Paper Summary
To meet the industry demand for improved subsurface insight at a reduced cost and with faster turnaround time than ocean bottom surveys, PGS deployed a pioneering acquisition configuration in the Viking Graben in the autumn of 2019. Three months after the last shot on the GeoStreamer X survey in the Viking Graben, the early-out multi-azimuth (MAZ) PSDM seismic stack was delivered to pre-funders. From an interpreters point of view the results are stunning, and what started as a novel concept now provides new insight to geoscience teams in near-field exploration, appraisal and development. There are many targets in the area, ranging from Eocene sand injectites to fractured basement, and an approach integrating survey design, imaging solutions and quantitative interpretation has enabled a significant improvement in the resolution of these reservoirs. The main imaging challenges are the large shallow channels and massive sand mounds in the Miocene as these introduce shadow zones beneath them. Eocene cemented sand injectites, called V-brights, have anomalously high velocities which historically have been very difficult to estimate. Deeper, a thin, rugose Cretaceous chalk layer causes multiples and dispersion of the seismic energy.