Methods and apparatus are described for performing a 4D monitor marine seismic survey that repeats a previous survey. A number of sources may be used during the 4D monitor survey that differs from a number of sources that were used during the previous survey. Shot points from the previous survey are repeated by the 4D monitor survey, and additional shot points may be produced during the 4D monitor survey that were not produced during the previous survey. Embodiments enable efficiency and data quality improvements to be captured during 4D survey processes, while preserving repeatability.

A method and apparatus of locating subsurface geohazards in a geographical area that includes: receiving a plurality of seismic trace signals in the geographical area based on a shot gather from a seismic shot source; isolating and stacking the plurality of seismic trace signals to generate a windowed trace signal associated with refraction traces from the seismic shot source; transforming the windowed trace signal to a frequency domain; calculating a low frequency to high frequency ratio for the transformed trace signal; outputting the calculated ratio to a two-dimensional array representing the geographical area at a source location and at a mean receiver location; repeating the steps for a plurality of other shot gathers in the geographical area; and multiplying each source location ratio with one or more mean receiver location ratios on the two-dimensional array to generate a final frequency ratio map.

A technique facilitates controlled creation of pressure waves in a downhole environment. The technique enables creation of, for example, dynamic underbalance (DUB) pressure waves or dynamic overbalance (DOB) pressure waves which can be used to perform desired activities downhole. According to an embodiment, a pump is coupled with a pressure chamber and conveyed downhole into a borehole to a desired location. The pump may be operated downhole to change a pressure level in the pressure chamber until a sufficient pressure differential exists between an interior and an exterior of the pressure chamber. A release mechanism in communication with the pressure chamber is then rapidly opened to establish the desired pressure wave as the differing pressures equalize.

A sonic tool is activated in a well having multiple casings and annuli surrounding the casing. Detected data is preprocessed using slowness time coherence (STC) processing to obtain STC data. The STC data is provided to a machine learning module which has been trained on labeled STC data. The machine learning module provides an answer product regarding the states of the borehole annuli which may be used to make decision regarding remedial action with respect to the borehole casings. The machine learning module may implement a convolutional neural network (CNN), a support vector machine (SVM), or an auto-encoder.

An inline source can be used for a marine survey. For example, a marine survey vessel can tow source units in line. The source units can be actuated near-continuously to cause a respective signal emitted by each of the source units to be uncorrelated with signals emitted by other of the source units.

A method may include obtaining seismic data regarding a geological region of interest. The method may further include obtaining a property model regarding the geological region of interest. The method may further include determining an adjoint migration operator based on the property model. The method may further include updating the property model using the seismic data and a conjugate gradient solver in a least-squares reverse time migration to produce a first updated property model. The conjugate gradient solver is based on the adjoint migration operator. The method may further include updating the first updated property model using a threshold shrinkage function to produce a second updated property model. The threshold shrinkage function comprises a sign function and a maximum function that are applied to the first updated property model. The method may further include generating a seismic image of the geological region of interest using the second updated property model.

Methods and apparatus are described for performing a 4D monitor marine seismic survey that repeats a previous survey. A number of sources may be used during the 4D monitor survey that differs from a number of sources that were used during the previous survey. Shot points from the previous survey are repeated by the 4D monitor survey, and additional shot points may be produced during the 4D monitor survey that were not produced during the previous survey. Embodiments enable efficiency and data quality improvements to be captured during 4D survey processes, while preserving repeatability.

A method for generating a high-resolution pseudo-reflectivity image of a subsurface region includes receiving seismic data associated with a subsurface region and captured by one or more seismic receivers, constructing a velocity model of the subsurface region based on the received seismic data, performing a seismic migration of the received seismic data based on the constructed velocity model to obtain migrated seismic data, computing polarized normal vectors associated with one or more subsurface reflectors of the subsurface region based on the migrated seismic data, and generating a pseudo-reflectivity image of the subsurface region based on both the computed polarized normal vectors.

A method comprises positioning a receiver in a borehole and determining an offset acoustic waveform at a target point. The method includes generating a reverse time sequence waveform of the determined offset acoustic waveform and generating, by a transmitter, an acoustic pulse based on the reverse time sequence waveform. The method includes detecting, by the receiver, an acoustic response to the acoustic pulse.

A method, downhole tool, and system, of which the method includes deploying a perforation charge into a wellbore, signaling the perforation charge to detonate, deploying a cable into the wellbore, determining a fluid flow rate at a predetermined location in the wellbore using the cable, and determining whether the perforation charge detonated at the predetermined location based on the fluid flow rate.