Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - imaging

As government agencies, research institutions, academia, and a range of industries look for new light-weight and low-cost solutions for subsea survey and inspection tasks, it becomes clear that new companies are entering the market with the goal of providing these specific services. At the same time the industry that manufactures the tools for these tasks, such as ROV’s, AUV’s and sensors and visualization software are also bringing in compact and affordable, yet powerful, products. Using the latest technology applied to inshore and offshore areas, these companies may soon be competing with established brands and in some case they offer services that few companies in the world can offer, creating their own niche.

Reverse time migration (RTM) is a powerful imaging tool. It has the ability to account for rapid spatial variations in the velocity model and to utilize all wavefront information, producing superior images of the most complex structures. This is why RTM is frequently used to interpret salt structures in regions known to have complex salt geometries like the Gulf of Mexico. With the application of recent advancements such as Vector Offset Output and 3D angle gathers, the imaging capability of RTM is enhanced even further. RTM is a pre-stack two-way wave equation depth migration, recognized as being able to produce superior pre-salt images compared to other migration algorithms such as Kirchhoff, control beam migration (CBM) or one-way wave equation migration.

This new technical cooperation agreement between Petrobras and CGGVeritas highlights the importance of geophysical studies to the future of O&G exploration in Brazil.CGGVeritas  has announced that it has signed a Technology Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the Brazilian O&G player, Petrobras, for the collaborative development and implementation of new technologies in Geophysics. The TCA sets the framework for collaborative research projects between Petrobras and CGGVeritas over a three-year time period in specific areas such as 4D seismic processing, imaging and reservoir geophysics. These research projects will be conducted at a recently opened CGGVeritas Technology Center in Rio de Janeiro.