Seismic De- Multiple Techniques, Studies and Optimization

Abstract

The development of the surface related multiple elimination techniques have started to take a new curve. The traditional techniques using velocity discrimination of multiples and periodicity estimation are on their final development peek. The reason these techniques have reached a stall development is due to the problems they failed to solve in complex water bottom structures. This work will show how a 2D synthetic data with fairly complex water bottom relief can have quite complex interference of primaries and multiples in the near-surface without being correctly predicted by these techniques. The 2D SRME technique will have some problems in 2D in predicting the multiples at their correct time and phase. The predictive deconvolution can still be accounted for in the shallow water bottom situation given the water bottom is flat. The limitation that will be presented in this work will through the light on the need of a more powerful technique that is free from assumptions related to the natural geologic nature of the problem. Instead, the optimal technique shall use the details of the geologic nature of the problem to solve it. The conclusion is to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each of the studied methods so that precautions can be taken into account when dealing with similar geologic situations, and to draw a best practice for at least two different degrees of complexity of the water bottom