Single-Sensor Towed Streamer Acquisition: A Case Study From The Gulf Of Mexico

The new generation of towed streamer acquisition has been developed recently that is based on single sensor recording, a calibrated marine source, a new acoustic positioning method of the receivers and a new cable steering system. The single-sensor marine acquisition technology enables the acquisition of pointreceiver towed streamer data at 3.125 m sampling interval and this has opened the possibility to develop new methods for attenuation of the marine seismic noise. The fine sampling of the seismic data contributes also to increase the seismic resolution, both vertically and horizontally, and to improve the amplitude accuracy of the recorded data. Calibrated air gun seismic source uses the source signature estimation system to measure the output wavelet of the gun array for every shot and this has an impact on removing the source output variability from shot to shot and to perform a more accurate deterministic designature deconvolution. The new acoustic positioning system improves the accuracy of the seismic measurements and together with the new streamer steering system, improves the repeatability of the seismic experiment. In this paper it will be presented applications of this new acquisition technology for reservoir development and 4D seismic from the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.