Atlantis—One 3D baseline and five monitor deepwater OBN surveys, but is it really 4D?

The Atlantis field in the Green Canyon protraction area of the deepwater Gulf of America has been on production since 2008. At present, six total OBN surveys have been performed over the field. The baseline survey was acquired in 2005 followed by surveys with repeat(s) of several node locations for 4D acquisition. However, as identical surveys have never been acquired over the area, it can hardly be seen as application of conventional 4D technology. Over this 20-year period, deepwater OBN technology has not dramatically changed, but equipment modifications and increased node inventories have allowed for acquisition design enhancements, which have resulted in improvements in both the static and dynamic seismic imaging at Atlantis. What once were considered technical boundaries have been surpassed along the way allowing for modified acquisition techniques in both source and receiver domain to be applied. This paper overviews the evolution of the survey design and operations at Atlantis as they have modernized over the 20-year history. It further highlights the innovation, short comings and field testing that have occurred including a history of increased node densification, low frequency source acquisition, a box wave high density test and explanation of the recent static patch for targeted Full waveform inversion seismic data acquisition.