1887
Volume 22, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 0263-5046
  • E-ISSN: 1365-2397

Abstract

Denis Mougenot, chief geophysicist of Sercel, the French-based manufacturer of seismic acquisition systems, provides examples of how his company is tackling needed improvements in land seismic acquisition technology. The geophysical industry has been struggling to achieve profitability for some time (IAGC, 2003). In such a market, some seismic acquisition system manufacturers realize that contractors will only spend their precious capital on equipment for which they can get a near term return. This has led these manufacturers to focus their development effort on system improvements that enable contractors to collect more seismic data per day, in other words to be more productive. This article describes some of these specific productivity enhancements. Improvements are illustrated by the features in the Sercel SN388 system and by the revolutionary 408UL system introduced in late 1999. These two 24-bit recording systems are widely used by contractors and represent together about 750 000 channels and 600 central units. Changes that have contributed to faster acquisition and better data quality are considered. Improvements in seismic acquisition productivity have contributed to reducing the cost of seismic data and have helped the industry reduce the cost of finding and recovering oil and gas. These improvements can give some insight into future evolutions. It is well known that an oversupply of crews within the seismic contracting industry and the demand for lower prices in new contracts have both contributed to an understanding that lower data acquisition cost is a survival need for contractors. At the same time geophysical demands have required higher fold as well as larger offsets and uniform azimuthal distributions. Together this means that while demand for lower costs increases, the density and number of traces produced is also on the increase. In this context of low cost per trace and high fold per survey, seismic crews must improve their productivity to be profitable. Many factors can influence the productivity of seismic crews. Many of these factors are not influenced by the acquisition system, for example, geophysical planning, logistical planning, personnel choices, contractual issues, HSE, local culture, oil company requirements, to name just a few. But there are also many ways that the acquisition system can impact how much data is collected per day. Productivity improvements can come from 1) shorter time to troubleshoot the line; 2) shorter lost time between records; 3) the ability to record more lines and channels; 4) a new paradigm for acquisition field equipment, the use of a Link between multiple single channel units rather than the old technique of a fixed number of channels in boxes and cables; 5) automated QC so that the observer doesn’t need to spend so much time visually inspecting records; 6) multi-fleet vibrator techniques that allow operating without a delay for vibrator move-up; 7) overlapping record techniques, such as Slip-Sweep that allow collection of multiple records simultaneously; 8) built-in redundancy to allow a system to continue operation even with the inevitable damaged cable; 9) high enough system uptime and reliability to allow 24-hour acquisition in some areas; 10) very low power operation to minimize battery handling and replacement; and 11) lighter weight field equipment.. All of these issues will be discussed further in this article.

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2004-02-01
2024-03-29
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  • Article Type: Research Article
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