Seimic Processing and Imaging in Central North Sea Area - Recents Advances and Remaining Challenges

The Central North Sea area (CNS) is a very mature area. While still an active exploration area, most of the standard prospects have been already drilled and new discoveries can only been obtained today with the help of improved seismic acquisitions and using the latest techniques in seismic processing and imaging. We will review and illustrate improvements in processing and imaging that have a significant impact for the CNS. However, the best seismic images obtained today are still far from perfect. Parameters having a negative impact on the seismic quality are numerous: multiples, structural model complexity, formations with very different velocities, strong anisotropies, overburden glacier channels, shallow marine section... As a result, seismic images below the base cretaceous unconformity remain often of poor quality. We will review the main problems encountered today. Hopefully, we have not reached the limits of seismic acquisition and processing technology. Emerging approach and methodologies should help in improving the seismic imagery quality. We will propose and illustrate some directions that we believe should help to improve CNS seismic images.