ION Geophysical Reprocesses 62,000 km of Colombia's Vintage Offshore Seismic Data

Offshore seismic data company ION Geophysical has completed reprocessing of the prestack time and depth imaging of over 62,000 km of legacy data acquired from the National Hydrocarbon Agency of Colombia (ANH) for its Colombia Caribe 2D reprocessing program. 

The Caribe Colombia Reprocessing project is a 2D multi-client program designed to improve understanding of the area and tie all main offshore wells.

According to ION Geophysical, the multi-client reprocessing provides a consistent parameterization of 18 surveys with vintages ranging from 1982 through 2014, and, combined with its PanamaSPAN and AntillesSPAN programs, the Caribe 2D program provides basin-wide coverage of the Caribbean.

"We recognized the value of reprocessing vintage seismic data as not only a proven means for operators to revisit and de-risk frontier basins such as those in offshore Colombia, but also for us to be socially responsible,” said Liliana Zuleta, Technical Vice President, ANH. “This is just one of many efforts made to improve the competitiveness and attractiveness of Colombia for offshore investment by E&P companies.” 

"We are humbled to play a small role in helping assure the country’s long term energy security,” said Chris Usher, President and CEO of ION. “The significant uplift in data quality that our reimaged prestack time and depth data delivers allows operators to assess the basin not only at a lower cost, but also with lower risks.”

According to information in ION Geophysical's Data Sheet on the Caribe 2D program, analysis of the available seismic and well data reveals established functional petroleum systems in offshore Colombia producing different hydrocarbon types. 

Per the document, the offshore areas in Colombia can be divided into four areas, three of which have been extensively studied: Uraba, Sinu Offshore and the Guajira Offshore area. The fourth area, the deepwater and ultra-deepwater regions in the Colombian basin, are the least explored offshore territory in Colombia.