Worthy of a Second Look? Maximising Value from Pre-Stack Seismic Data

Inspection, analysis and refinement of gathers can be crucial for accurate description of subsurface uncertainty and mitigation of key risks. We carefully catalogue and pay to store these datasets, and we know there is valuable insight to be gained. However, consistently accessing that insight is a challenge. This paper describes the work done to identify and remove the blockers which prevent geoscientists from maximising the value from their data. These blockers were grouped in themes of data, toolkit and motivation. A collaborative holistic approach was required - removing any one blocker would not be sufficient.

Measuring the exact return on investment for initiatives like this one will always be challenging, any attempt to agree quantification would certainly be subject to debate. This does not mean that we are unable to meaningfully measure progress or communicate added value. We can identify required further action using leading indicators such as toolkit uptake, speed of data access and peer review recommendations.

We have made and agreed the assertion that routine assessment of gathers across the portfolio will result in improved amplitude integrity and more robust depth prognoses. Future post project evaluations will let us know whether we have achieved that outcome.