CRS tomography and CRS gathers for improving 3D salt resolution in depth

Henning Trappe, Guido Gierse, Juergen Pruessmann, Eliakim Schuenemann, Philip Schlueter (TEEC)
Alfredo Caballero, Rodolfo Ballesteros (Geoprocesados)
Gerardo Clemente (PEMEX CNPS)

Overview
A Common-Reflection-Surface (CRS) depth imaging workflow is demonstrated in a case study which
uses high-resolution CRS attribute volumes for improving the model building and imaging in salt geology
for 3D seismic land data from Mexico. Initial CRS time processing provides both, an improved initial
outline of the salt body, and general information for constructing the depth model. CRS tomography
derives a smooth velocity depth model from the CRS attributes that is well suited as a reliable starting
point for further depth model building in prestack depth migration (PreSDM). PreSDM also benefits from
the CRS-based noise suppression and regularisation of the prestack data, which provides so-called CRS
gathers by partial CRS stacking. The increased signal-to-noise ratio leads to clearer depth structures
especially in zones of low fold or strong noise, and facilitates the iterative model refinement by a clearer
depth moveout. This CRS depth processing approach finally leads to a 3D PreSDM volume with a
strongly increased resolution and signal-to-noise ratio both above and below the salt (Figure 1).

Figure 1 PreSDM inline sections from conventional workflow (left), versus CRS workflow: Note the increased
depth resolution due to CRS velocity model building and CRS prestack data enhancement in the low-fold tertiary
overburden, at the top of salt, at the salt body definition, and in the sub-salt reflector continuity.

CRS method and attributes

The CRS method was developed within the concept of macro-model independent imaging (e.g.
Gelchinsky 1988, Jger et al. 2001). CRS stacking assumes local reflector elements with dip and
curvature in the subsurface that give rise to the seismic reflections. The corresponding CRS stacking
parameters, the so-called CRS-attributes, accordingly comprise the wavefield dip together with wavefront
curvatures observed at the surface. They define hyperbolic CRS stacking surfaces that extend across
several CMP locations, and thus collect high-fold contributions from the prestack data.
Initial depth model building by CRS tomography
The densely sampled CRS attributes from time
processing contain abundant information on the
subsurface, making them well suited for a fast
reconstruction of a reliable initial velocity-depth
model by CRS tomography, or NIP-wave tomography
(Duveneck 2004). In this 3D data case from Mexico,
the CRS tomography model corresponds much better
to the structures of an associated PostSDM volume,
than a Dix model (Figure 2). This improvement is
mainly due to the inversion of structural dip from the
emergence angle contained in the inverted CRS Figure 2: Dix model (left) versus CRS tomography
attributes. The smooth CRS tomography model is model (right) with CRS-PostSDM sections.
especially well suited for depth migration, serving as an advanced initial model for further depth
processing, that cuts down the number of PreSDM and model updating cycles significantly.
CRS gathers for depth imaging and model update
Since the CRS attributes describe the kinematics of seismic events in detail, they can also be used for a
local regularization and noise suppression in the prestack data by partial CRS stacking before depth
migration (Eisenberg et al. 2008). A CRS-based PreSDM strategy can include a regularisation of the
offset distribution, and of the azimuth distribution. Figure 1 compares the result of a conventio-nal
strategy of model building and Kirchhoff PreSDM to a CRS-based approach. The noise reduction by
partial CRS stacking reveals additional structural features, and especially improves the salt definition.
Conclusions
CRS time processing provides detailed local information on the seismic reflection events in the form of
kinematic wavefield attributes. These so-called CRS attributes can be inverted into a depth model by CRS
tomographic inversion which is much better constrained than vertical Dix inversion. The CRS
tomography model can be used as a good initial approximation of the subsurface velocity for both,
poststack depth migration (PostSDM) and further model update in prestack depth migration (PreSDM).
Significant CRS-based improvements in depth imaging are achieved by using CRS attributes for data
regularization and noise suppression in PreSDM.
Acknowledgements
We thank PEMEX for the permission to present their data.
References
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