Land Seismic Exploration In Turkey: Where Are We Getting?

The history of seismic exploration in Turkey is about 80-years. The first seismic reflection survey carried out by MTA-United Geophysical joint seismic crew in 1947 in Adana-Imamoglu. Since the establishment of TPAO 1954, seismic exploration activities spread out almost all over the sedimentary basins of Turkey. Beside TPAO; Shell, Mobil, Arco and Perenco were the major oil companies conducted land 2D and 3D surveys mainly in the SE Turkey. Up to date total 185,700-km 2D and 18,860-sqkm 3D land seismic data acquired in the Sedimentary Basins of Turkey.

Generally old 2D–3D seismic data quality is poor due to lack of seismic equipment and poor survey design. Recently by using of advanced seismic equipment and modern data acquisition and processing techniques, data quality is tremendously improved. 3D and modern seismic technology helped subsurface data imaging from the beneath of carbonates sections in the SE Turkey. In this presentation, an overview of seismic exploration activities, problems and suggested solutions will be discussed and how data quality improvement is succeeded with modern data acquisition will be presented.