Vertical seismic profiles - an introduction

In the past two decades the cost of developing an oilfield has soared from a few million to a billion or more dollars. Geophysical techniques are being increasingly called upon to aid in planning field development to prevent or at least reduce the number of mispositioned boreholes. Vertical seismic profiling (VSP) is one amongst several new geophysical techniques used in the planning process. The importance of this technique lies in its potential for detecting subsurface detail that is generally obscured on conventional surface seismic data.