Engagement 1 Survey

Illuminate the subsurface with innovative technology

WesternGeco, in collaboration with TGS, is acquiring a new 2,950-km2 ultralong-offset, full-waveform inversion (FWI) ocean bottom node (OBN) project in the US Gulf of Mexico. This new project extends the footprint of ultralong-offset data into the northern Green Canyon to resolve subsurface imaging challenges and offer dynamic new geologic insight.

This area is characterized by complex geology and salt tectonics, creating the need for an innovative approach to illuminate the highly prospective Miocene and its associated traps against salt flanks or deep weld systems. The combination of OBN data, recording ultralong offsets (>30 km), and FWI (through data-fitting, model-building technology) is expected to deliver superior salt body definition and a major update to the earth model.

Early results from the Amendment Phase 1 sparse-OBN survey in the Mississippi Canyon and Atwater Valley show that the combination of this updated model integrated with the available WAZ and FAZ (dual coil) demonstrates significant imaging uplift and can reveal previously unseen structural relationships subsalt.