Making the most of non-exclusive legacy seismic data: an example from the Southern North Sea

The role of 2D non-exclusive seismic data in frontier areas is well understood. In more mature areas, already having several vintages of coverage, new play concepts may make it desirable to acquire additional state-of-the-art 2D data targeted on the new play prior to undertaking a 3D survey. The value of the new data can be greatly enhanced if it can be satisfactorily integrated with the older data sets. This may be achieved if it is possible to use the same processing sequence for each vintage followed by careful matching to the new data. Using this approach it is possible to reduce the volume of new data required, decreasing the cost to the end user. Additionally, though the new data may not be exclusive to them, project participants committing at an early stage gain the ability to control both the acquisition and processing of the data and hence its quality.