To date Petroleum Development Oman has acquired approximately 200,000 kilometers of 2-D and 20,000 square kilometers of 3-D seismic data. Five 3-D and one 2-D crews are operated by contractors. For 3-D surveys PDO uses 2 vibrator source groups recording a “double zig-zag”. The vibrators have GPS systems. The standard spread consists of 4 receiver lines of 120 active channels, spaced 200 meters apart, with receiver spacing of 50 meters. Bin size is 25 by 25 meters, multiplicity is 60 fold and the active spread is 6 kilometers. Most of the seismic data is processed inhouse by CGG. Additionally PDO uses proprietary software for bench-marking, training and attribute studies. Recent lines recorded with vibroseis, rather than thumper, and long offsets (4 to 6 km compared to 2 km) have improved both shallow (1 to 1.5 second) and deep reflections including sub-salt events (>2.5 second). Improved data quality has better imaged exploration targets (e.g. post-salt Haima and intra-salt Athel) and reservoir geometry (e.g. Alkhlata and Gharif). Proper imaging of the Athel silicilyte may require 3-D pre-stack depth migration. The application of other geophysical techniques including gravity, aeromagnetics, seismic attribute analysis and borehole geophysics has also proven useful, particularly where conventional seismic data quality is poor.

To date Petroleum Development Oman has acquired approximately 200,000 kilometers of 2-D and 20,000 square kilometers of 3-D seismic data. Five 3-D and one 2-D crews are operated by contractors. For 3-D surveys PDO uses 2 vibrator source groups recording a “double zig-zag”. The vibrators have GPS ...