Subsalt Imaging Over the Mahogany Salt Sill
Davis W. Ratcliff, David J. Weber
Exploring for hydrocarbons below salt has been, and will continue to be, a
high risk/high potential business endeavor. Recent subsalt discoveries have
generated a tremendous interest in subsalt exploration, both in the Gulf of
Mexico as well as in other basins around the world. The geophysical technology
which has played the most significant role in the success of subsalt exploration
is, by far, Depth
Imaging.
Depth
imaging technology (
poststack
and prestack) has
allowed explorationists to identify and map structural and stratigraphic
features below salt that trap significant hydrocarbon accumulations.
In this paper, we discuss subsalt imaging strategies and technology
applications (3-D Time and Depth
Migration
) that can assist the subsalt
explorationist in prospect evaluation, risk assessment, well placement and field
development, using the Mahogany Salt Sill Area as a calibration
point. In addition to utilizing a specific "subsalt" acquisition geometry, the
collective processing strategy will incorporate
2-D
time imaging,
2-D
poststack
depth
migration
2-D
prestack
depth
migration
, wide-line profiling, 3-D time
imaging, 3-D
poststack
depth
migration
and "target oriented" 3-D prestack
depth
migration
.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995