Abstract

Wide-azimuth towed-streamer acquisition emerged in the last two years as a step change in marine acquisition technology in the Gulf of Mexico. This came about because the risky exploration and development of deepwater subsalt reservoirs required seismic data to have better illumination, higher signal-to-noise ratio, and improved resolution. Early results from the initial programs confirm that the expected benefits can be obtained. However, although the survey design principles for land and OBC wide-azimuth programs are well understood, the fact that the towedstreamer implementation is still in its infancy means that survey design principles in that case are still evolving. The objective of this paper is to discuss some of those principles.