Survey Design Considerations For Full Azimuth Acquisition Using A Single Recording Vessel

Azimuth-rich towed-streamer acquisition is established as a successful method for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. The azimuth-rich data acquired to date has delivered better illumination and imaging, a higher signal-to-noise ratio, and improved seismic resolution. However, the azimuth-rich towed-streamer acquisition configurations used in the Gulf of Mexico are all multi-vessel. Moldoveanu (2008) introduced a method of acquiring azimuth-rich data with a single vessel. This paper describes a survey design and field test for a single-vessel azimuth-rich technique, which has the same acquisition effort as a 3-survey narrow-azimuth survey.