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DAS 3DVSP survey at Stratigraphic Test Well (Hydrate-01)

October 2, 2021

This proceeding outlines the acquisition, processing, and fault interpretation of the largest known onshore distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) 3D vertical seismic profile (VSP) survey. This survey was carried out to detect the distribution of faults near the gas hydrate research well (Stratigraphic Test Well: Hydrate-01) on the North Slope of Alaska within the Prudhoe Bay Unit (PBU). The data were recorded with a single-mode DAS cable which is permanently installed and cemented behind the casing of the Hydrate-01 well. A total of 1701 shot records were successfully acquired in 12 days using a DAS interrogator with two vibroseis sources. The data were converted from strain rate to a geophone equivalent for further data processing. Traveltime tomography was carried out using the first break of each shot and was used to build a 3D tilted transverse isotropy (TTI) velocity model. The data were processed with a sequence designed to produce a precise and high resolution P wave image, that included editing, redatum, band pass filtering, denoise, upgoing / downgoing wavefield separation, deconvolution and migration. Faults around the Hydrate-01 were interpreted using the 3DVSP volume and its attributes. These faults were clearly observed in the 3DVSP volume but they cannot be recognized by an existing 3D surface seismic volume.

Publication Year 2021
Title DAS 3DVSP survey at Stratigraphic Test Well (Hydrate-01)
DOI 10.1190/segj2021-006.1
Authors Akira Fujimoto, Teck Kean Lim, Machiko Tamaki, Kyojiro Kawaguchi, Toshiaki Kobayashi, Seth S. Haines, Timothy Collett, Ray Boswell
Publication Type Conference Paper
Publication Subtype Conference Paper
Index ID 70249209
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Central Energy Resources Science Center
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