f Looking ahead: cycle time reduction for GOM subsalt imaging projects

There has been a constant drive to reduce cycle time for depth imaging projects in the<br>Gulf of Mexico. In recent years, facing impending lease expirations, upcoming lease<br>sales, and tight drilling schedules, oil companies have continued to compress the cycle<br>time of Gulf of Mexico depth imaging projects. Seismic companies have increasingly<br>higher stakes in cycle time reduction, as well. This is a result of the surge of regional<br>non-exclusive wide-azimuth data acquisition in the Gulf of Mexico's deep waters. To<br>quickly recoup their companies' investments of hundreds of million dollars, processing<br>geophysicists in seismic companies are increasingly under pressure to process large<br>amounts of data in record times. This is in addition to simultaneous demands for<br>geophysicists to apply the most current technologies, such as, 3D SRME and RTM.