A Coil (Full Azimuth) and Narrow Azimuth Processing Case Study in Angola Deep Offshore

This paper presents a case study comparing the processing results from two recent (2011) acquisition techniques in the West African Angola subsalt province over the Calulu Pre-development Area (PDA) for TEPA and partners. The first acquisition was shot with a narrow-azimuth towed streamer configuration (NATS) over the 1300km2 PDA area. The second acquisition used a single vessel Coil Shooting technique (Coil) over an area of interest of 687.5km2. The Coil acquisition in particular was the first acquisition of this type in West Africa. We will present the main processing challenges as well the initial Tilted Transverse Isotropic RTM comparisons for both acquisition techniques. Experience from both companies in processing large azimuth data was instrumental and allowed us to better understand how to improve the imaging. The final depth imaging is still ongoing, but the preliminary images clearly illustrate the benefits of full azimuth acquisition.