Abstract
As the deep water drilling technology continues to evolve, sub-salt basins has become one of the most prospective targets for hydrocarbon reserves. Even though sub-salt is a difficult target for seismic imaging, various advanced technologies have been developed in the lost decade and difficulties encountered in the new prospect have been reduced. New seismic acquisition technologies such as broadband seismic, full-azimuth and ultra-long offset acquisition mitigate the problems from the presence of salt. Sub-salt imaging techniques has also evolved with the aid of the advanced new acquisition technology, high oil price, and low cost high performance computing (HPC). Anisotropic RTM has became a usual technique in the Gulf of Mexico, and FWI grows in use and popularity nowadays.
