Searcher Seismic expands Papua New Guinea database

Searcher Seismic, an independent seismic data acquisition company, has expanded its seismic, magnetic and geochemical database offshore Papua New Guinea following the Laurabada Ultracube 3D reprocessing project.

Searcher said on Friday that the Laurabada Ultracube project entailed the reprocessing of two open-file 3D datasets with a modern broadband de-ghosting and pre-stack depth migration sequence over what the company describes as “highly sought-after acreage.”

The Ultracube is split into two cubes, the Eastern cube is near-shore in shallow water while the Western cube is deep-water in the Gulf of Papua.

The Laurabada 3D reprocessing project complements Searcher’s existing 2D seismic coverage which currently stands at over 80,000 kilometers offshore Papua New Guinea.

Joshua Thorp, geoscience manager for Searcher Seismic, said: “Source and receiver deghosting was applied in the reprocessing which significantly improves the low-frequency content.

“For Laurabada East, this helps with the imaging below the fold belt as that is quite dispersive and attenuative with the seismic source. Similarly, on Laurabada West, there are multiple large carbonate bodies that are highly absorptive which are only penetrated by the low-frequency signal.

“The legacy processing only applied 2D SRME for the demultiple, whereas the reprocessing has used 3D GSMP/SRME from Western Geco. In the fold belt on Laurabada East this in particular helped with the complex diffracted multiples from the seabed that were contaminating the pre-Tertiary grabens. On Laurabada West there were complex pegleg multiples from the top carbonates which were modeled and subtracted effectively.

“In Laurabada East, the PSDM workflow allowed for high-resolution velocity modeling in the fold belt which improved the pre-Tertiary graben imaging and depthing. In Laurabada West, there was detailed carbonate velocity modeling which combined with the deghosting allowed for much-improved resolution on the flanks and base of the carbonate pinnacles.”

As for the two cubes, the Laurabada West Ultracube survey comprises of around 770 square kilometers while the Laurabada East Ultracube survey covers around 1,020 square kilometers.