SBIR Phase II: Variable Azimuth Wave-Equation Imaging (VAWEM)

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将实施并证明一项新技术的可行性，该技术通过使用可变方位角波动方程偏移（VAWEM）来提高深水复杂地质结构的地震分辨率和成像。 VAWEM将提供比目前拖曳海洋拖缆数据更高的分辨率和精度，并且计算成本显著降低。 将优化软件，以便在Linux集群上部署，并将进行测试，以确定获取最佳图像的最佳地球物理参数。该项目涉及重要的计算机工程，以获得最高效率所需的图像TB大小的数据集和重大的地球物理工作，以证明该方法的有效性。 这种先进的成像方法将提高新油田发现的成功率和成本效益，并提高现有油田开发的采收率。 这项技术是一个根本性的革命性进步，是任何地震处理系统的必要组成部分，该系统使用波动方程方法对三维叠前数据进行成像，以成像深水，盐下复杂的地质结构，这是现代石油和天然气勘探的重点。 通过降低能源成本和减少对外国能源的依赖，拟议的VAWEM技术将直接为国家带来社会和经济效益。 能源是美国和世界经济的核心;因此，拟议技术的政治、社会和经济效益远远超出了该技术将为拟议公司及其客户带来的直接经济效益。拟议技术的商业潜力直接适用于美国勘探中增长最快和战略上最重要的领域，即墨西哥湾联邦沃茨的深水盐下油气区。 据估计，墨西哥湾大部分未开发的资源（450亿桶石油和207万亿立方英尺天然气）被困在深水盐下储层和超深（超过15,000英尺）天然气矿床中。由于这些地区的勘探威尔斯通常花费超过3000万美元，因此开采这些储量将需要先进的成像技术，如VAWEM，以降低风险并使勘探可行。 减少美国对波斯湾资源的依赖以及保持美国在石油技术方面的强大领导地位的战略利益超越了纯粹的财政考虑。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will implement and demonstrate the feasibility of a new technology that enables enhance seismic resolution and imaging of deep water complex geologic structures by using variable azimuth wave-equation migration (VAWEM). VAWEM will provide much greater resolution and accuracy than what can be accomplished today for towed marine streamer data, and at significantly less computational cost. The software will be optimized for deployment on Linux clusters, and testing will be conducted to determine the optimal geophysical parameters for obtaining the best possible images. The project involves significant computer engineering to obtain the maximum efficiency required to image terabyte size data sets and significant geophysical work to demonstrate the validity of the approach. This advanced imaging methodology will improve success rate and cost effectiveness for new field discoveries and increase recovery efficiency for the development of existing fields. This technology is a fundamental revolutionary advance, and is a necessary building block in any seismic processing system that images 3-D prestack data using wave-equation methods for imaging deep water, under-salt complex geological structures which are the focus of modern oil and gas exploration. Societal and economic benefits from the proposed VAWEM technology will accrue directly to the nation by lowering energy costs and reducing dependence on foreign energy sources. Energy is at the core of the U.S. and world economies; therefore, the political, societal, and economic benefits of the proposed technology go well beyond the substantial direct economic benefit that this technology will bring to the proposing company and its customers. Commercial potential of the proposed technology is directly applicable to the fastest growing and strategically most important area of U.S. exploration, namely the deepwater subsalt oil and gas province of the Gulf of Mexico federal waters. It is estimated that most of the Gulf's untapped resources (45 Billion barrels of oil and 207 trillion cubic feet of natural gas) are trapped in deepwater subsalt reservoirs, and in ultra deep (over 15,000 ft) gas deposits. Since exploratory wells in these areas typically cost more than $30 million, tapping these reserves will require advanced imaging technology such as VAWEM to reduce risk and make exploration feasible. Reduction USA's dependence on Persian Gulf sources and the strategic benefits of maintaining strong U.S.A. leadership in oil technology transcend purely financial considerations.