Impact of Survey Design and Acquisition Technology on 3D Marine Mega-Survey Success

This paper describes how a large, 12,030km2, exploration 3D seismic survey in the Great Australian Bight was designed in order to maximize the efficiency of the survey. The entire survey area was completed within a single acquisition weather window of 7 months. Challenges for this particular survey included deep targets, very large swells, stormy weather patterns, variable ocean currents and remoteness of the survey area itself. The acquisition geometry was carefully designed to optimize the efficiency of the survey given the challenging operational constraints. The design of the acquisition parameters helped the acquisition to continue in severe swell conditions without introducing detrimental noise in the data. Unnecessary infill lines were reduced through combining active infill management with steerable streamer coverage. The required coverage was analysed using real data in the survey design stage and the achieved coverage was actively monitored during the survey