The practice of high-density 3D seismic acquisition in high-altitude complex Kulong Mountain
Duorong Zhang1*, Wenlong Jiao 2, Wuhai Yin1, Yongguo Wu 1,3, Haili Wang 1, Yongxiang Jiang 2
1. BGP inc, PetroChina
2. Yumen Oilfield Company, PetroChina
3. State Key Laboratory of Oil & Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Chengdu University of Technology
Summary
Kulong Mountain is located in the western zone of the
thrusting belt of northern Qilian Mountains. In this area,
because of complex structures developed both near surface
and in deep zones underground, 3D seismic acquisition has
some characteristics of, high technical requirements, difficult
construction, high operational costs etc. This paper will show
an integrated economic-technological acquisition case in
complex mountainous areas, which is featured of the
single-point acquisition, the cost efficient wide-azimuth
high-density geometry, the surface survey method of highly
rugged topography, and the node & cable mixed seismic
acquisition , and independent excitation as well. It is first
application of the above advanced techniques in high-altitude
and complicated mountainous areas to overcome the seismic
acquisition challenges in Kulong Mountain. The combined
application of Hawk node and G3i cable reduced the
difficulty of construction by topography and high altitude.
The independent firing system was first successfully used to
seismic shooting without wireless communication. The
adequate reflection data were acquired to image the footwall
of nappe by high-density, wide-azimuth seismic technology
that shot-receiver ratio is 1/8.This case provides a
cost-effective new mode for high-density, wide-azimuth
seismic acquisition in areas where considerable technical and
engineering challenges exist.
Introduction
The topography is a complex mountainous area with high
altitudes up to t 4586m above sea level, and the average
elevation is 3500m. The terrain drop is large with a
maximum drop of nearly 2000m (Figure1). Paleozoic strata
are exposed to the surface with various lithologies, highly
fractured and faulted, and very stiff rocks.
There are multi-stage overthrust. Intense tectonic movement
forms a structural system with large dip angle and severe
fragmentation. The north-south structure of the area includes
Silurian and Ordovician nappe, Cretaceous overthrust
fragment of middle plate strata with reverse fracture and
serious distortion, and footwall with complex fault.
The seismic exploration in this area was launched in the
1980s. From 2001 to 2005, the 2D, wide-line, wide-angle 2D
and 3D seismic acquisition technologies were attempted to
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overcome the challenges here. Due to the double
complexities of the geological structures, past seismic
acquisition efforts had not achieved expected seismic data.
So the seismic acquisition work here is almost stopped since
2005. The successful application of the "2W1H" (wide
azimuth, wide-band and high-density) seismic acquisition
technique in complex areas provides the technical support for
the restarting of seismic acquisition in the Kulong Mountain.
However, it still remains a challenge to make the technique
effective and the economy feasible. In addition, the severe
shortage of oxygen as well as the very hard transportation
made low field acquisition efficiency and high
implementation cost in Kulong Mountain area.
Figure 1: Kulong Mountain landform
Based on the need of economic and technological integration,
the technologies, which included wide-azimuth high-density,
single-point seismic acquisition technology and node-cable
mixed instruments, independent firing system for seismic
data acquisition operation, were firstly applied in complex,
high-altitude and mountainous region. Meanwhile a new
surface survey method is applied in the large drop
mountains.
In 2017, BGP successfully implemented a high-density 3D
seismic acquisition in high-altitude, complex and
mountainous Kulong Mountain area. It is the most complex
terrain and geological structure, the highest altitude mountain
3D in china. Node and cable joint acquisition, independent
excitation ensured the effective implementation of
high-density 3D seismic acquisition in Kulong Mountain
area. Reliable seismic data are obtained for the validation of
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 High-density 3D seismic acquisition in high-altitude complex Kulong Mountain

geological structure tures through single-point, high-density

and wide-azimuth seismic acquisition.
Single-point acquisition in complex mountain
Single-point acquisition refers to single-hole excitation with
single-point receiver, gradually developed to adapt to the
high-density seismic acquisition. By increasing the spatial
Economical and feasible high density geometry design
The overthrust belt is a very strong energy shield body,
which makes seismic wave difficult transmitting. Itself and
substratum image badly or can’t image, because of the very
weak energy (Deng Zhiwen, 2002). To cope with the

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sampling density, it helps the geometry to suppress noises
and improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Compared to array
acquisition, single-point acquisition does not reduce noise in
field, and is not able to effectively improve reflecting energy.
So conceptually, single-point acquisition does not seem
suitable for complex mountain seismic exploration,
especially with low signal-to-noise ratio. In fact, the
application of single-point acquisition in Kulong Mountain
shows that the single-point acquisition is suitable for
mountainous areas with low signal-to-noise ratio.
problems of energy shield and badly imaging substratum,
several measures are adopted as followed.
First, apply the anti illumination to assign the position where
the shots or receivers need to be added to enhance energy.
Anti illumination indicates that it is possible to increase the
energy of substratum, if shots or receivers are added in nappe
front and outside of the nappe(Figure 3).

Here, past excitation method was hole-array, large charge.

Now based on preserving of main bands energy of geological
targets imaging, Single-hole excitation design is optimized.
In single-hole records, the first break is very clear, and the
target stratum has reflection, and the scattering noise is lower
than that of hole-array, large charge.

0.5s
a b
Figure3: Anti illumination of 2D geological model (a:  geological
model. b: anti-illumination of the black dotted line stratum)

1.0s Second, through the analysis of forward simulation, it is

confirmed that seismic technology can reliably resolve the
problem of imaging overthrust and autochthon (Figure4), but
it is necessary that there are higher folds and spatial
sampling( Dong Liangguo et al., 2006).
1.5s
a b c d
Figure2: The original shot records by different number of detector(a:
Geophone array by 1, b: Geophone array by 10,c: Geophone array
by 20, d: Geophone array by 30)

In view of scattering interfering wave field complexity, great

topographic relief, and various rocks, adopt the single
receiver instead of former multi-geophone array. The
single-geophone detecting obtained clear reflections
compared with the array of above 10 geophones. No matter
reflection wave or first break wave, which detected by more
than 10 geophones, is significantly distorted (Figure
2).Moreover, the first break difference is more than 30 ms,
which there is severe static for higher than 17Hz seismic
signal. So the single geophone receiving will help the
seismic acquisition in complex mountain area by keeping
Figure4: Forward-simulation PSDM section for Figure3
seismic signal from being smoothed and distorted. geo-model(The nappe fault planes that the arrow points to, the thrust
Meanwhile, it is easy to operate in field for light weight and fault planes that the red dotted oval shows, and the crushed
small volume. autochthon that the red solid line shows, all have well imaging.)

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 High-density 3D seismic acquisition in high-altitude complex Kulong Mountain
Thirdly, apply the 3D illumination to optimize the aspect
ratio. Illumination of the 3D geological model shows that the
wider azimuth be beneficial to imaging overthrust fault and
autochthon under overthrust( Ling Yun et al., 2005).
At last, estimate the excitation-receiving impacting on the
cost in order to optimize a cost-effective technological
scheme. According to estimation that the shot-receiver cost
ratio is up to 27.5, design the scheme that the shot-receiver
ratio is 7.56 to meet the requirement of high-density wide-
azimuth geometry and to substantially reduce the field
implementation cost.
Embedded surface survey and tomography statics
In mountainous areas, the depth of the conventional LVL
survey is too shallow, and the LVL of the inversion by shot
record may be unreliable. Here, a new method, that is joint
inversion of applying the minor reflections and the shot
records, is developed for surface survey. Through this
technology application in Kulong Mountain, the high
precision surface model is obtained (Figure5-below).
Because the minor reflection has the adequate sampling of
near-surface, the obvious smooth model, as shown in
Figure5-above station 2000, 6000 and 8000, has restored to
the true structure, as shown in Figure5-below.
a the productivity as well. The independent excitation mode
b cost in Kulong Mountain area. The production cost is only
Figure5: Tomographic inversion section of different surface survey
(a: tomographic inversion by the first break of shot records; b:
tomographic inversion by the first break of shot records and minor
reflections)
After applied the embedded surface survey to restrict the
tomographic static, in Kulong Mountain better resolved the
short wavelength static correction from the ground to
underground above 100m. Compared with the conventional
tomographic static, the restricted by embedded surface
survey tomographic static has more helps for imaging of the
low S/N ratio data(Figure 6).Here shown as the regions that
the arrows point.
© 2018 SEG
SEG International Exposition and 88th annual Meeting
1s
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2s
3s
a b
Figure 6: Stack profile of the different static (a: conventional
tomographic static section; b: embedded surface survey restricted
tomographic static section )
Field operation measures
For field operation in high-altitude and complicated
mountainous areas, the conventional acquisition pattern faces
the poor communication between the instrument and the
firing machine, the broken spreads, the blocked spreads and
the low efficiency of rearrangement of spreads. In the
communication regard, an independent excitation system is
developed. In this system, firing machine does not receive
instructions from instrument, and shots can be excited
spontaneously according to the pre-agreed detonation. And
for receiver spreads, the nodes are applied in solving the
problem of the spreads’ arranging efficiency and the cables
are used to monitor the spreads’ situation. Nodes or wired
instruments were applied for varied altitudes, in order to
reduce the field work intensity as far as possible, and to raise
was employed for the first time, for the communication
problems.
Applications
Through the implementation of the above technical measures,
acquire the energy-sufficient, high-precision original data,
realize to well image the footwall of the nappe (Figure6-b)
for the first time and substantially reduce the field production
1.1times as much as 15 years ago in the condition of the
wages and materials' cost growth 8 times and the shot-trace
density higher 5times.
The shallow stratum signal-noise ratio is greatly enhanced
and the substratum of the nappe has been first imaged. Most
of all, the crushed cretaceous autochthon and small faults,
which the red oval shows in Figure7-b, has got clear imaging,
as well as the thrust fault planes, which the red arrow points
to in Figure 6-b, is very clear imaging. The imaging has first
met the need of recognizing the structures .
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1.5s

Thrust Fault

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2.5s E

K1z

3.5s
K1g

4.5s Basement Fault

a b
Figure7: Migration section of old data (a) and single-point high-density wide-azimuth 3D data (b)( Besides E and K1z stratums , the
crushed cretaceous autochthon, which the red oval show in Figure 6-b, has got clear imaging, as well as the thrust fault, which the red
arrow points to in Figure 6-b, is very clear imaging. )

Conclusions Acknowledgements

After some non-conventional technology and technique,
BGP successfully has done a high-density and wide-azimuth
3D seismic acquisition in altitude up to 4586m, complex
mountainous area. The technology and technique have the
follow strengths:
1)Single point acquisition can not only provide
high-precision original seismic data for subsequent
processing, but also greatly reduce field workload in
mountainous areas.
We would like to appreciate the significant helps and
supports from the experts of Technical Support Department,
Data Processing Center of the Research Institute and
Equipment Service Department of BGP, and the experts of
Yumen Oilfield Exploration Branch. The study is supported
by the National Science and Technology Major Project
(2017ZX05018-003) of China.

2)The embedded surface survey method is easy to carry out

in field and the acquired data can inverse higher precision
surface model than only shot data.

3)The lower shot-receiver ratio helps to assure the

cost-effective of high-density wide-azimuth 3D seismic
acquisition in complex, high-altitude mountain area.

4)The node-cable seismic instruments and independent firing

system have created a new seismic operation mode for 3D
seismic acquisition in complex, mountain areas.

5)The high-density wide-azimuth 3D seismic data by

processing has first clear imaged the footwall structures of
nappe except the highly steep overthust .

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REFERENCES
Deng, Z. W., 2002, Seismic geometry study for highly steep overthrust nappe: Geophysical Prospecting for Petroleum, 41, 127–131.
Dong, L. G., X. F. Wu, H. Z. Tang, S. C. Chen, K. Yang, and S. W. Liu, 2006, Seismic wave illumination for overthrust nappe structures and optimal
seismic survey design: Geophysical Prospecting for Petroleum, 45, 40–47.
Ling, Y., L. Wu, et al., 2005, Analysis and appreciation of wide/narrow azimuth exploration cases (II): Oil Geophysical Prospecting, 40, 423–427.

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