oa Subsalt Imaging through Pre-Stack Depth Migration - A Case Study from the North Red Sea

The Middle East hosts a wide range of different geological settings, a large number of which exhibit structural complexity and hence can benefit from depth imaging. These structurally complex areas range from over-thrust zones on the U.A.E - Oman border and fault shadow problems in the Western Desert of Egypt to salt structures in the Gulf of Suez and Red Sea. In the North Red Sea offshore Egypt, the presence of salt structures can cause considerable distortion of the sub-salt seismic image. This distortion is due to complex shape of the salt, strong and sharp variations of the velocity field at the salt boundaries, as well as very complex wave propagation which all together lead to a very challenging imaging task. Pre-stack depth imaging is considered as a viable and ultimate tool for accurate delineation of sub-salt reflectors in this geological environment. To achieve the best seismic image an optimal interval velocity depth model has to be built.