Multi-component 3D Seismic - A Successful Fracture Characterization in Algeria-Processing Challenges in Noisy Environment

Multi-component recording in land environments usually suffers from high contamination by surface waves, together with low-frequency content. This, combined with severe problems of receiver statics and shear-wave splitting, can make the processing so challenging that the PS data provide a disappointing final result compared to PP data. However, it doesn't need to be so: in this paper we show that a high level of noise in the raw gathers, doesn't prevent us from obtaining final images as good as (if not better than) the more conventional PP datasets, provided that the processing sequence is carefully tailored to address this issue. We describe the main steps of the PP and PS-wave processing sequences, with a special emphasis on noise removal, and a PS-wave azimuthal anisotropy study at deep targets made possible by the cleaned-up and signal preserved pre-stack gathers.