Main Objective is to get an
structural Framework in time &
idea about lithology and fluid
depth
from seismic
The main focus to prepare the
The main focus to prepare the
data for structural
data for structural
interpretation should be
interpretation should be
keeping in mind the following
keeping in mind the following
objective
objective
Structural Interpretation
• Seismic horizons
• Examples from Cairn operated blocks
• Phase and polarity
• Seismic resolution
• 2d 3d seismic data interpretation comparison
• Recommended 3d seismic interpretation procedure
• Examples of seismic interpretation
• Seismic attributes
• In-house seismic horizon interpretation
• Exercise

68
3-D Visualization of Seismic Data

69
 Elements of a Seismic Section
Regularly spaced seismic recording locations (seismic ‘traces’)

reflections
2-way
time

Note differences in reflection arrival time patterns that depict

subsurface structure and relative impedance changes

3-D seismic data from Cairn’s KG-OSN Block 5 kms

 Seismic Interpretation: Horizons & Faults
Proposed Well

To interpret a horizon, we pick

its arrival times across
individual seismic lines
Time
axis

Fault inerpretation

Stratigraphic features

73
Seismic–TO-WELL TIES
Calibrating Seismic: Synthetic Seismogram

(From sonic
log)
Reflection
Lithology Velocity Density Impedance Coefficients Wavelet Synthetic

Shale

Sand
x =  *  
Shale

Sand

Shale

When well log data are available, synthetic seismograms are constructed to calibrate seismic
data
75
Seismic to Well Tie: Aishwariya-1Z

BH 8

Correlation~65%

Statistical Wavelet:
Window Length: 450 ms
Wavelet Length: 128 ms
 Well-Seismic Calibration
Well A-1

With calibration, we:

- obtain ages of key stratigraphic markers
- decide which seismic horizons to map
- obtain velocity information for depth conversion
- estimate primary lithologies of key intervals

77
Seismic Interpretation: Horizon Mapping
Interpreted horizons and faults are plotted on a map and contoured to depict subsurface structures

Time Structure Map

78
Velocity Model Building
Seismic Input Horizon/Surface Well Data( TD table , Tops )

Stacking Velocity
Dix inversion

Interval Velocity Vint from Check Shot

Scaling Up Vint to Model Grid

Scaled Vint _Seismic 3D Model Grid Scaled Vint _CHK

Calibration Factor

Calibrated Vint Cube

Vaverage Cube

Velocity Model
Difference b/w Time Map(Seismic Derives) & Depth Map(Well Derived)

Depth Map (Well) Time Map (Seismic)

Stratigraphic interpretation
Seismic interpretation methods

Step-1: Identification

1. Seismic attributes analysis

2. Spectral decomposition
Stratigraphic feature Identification &
3. Seismic visualization techniques (Opacity, volume blending, geobody mapping) Mapping

Step-2: Interpretation

1 . Define the identified stratigraphic feature based on geomorphology

 Channel, Interpreting the feature in terms of
 Fan, Geology
 Delta
 River Mouth bar
 sequence stratigraphic onlaps, top laps etc.,

2. Calibrating with depositional environment

Step-3: Validation
Validation of feature for exploration
prospect & field development
1. Validating feature with nearby well data and results
2. Define the petroleum system element for exploration
81
3. Define the extent of reservoir and its rock properties for field development
Stratigraphic interpretation: guided by depositional settings

(Left) Horizontal Seismic section

from Gulf of Thailand showing
meandering stream channel and
(right) schematic diagram of the
features observed - a delta
prograding across the survey
area from southwest to
northeast. (Brown, A., 1986)
Seismic Technologies
Workflow & Basics
 Spectral Decomposition Technology
Simultaneous display of 3 attributes(integration of tuning cubes) will therefore
show more of the data!

18 Hz  Red
24 Hz  Green
36 Hz  Blue

(Wessels et al, 1996)

 4-D (Time Lapse) Seismic Technology

Baseline 2000

Monitor 2010

• 3-D is spatial measurement; 4th dimension information comes from time lapse measurement
• Identifies previously unrecognized bypassed reservoir areas
• Requires reservoirs that show seismic sensitivity to reservoir saturation and pressure changes
Stack 4D seismic workflow
4D Difference Stack

RC-3 RC-2/2ST RC-6

 Acquisition OOWC

F
1
Baseline Sw’
Baseline Sw’
F
4D seismic data was acquired 2

using state of the art OBC RC-3 RC-2/2ST RC-6

technology with high accuracy.

 Processing
Data processed simultaneously with F
Monitor Sw’
identical parameters to maximize 1

2009 – 4D Stack 4D Difference Stack Monitor Sw’

F
2

repeatability and resolution.

 Interpretation
Interpreted 4D seismic anomalies by
comparing the amplitude changes Brine HC
between base and monitor surveys
 Bypassed oil
Identified anomalies are quantified and
well calibrated to estimate the
undrained areas of hydrocarbons.
DHI / AVO Technology
Seismic Inversion Technology
Well data Structural Framework Low Frequency Model

Predicted Geology

True Geology (Unknown)

Synthetic Seismic

Original Seismic