Blended-Source Ocean-Bottom Seismic Acquisition

The offshore application of blended, or simultaneous-source, seismic acquisition has been comparatively limited. For ocean-bottom seismic (OBS) applications, survey durations can be almost halved with a modest increase in costs by firing more than one source into the receiver spread simultaneously. In this paper, the authors describe the acquisition of what is believed to be the world’s largest ocean-bottom survey—more than 2200 km²—by use of two blended sources and a very large receiver spread.

Introduction

Blended, or simultaneous, sources have been introduced recently in land seismic operations, with dramatic improvements in both crew productivity and data quality. Their application offshore, however, has been relatively limited.