Challenges in Deep Offshore Imaging, West Africa

A-36 CHALLENGES IN DEEP OFFSHORE IMAGING WEST AFRICA Abstract 1 The deep offshore of the Gulf of Guinea is a challenge to seismic processing and imaging techniques due to the complexity of the salt body structures and the omnipresence of mode conversions that mask the primary signal. Even though true (Kirchhoff) prestack time migration can recover the top of salt and wide sedimentary basins (not salt covered) it fails elsewhere. We show that wave equation 3D PreSDM is necessary to properly image target sedimentary reflectors in between and below salt domes compared to Kirchhoff 3D PSDM. However this is true