2019-2020 M-OSRP/ Arthur B. Weglein

Posted on October 14, 2019

Dear Sponsors, Colleagues and Friends,

A few positive 2019-2020 news items and updates to share:

1 Please join us in celebrating and congratulating Robert H. Stolt as the recipient of the 2019 SEG Maurice Ewing Medal Robert H. Stolt recipient of the 2019 SEG Maurice Ewing Medal the highest honor and recognition of the SEG Citation by Arthur B. Weglein 002.pdf

2 A communication below that relates to resolution and illumination benefits developed and delivered from M-OSRP

3 Recent advances in the effectiveness and efficiency of seismic multiple removal, without knowing, estimating or determining subsurface or near surface information- The schedule of 2019-2020 proprietary code delivery with the ISS IMA AND ISS IME Speedup( please see the attachment). The above three items are detailed in the note below and in the attachments.

Detailing item 2-

Subject: improved resolution and illumination- depends on several factors: bandwidth of data, a new and more effective migration algorithm ( than RTM) to process data, and on a new and practical ISS Q compensation method

Resolution and illumination

One item mentioned by several individuals at the recent SEG conference in San Antonio was the challenge of sub-resolution thin layers that ( when, e.g., located in the near surface) can cause a string of troublesome and un-removable multiples down the trace and can corrupt the target zone. Multiples generated by sub-resolution reflectors are not removable by ISS free surface and ISS internal multiple attenuation or elimination methods. That can be a serious, persistent and (currently) intractable problem.

A response

One possible response could involve ISS Q compensation without knowing, estimating or determining Q , boosting the high frequency data components, (and encouraging higher frequency data acquisition). Please see the second attachment below. That advance can make currently unresolved reflectors resolvable-and the multiples they generate removable by ISS multiple removal methods.

Resolution is also impacted by the method used for migration, and the Stolt CIII migration from M-OSRP for heterogeneous media ( is the only migration method equally effective at all frequencies) has intrinsically better resolution ( and illumination) than all forms of RTM ( all versions and extensions of RTM are based upon, derived from and contain an intrinsic high frequency approximation in its imaging principle, which is therefore less effective for lower frequency components of the data ). That comparison of the new migration from M-OSRP and RTM is convincingly and quantitatively demonstrated in the third and fourth attachments.

Illumination

To paraphrase Jon Claerbout, seismic waves are a wave phenomenon and hence are ubiquitous- However processing methods that employ high frequency approximations e.g., like Kirchhoff and RTM have ray-like based ingredients, and rays don’t go everywhere, and those migration methods with high frequency approximations produce both resolution and illumination issues. Stolt CIII from M-OSRP for heterogeneous medium is the only current migration method that doesn’t make high frequency approximations.

SUMMARY of 2019-2020 M-OSRP Delivery to Improve Seismic Resolution and Illumination

ISS Q compensation without knowing, estimating or determining Q will boost the high end delivery, and resolution capability, making unresolved reflectors resolved, and the multiples these sub-resolution reflectors generate removable-and Stolt CIII from M-OSRP will assure that the low ( and lower ) frequency data provide the true and significant resolution ( and illumination) benefit that resides within lower frequency data

I’ve included a few attached items and links below for relevant references.-

-http://mosrp.uh.edu/news/m-osrp-sponsor-roi-and-schedule-of-code-delivery

-https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Nv0MDJKDjxPYsQdBQ95stC3Z7Qwcjxs/view?usp=sharing

Advances in the physics of imaging for enhanced illumination and resolution with benefit for petroleum exploration

A key-note address for the SEG/KOC Workshop Dec. 3-5, 2019 in Kuwait BELOW PLEASE FIND A LONGER VERSION OF AN ABSTRACT FOR THE SEG/KOC WORKSHOP- this version provides more context, detail and perspective

A key-note address for the SEG/KOC Workshop Dec. 3-5, 2019 in Kuwait

Detailing item 3-

3 Recent advances in the effectiveness and efficiency of seismic multiple removal, without knowing, estimating or determining subsurface or near surface information- schedule of 2019-2020 proprietary code delivery with the ISS IMA AND ISS IME Speedup (please see the attachment).

http://mosrp.uh.edu/news/increased-seismic-effectiveness-efficiency-and-impact

Subject: problems with multiples do NOT require a complex geology: Breakthrough from M-OSRP: increased seismic effectiveness, efficiency and impact

It its often thought that problems with multiples reside in plays with complex hard to define geology where imaging problems also exist. While complex rapid laterally varying heterogeneous media represent and remain a major challenge for imaging methods today, and definitely were challenges for conventional de-multiple methods that made unrealistic ( often statistical or simple 1D subsurface ) assumptions about the data or assumed subsurface information, serious issues with multiples can also reside in simple geologic plays, that do not have imaging problems. The attached important paper by Bertrand Duquet and his colleagues at Total demonstrated that in the North Sea , where the geology was basically one-D and there is NO imaging problem with primaries, that the intractable problem was the interference of those primaries with internal multiples, whose removal ( at that time) would damage or remove the primaries. In their paper they made a kind and generous note in mentioning that our group, M-OSRP was a hope for addressing that challenge. These ISS IME attachments represent the M-OSRP response to that precise challenge and problem. Another timely note is the keen interest in the Permian basin, where internal multiples interfere with primaries- everywhere- and we hear from our petroleum industry colleagues, ‘You cannot be interested in the Permian without being interested in multiples’.

SUMMARY

M-OSRP- goal is to increase the choices and overall capability, effectiveness and options within the seismic tool box

For your possible interest, attached please find a paper this month in Geophysics, with ISS free surface multiple elimination compared to SRME, -and ISS internal multiple attenuation and elimination, the latter presented on September 17 at the 2019 SEG in San Antonio. We suggest for those interested in eliminating internal multiples that are proximal to or interfering with primaries, without damaging primaries, to not only consider the ISS internal multiple elimination algorithm, but also the steps in the processing chain prior to that high capable, high ambition and high demanding algorithm to allow it to deliver its unique promise, capability and impact. Those prerequisites include the ISS free surface multiple elimination algorithms, and for on-shore application, we recommend our colleague Dr. Jing Wu’s landmark contributions, (that built upon earlier pioneering work of Dr. Jingfeng Zhang and Dr. Jim Mayhan) with separate prediction ( not filtering and damaging ) of the reference wave, with the source signature, and ground roll -and reflection data, without damaging either- to assure that the ISS internal multiple elimination has the reflection data consisting of primaries and internal multiples it requires to carry out its purpose and to deliver its promise. All of these prerequisites have been provided with proprietary codes to M-OSRP sponsors. Among the newest developments from M-OSRP is the removal of all near surface information ( in addition to subsurface information) for all OBS and on-shore seismic preprocessing and processing methods and application.

FILES REFERENCED IN THE E MAIL NOTE ABOVE

Robert H. Stolt recipient of the 2019 SEG Maurice Ewing Medal the highest honor and recognition of the SEG Citation by Arthur B. Weglein 002.pdf

ZOU Weglein ISS Q comp without Q -10-23 -002.pdf

Weglein_etal_SEG2016_The first migration method that is equally effective for all acquired frequencies for imaging and inverting at the target a.pdf

qiang et al 2017.pdf

KOCv5 keynote slides 2018.pdf

2019 SEG-KOC-Workshop-Weglein-ABSTRACT.pdf

bertrand duquet.pdf

multi-D_IME_v6_with_highlighting_SEG19.pdf

geo2018-0411.1.pdf

segam2019-3215218.1.pdf

Weglein-etal-2003.pdf