A Seismic Interference Noise Experiment in the Central North Sea

During the 2014 North Sea summer season a 2-D line with seismic interference (SI) noise from varying separations and azimuths was recorded. This line was then used to synthetically evaluate new navigation system functionality and procedures that aim to help randomize the arrival time of SI during a line acquisition. Good randomization of SI is important for many denoising algorithms.

For this experiment, with appropriate acquisition planning, execution and denoising, we were able to successfully attenuate nearly all SI from all azimuths. However, broadside SI that comes in at the same time on consecutive shots is difficult to attenuate, and should be avoided. The SI attenuation algorithms were not influenced by the amplitude of the SI. This implies that the current industry practice with regards to accepting SI during acquisition might be too conservative, and that the amount of downtime from time-sharing currently done by contractors could be reduced.