Seeking efficient OBC survey designs that still satisfy established geophysical objectives

Our study is conducted with the aim to find OBC survey designs meeting technical and business objectives among infinite selections that OBC technique inherently provides. We perform productivity analysis on a total of 2604 survey designs, and only designs meeting established geophysical requirements are selected. We show that current equipment availability along with several geometry options enables a variety of survey designs and geometries which consequently lead to improvements in survey productivity. The use of two dual source-vessel operations, 1) Distanced Separated Simultaneous Shooting (DS3); and (2) Dual Source-Vessel Flip-Flop Shooting (DSVFFS), for OBC surveys can significantly reduce acquisition time. Additionally, we show technical challenges of dual source-vessel operations resulting from the relationship between OBC survey designs and resultant interference noise wave fields not generally associated with other acquisition technique