An Overview of BP’s Marine Independent Simultaneous Source Field Trials

The goal of BP’s independent simultaneous source effort is to obtain seismic data that is better than or equivalent to conventional acquisition methods and to acquire it faster and at a lower cost. The effort has been successful in land surveys, and this paper reflects our efforts to extend this success into marine acquisition. BP’s ISS (independent simultaneous source) method, that of using several sources operating independently, has now been moved from land to marine environments. The independent simultaneous source method has several operational advantages on land and has somewhat similar advantages for marine acquisition, but some modifications need to be made to account for the regularity and the lower number of sources for marine surveys. The results of BP’s tests appear very encouraging.