Chevron U.s.a. Inc.

N Ross Hill

Yue Wang

Tamas Nemeth

Shoujian Huang

Peeter Akerberg

Sandra Tegtmeier-Last

The present invention is directed to a method and system for minimizing artifacts in a seismic image of a subsurface region of interest, wherein the image is determined a data beam set derived from recorded seismic data and a modeled beam set derived at least in part from a velocity model related to a subsurface region. The artifacts, which may result from cycle skipping and coherent noise, result in misalignment of the modeled and data beam sets. The present invention utilizes a Monte Carlo inversion technique to update the velocity model and thus minimize the artifact in the seismic image.

Beam inversion by Monte Carlo back projection

A method of attenuating interbed multiples in multiply-reflected seismic waves is performed at a computer system, the method including: providing multiple beams of seismic data and an earth model related to a geological volume; selecting one of the beams as an input beam associated with a pair of source and detector located near a top surface of the geological volume; determining at least one of (i) a source-side stationary pegleg arrival and a corresponding detector-side primary beam and (ii) a detector-side stationary pegleg arrival and a corresponding source-side primary beam; predicting an interbed multiples beam using at least one of (i) the detector-side primary beam delayed by the source-side stationary pegleg arrival and (ii) the source-side primary beam delayed by the detector-side stationary pegleg arrival; and deconvolving the predicted interbed multiples beam with the input beam to remove at least a portion of interbed multiples present in the input beam.

Predicting interbed multiples in seismic data using beam decomposition

A method for creating an enhanced seismic image is described. Seismic data is acquired from a seismic survey conducted over a subterranean region. The seismic data is transformed into energy components, preferably Gaussian beam components. An earth model is created which is comprised of lens elements. The set of energy components is propagated or migrated through the lens elements to form image components which are combined into a seismic image. A target is identified in the seismic image for image enhancement. Ray tracing may be used to select the trial set of lens elements to be updated and to select a subset of energy components. The subset of energy components is propagated through updated earth model to form updated image components. The seismic image is updated by replacing image components with updated image components which are formed from the subset of selected energy components. This subset is ideally greatly reduced in size relative to the overall number of energy components, i.e., beam components.

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Houston, TX, United States of America

N Ross Hill