1. SEG Post-Convention Workshop SEAM Phase 1: Initial results Technical and Operational Overview of the SEAM Phase I Project Michael Fehler

2. SEAM Mission Advance the science and technology of applied geophysics through a cooperative industry effort focused on subsurface model construction and generation of synthetic data sets for geophysical problems of importance to the resource extraction industry.

3. What Do We want to Accomplish? State-of-the-art geophysical numerical modeling Develop datasets for testing geophysical imaging and characterization techniques First model is Deepwater Gulf of Mexico – Subsalt – Variable-density acoustic and other geophysical datasets SEAM Phase I (This talk) SEAM RPSEA (Talk at 3:15)

4. SEAM Operation Board of Directors (BOD) – Bill Abriel, Chair – Broad overview focused on future of SEAM and SEAM/SEG relationship Management Committee (MC) – Kevin Bishop, Chair – Each participating company has one vote – Make project-specific decisions Steve Danbom is liaison between BOD and MC

5. SEAM Technical Organization 6 Technical Committees composed of members from participating companies – Define and implement objectives and work plans – Program Manager coordinates work by and among committees Communication through regular meetings and e-community – Technical committee co-chairs meet ~monthly – Management Committee meets quarterly One member from each participating company Decision making body

6. SEAM Technical Committees and Co-Chairs Model Design Committee – Joe Stefani and Richard Day Numerical Design Committee – Scott Morton and John Anderson with help from Bill Symes Acquisition Design Committee – Chuck Meeder and Adam Seitchik NonSeismic – Michael Frenkel and Neville Barker Execution Committee – Peter Wang and Dan Ebrom Data Storage and Distribution Committee – Stew Levin

7. SEAM Vendors Numerical Simulations done by Tierra Geophysical – Careful evaluation prior to selection by Vendor Qualification Process Quality Control done on simulations by Nexus Geosciences Inc. – QC procedure to evaluate quality and reliability of data delivered by Tierra Geophysical – Regularly communicate and report to Project Manager Data Storage & Distribution done by Landmark Graphics – Data are stored in compressed format (10:1 compression) – Delivery of either compressed or uncompressed data – Will store model files, all model description files, simulation data, classic datasets

9. Model Parameters Dimensions – 35 km East-West – 40 km North-South – 15 km deep Gridded model on 10 m grid – 84 GB per parameter Velocity Range – 1490 km/s (water) to 4800 m/s (Cretaceous) Density Range 1.003 gm/cc to 2.904 gm/cc

10. Acquisition Parameters (Phase 1 Seismic) Variable-density acoustic Frequency: 25 Hz Source-receiver separation: max 9.9 km – Receivers in rectangular grid around source Shot locations: 150 m grid over entire model Shot, receiver depths: 15 m Receiver spacing: 30 m Sample interval 8 ms Trace length: 16 s Calculation grid: 30 km (for aperture) 60K+ shots, 450K traces/shot 3.5 GB data volume per shot (> 200 TB total)

11. Source and receiver depths are 15 meters. Npoles=8 f3db=26Npoles=2 f3db=20 Npoles=6 f3db=24Npoles=1 f3db=5 Npoles=4 f3db=22 Source waveletTwo ghosts30 Hz high cut SEAM Source Wavelet Broad band Flat spectrum after surface ghosts Causal

12. Source: C. Stork, Tierra Geophysical

14. Status of Simulations, Phase I Variable-Density Acoustic Number of Shots

15. Velocity at 4 km depth 40 30 20 10 0 North

16. Velocity at 4 km depth 40 30 20 10 0 North

17. Velocity at 4 km depth 40 30 20 10 0 North

18. Dark Blue: in Storage Purple: QC Complete Dark Red: Simulated 40 30 20 10 0 North

19. 7599 Shots delivered to participants (about 3 TB compressed) Blue: 2793-shot Classic Dataset Red: 9-line Classic Datasets – 15 and 17 m receiver depths – free and absorbing upper surface 40 30 20 10 0 North

20. Next 6 Talks about SEAM Development and Results Model Design and Construction Numerical Simulation Issues Acquisition Design and Classic Datasets Data Storage & Distribution including compression CSEM modeling Gravity modeling

21. Discussion of Phase II Project Begins at 4:00 Two major options presented – 4D – Land Your input and preference are solicited