Seismic Acquisition of Walkaway VSP and Walk Around VSP in the Xihu Sag of East China Sea Basin

Abstract

A pre-exploration well was drilled in the Xihu Sag of East China Sea basin, and commercial oil and gas flow had been achieved. But the oil and gas bearing trap had a big depth with low closure height and small area. The resolution of seismic data acquired by towed streamer is low, so it's difficult to obtain seismic velocity precisely. There were great risk and uncertainty in description of the trap and distribution of gas-bearing sandstone, reservoir prediction of sweet spot, direct hydrocarbon indication, and reserves assessment. In consideration of the drilling platform on the trap, seismic acquisition technique of walkaway VSP and walk around VSP were introduced, meanwhile some innovative methods in source, receivers and geometry were applied. Twenty three-component hydrophones were composed as signal receivers which had a sample interval of ten meters in the well, two straight shot lines and two loop shot lines were designed around the drilling platform. Besides, volume and depth of air gun array were optimized, and the sailing route of seismic source vessel was planned properly in order to improve the efficiency of collecting work. The collecting work of walkaway VSP and walk around VSP was accomplished efficiently, and more than seventy kilometers VSP seismic data was achieved. Afterwards, the new data was processed finely in company with zero offset VSP data, so high resolution VSP profiles and accurate seismic velocity were obtained. Reprocess to original seismic data acquired by towed streamer was implemented on the basis of walkaway VSP and walk around VSP data. The quality of normal seismic data was improved through reprocess constrained by walkaway VSP data, and S/N and resolution were much higher than old data. So it would be credible to research the distribution of gas-bearing sandstone and direct hydrocarbon indication using the reprocessed seismic data. It was the first time to use joint acquisition technique of walkaway VSP and walk around VSP in offshore China which was an important breakthrough. High resolution VSP seismic profiles and precise seismic velocity could be acquired, and the data was important basis for refined evaluation of pre-exploration targets. It's very necessary to popularize and utilize these new techniques further.