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gets, from the growing unconventional resources market
to the exploration of deep plays.
Integration Is Essential
With industry-leading technology and novel acquisition
techniques, Schlumberger is at the forefront of seismic
services. But our leadership is further differentiated by
being the only oilfield services company that includes seis-
mic services as an integral part of its portfolio—in turn,
WesternGeco is the only seismic organization with access
to a complete reservoir characterization team. This recip-
rocal integration of technology and technique across
product lines is unmatched in the industry.
There are two elements to this integration. The first is
technological, culminating in the WesternGeco integra-
tion of a series of individual innovations in sensor design,
streamer navigation, high-resolution recording, efficient
towing, real-time source synchronization, and data han-
dling and processing. The second lies within the Reservoir
Characterization Group itself, which has generated
remarkable growth in cross-product-line projects. These
include the integration of WesternGeco surface seismic
with Wireline borehole seismic data and further integra-
tion with the geological and geophysical expertise of Data
& Consulting Services. WesternGeco seismic data are also
fully integrated with Petrel workflow software through the
recent linking of WesternGeco Omega* seismic data
processing software and Petrel technology.
Much of this integration was enabled by the creation
of the new WesternGeco GeoSolutions business line,
representing the most significant organizational change
for WesternGeco in a decade. WesternGeco GeoSolutions
combines the previously separate activities of multiclient
surveys, survey design services, data processing and depth
imaging, inversion, vertical seismic profile processing, and
time-lapse surveys in one aligned team. All multidiscipli-
nary data projects are conducted using a Petrel shared-
earth model that is rapidly becoming the standard E&P
workflow platform within the industry. The consistency
and wide applicability of this approach is promoting a new
and more collaborative way of working, especially where
WesternGeco GeoSolutions centers are located close
to Schlumberger customers. To date, 31 WesternGeco
GeoSolutions centers have been established around
the world, many with the additional advantage of being
colocated with other Schlumberger technology facilities,
such as the Brazil Research and Geoengineering Center in
Rio de Janeiro.
A Five-Step Process
The WesternGeco GeoSolutions exploration workflow is
based on five steps—illumination, imaging, inversion,
integration, and interpretation. The first two steps reside
within WesternGeco; the others are shared with
the Reservoir Characterization Group and within the
customer organization.
Advanced seismic surveys are conducted to provide the
correct illumination of complex exploration targets.
However, if the seismic energy cannot see the target—
and then be reflected back to the surface—the survey has
still failed to meet its basic goal. No amount of processing,
no matter how advanced, can rectify this failure. The key
to success is survey design, and WesternGeco survey
design teams have the creativity, geological understand-
ing, and access to the industry’s most advanced acquisi-
tion technologies to achieve superior target illumination,
however complex the geology.
Illumination studies of the target indicate how
successful the survey will be in terms of the ability to
examine the target in the data. The second stage is acquir-
ing and then imaging the data. This demands first-class
data conditioning and a detailed velocity model to
convert seismic time measurements into depths. Here
again, WesternGeco is differentiated in the market
through its proprietary full-waveform inversion technol-
ogy, which builds and applies a highly sophisticated model
to provide an accurate time-depth conversion that focuses
the image for complex exploration prospects.
The next two stages of the WesternGeco GeoSolutions
workflow, inversion and integration, benefit from other
Reservoir Characterization Group product lines but
remain integral to WesternGeco. Inversion is the process
for deriving rock, fluid, and pressure information from
seismic data. Correctly executing this vital step for char-
acterizing the reservoir requires broadband data, and
Q-technology* services are uniquely capable of delivering
