Reconstruction and quality control of non-repeatable land time-lapse seismic data

Abstract

Onshore non-repeatable time-lapse (TL) seismic exploration is a challenging yet convenient technique for enhancing production in mature oil and gas fields. Data repeatability across two or more acquisition phases is fundamental for reliable TL analysis. However, differences in acquisition geometries - from variations in geological targets, acquisition technologies, and acquisition parameters - can cause significant inconsistencies between two data vintages. Drawing on survey design parameters, this study proposes a dual-constraint method for data reconstruction and quality control, integrating common midpoint (CMP) similarity with the sum of shot-receiver geometric distances. Unlike conventional techniques, the proposed approach simultaneously controls shot and receiver position errors through a dynamic threshold, indirectly preserving offset and azimuth consistency. Compared with typical methods, it avoids cross-domain transformations and multi-parameter adjustments, offering high applicability. Applied to conventional (2004) and high-density (2008) datasets from a Chinese onshore oilfield, the method achieved data utilization rates of 77.5% and 39.8%, respectively. The reconstructed data demonstrated higher offset distribution uniformity and improved CMP fold consistency compared with the CMP-constrained receiver deviation method. This study provides a practical reference for TL studies in onshore mature oilfields.

Keywords

Onshore seismic exploration / Non-repeatable time-lapse seismic data / Pre-stack data reconstruction

Funding

This work was supported by the Key Scientific Research Project (Grant No. WZY2025007) and Research Project on Teaching Development and Teaching Reform (Grant No. WZYzd202519) of Wenzhou Polytechnic, China; the Zhejiang Province Vocational Education “14th  Five-Year Plan” Teaching Reform Project, China (Grant No. jg20240086); and the Wenzhou Significant Science and Technology Innovation Project, China (Grant No. ZG2022012).

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