GeoStreamer – increasing the signal-to-noise ratio using a dual-sensor towed streamer

Seismic exploration today and in the future will require looking for deeper reservoirs, under more complex overburden and within increasingly complex stratigraphic traps. To be able to image these reservoirs well, the bandwidth of the seismic data must be extended at both low and high frequencies and an improvement in signal-to-noise ratio is also required. A new dual-sensor streamer was launched in 2007 and has since been deployed in 2D mode in several basins worldwide. The first 3D dual-sensor streamer survey at the DeSoto Canyon in the Gulf of Mexico was completed in early 2009. The combined dual-sensor data from the GeoStreamer are superior to the data recorded using a conventional towed streamer in two ways. Elimination of receiver ghosts provides a much clearer, higher resolution image and, due to the ability to tow deeper, the stronger low reflection signal frequencies and the weaker swell noise result in greater penetration. A gain of 10−15 dB in signal-to-noise ratio is achievable for the low frequencies when the streamer is towed at a depth of 15−30 m.