Mitigating Uncertainties in Towed Streamer Acquisition and Imaging by Survey Planning

Uncertainties in seismic images or reservoir characterisation can very often been associated with lack of resolution, illumination problems, or the inability to invert for accurate velocity models. Uncertainties may also be caused by general data quality issues like noise content as well as acquisition and processing footprints. Provided the geophysical challenges are well understood, such uncertainties can be mitigated already in the planning phase of a seismic acquisition project. Geophysical survey planning typically considers requirements for, e.g., temporal and spatial resolution, illumination at target level and also looks into the suppression of incoherent and coherent noise (e.g., multiple energy). Typically, the geophysical objectives and quality requirements have to be traded against survey cost and may be constrained by operational aspects. Combining state of the art towed streamer acquisition technology with advanced processing and imaging methods enables us to mitigate some of these uncertainties. This paper discusses issues and solutions related to illumination, footprints, and resolution. Also the benefit from utilising seismic wave types in addition to primary reflections and other geophysical methods is addressed.