PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: WesternGeco expands wide-azimuth surveys

In August WesternGeco announced an expansion of its multiclient, wide-azimuth survey in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico as a result of underwriter demand for high-quality subsalt imaging and optimized data resolution.

 The E-Octopus project is in its third phase of acquisition, and WesternGeco will add a fourth phase in November 2007 with a fifth phase in early 2008. These WAZ surveys offer the unique advantage of more precise base and edge of salt definition through the integration of magnetotellurics, gravity and Q-Marine data through MMCI multimeasurement constrained imaging.

 “We are currently conducting targeted magnetotelluric surveying in the most challenging imaging areas for all phases of the E-Octopus program,” said Aaron Gatt Floridia, vice president, WesternGeco Electromagnetics.

 The E-Octopus project, the first multiclient, wide-azimuth program in the Gulf of Mexico, commenced in July 2006. Since then, over 700 blocks of wide-azimuth data have been acquired. WesternGeco has also developed the world’s first onboard prestack wave-extrapolation depth migration in the third phase of E-Octopus through the use of its proprietary Q-Xpress technique, providing quick-look migrated data volumes for interpretation, quality control, illumination and in-fill acquisition requirements.

The final deliverables for these surveys will include the latest state-of-the-art technologies such as anisotropic multi-azimuthal tomography, wavefield extrapolation demultiple and shot domain WEM with angle gathers.

 The E-Octopus project is a member of the WesternGeco family of multiclient E-surveys that utilize advanced acquisition and processing technologies. The WesternGeco suite of geophysical applications includes electromagnetics services and Q-Technology, the world’s only single-sensor high-fidelity seismic acquisition-to-inversion platform. For further information, please visit www.westerngeco.com.