Seismic imaging adjacent to and beneath salt diapirs, UK North Sea

Recovery of coherent reflection events from beneath large-scale salt diapirs is a persistent problem throughout the North Sea. Similarly, proper imaging of salt flank structures faces a comparabIe, yet different, set of challenges. Conventional stacked section data quality is commonly degraded by significant non-hyperbolic moveout of the sub-salf and salt flank reflectors. The application of conventional Normal Moveout (NMO) stacking routines often results in substantial reflector smear of both the flank and sub-salt data. Dip Moveout (OMO) can result in significant improvement in the stacking component of the imaging problem but is not without risk.