Ocean-Bottom Acquisition Feasibility Study Using Full Waveform Inversion

Summary Acquisition design workflows are evolving constantly in order to meet the imaging challenges encountered on new complex fields. Full-Wave Modeling has already proven an efficient tool to design surveys optimized for subsalt illumination, through wider azimuthal and offset distributions. Now, the integration of Full-Waveform Inversion into these acquisition feasibility workflows also allows to design surveys dedicated to Velocity Model Building, in complex geological contexts where this issue is essential. The presented acquisition feasibility study focuses on a deep field covered by a complex salt canopy. The optimized acquisition parameters are selected on synthetic seismic datasets, after extensive use of FWM, FWI and migration algorithms running on supercomputer. The study shows that a new ocean-bottom survey with a sparse receiver grid and a wide-azimuth ultra-long offset distribution is a cost-effective solution providing an imaging uplift of the deep subsalt field, through a more accurate velocity model update.