US 12,270,961 B2
Full wavefield inversion of ocean bottom seismic data
Dennis E. Willen, Conroe, TX (US)
Assigned to ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company, Spring, TX (US)
Filed by ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company, Spring, TX (US)
Filed on Nov. 29, 2018, as Appl. No. 16/204,368.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/609,400, filed on Dec. 22, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2019/0196038 A1, Jun. 27, 2019
Int. Cl. G01V 1/28 (2006.01); G01V 20/00 (2024.01); G06F 30/20 (2020.01); G06T 11/00 (2006.01)
CPC G01V 1/28 (2013.01) [G01V 1/282 (2013.01); G01V 20/00 (2024.01); G06F 30/20 (2020.01); G06T 11/006 (2013.01); G01V 2210/1427 (2013.01); G01V 2210/67 (2013.01)] 8 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of full wavefield inversion using simultaneous-source, ocean bottom sensor (OBS) data, comprising:
obtaining, with a computer, simultaneous-source OBS data recorded by receivers in a seismic acquisition survey, wherein obtaining simultaneous-source OBS data comprises recording overlapping data at a receiver location from more than one source excitation location and wherein the seismic acquisition survey comprises a number of source excitation locations that is greater than a number of receiver locations;
sorting the simultaneous-source OBS data to obtain common-receiver gathers without regard to reciprocity, and without deblending the simultaneous-source OBS data;
generating, with a computer, synthetic OBS seismic data from an initial earth model based on reciprocity, wherein reciprocity comprises utilizing receiver locations from the seismic acquisition survey as source excitation locations when generating the synthetic OBS seismic data and utilizing source excitation locations from the seismic acquisition survey as receiver locations when generating the synthetic OBS seismic data;
blending, with a computer, said synthetic OBS seismic data to form a blended synthetic data;
differencing, with a computer, said common-receiver gathers and said blended synthetic data to form a pseudo-deblended residual;
computing a model gradient using the pseudo-deblended residual;
updating the initial earth model based on the model gradient to form an updated model; and
prospecting for hydrocarbons at a location derived from the updated model.