How single-sensor seismic improved image of Kuwait’s Minagish Field

Abstract

Ayman Shabrawi, Andy Smart and Boff Anderson of WesternGeco, with Ghassan Rached and Adel El-Emam from Kuwait Oil Company, describe how single-sensor, digital seismic recording applied onshore in an environmentally and seismically noisy area delivered a highresolution, high-frequency reservoir image. The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and WesternGeco conducted the first point-source/point-receiver (single-sensor) onshore seismic survey in the Middle East in early 2004 as a pilot study under a Joint Technology Agreement. The study investigated and subsequently determined that Q-Land single-sensor acquisition and processing techniques could improve seismic imaging and reservoir characterization of the onshore Minagish Field, for which previous attempts to derive reservoir properties from seismic had been largely unsuccessful. The key to success was the ability to effectively remove noise and preserve signal fidelity and high frequencies in the pre-stack data.