Penta Source: High-Resolution Marine Seismic From Shallow to Deep Water

The commercialisation of marine seismic source deblending has allowed for multi-source designs, such as triple and 5 (penta) sources. By increasing the number of sources, we can improve survey efficiency or quality. Deblending allows for the same or improved in-line fold over regular shot intervals so data can be processed in the sub-surface common-offset and CMP domains without aliasing or signal processing concerns. The penta source is described, which creates five sources separated by 12.5m laterally by using sub-arrays in more than one source definition. Each source consists of two sub-arrays thus ensuring sufficient energy is emitted for good signal-to-noise.

Two penta source case studies are discussed: The Australian Baxter survey in deep water with a kinematically benign clastic geology and a shallow-water survey in a stratigraphically complex stacked carbonate geology. The two geological provinces are extremes for seismic imaging and between them indicate the expected success of the technique in other areas.