Large scale 3D seismic data acquisition on an environmentally sensitive area in Central Europe

Lszl Gombr, Geophysical Services Ltd., Hungary, Attila Fogarasi, Hungarian Oil and Gas plc., Hungary Abstract
Hungarian Oil and Gas plc. (MOL) decided to carry out a more than 1000 square km 3D survey over the mature age Szeged-Algy Field in 1999. Data acquisition and processing were carried out by Geophysical Services Ltd. (GES).This case history shows how MOL and GES cooperated and interacted in planning and managing of this complex 3D project. During the preparation and operation phases of the survey they had to manage several environmental protection and public concerns, while keeping an eye on the geological objectives of the project. The continuous real time information flow and feedback -between the field crew and quality control organizations of the Client and Contractor- could manage the challenging field conditions. Regular field audits and team meetings monitored the required quality and evaluated the process performance. The improved interaction resulted in smooth operation and good quality data satisfying the Clients requests with zero impact on the environment and public interests.

Introduction
The Szeged-Algy Field is the largest hydrocarbon accumulation of Hungary. The oil and gas pools were discovered in 1965 and within two years the CH reservoirs were set on pipe. The producing field is located partially underneath the cities Szeged and Algy having an improved infrastructure and more than 180 000 inhabitants. The field was explored and developed by extensive drilling activity mainly in the 60-s and 70-s. The annual production of the Szeged-Algy field at its peek time - in the 70-s and early 80-s - reached 7,5 MBBL oil and 100 Mcf gas. Although more than 1000 wells were drilled into the reservoirs to date, complex stratification patterns governed by the original lacustrine deltaic depositional environment prevented unambiguous correlation and spatial definition of the sandstone bodies. By the end of the 90-s the declining production of the field necessitated exploration of the forecasted small size satellite fields around the main producing field.

Planning and Pre-permitting

Szeged and Algy cities, the Tisza and Maros rivers with their protected wetland forests and large fishing lakes located North to Szeged were the main challenges that 3D seismic had to face to ( See Fig. 1). During the prepermitting phase the work program - containing the theoretical 3D network - was submitted to the competent environmental protection organizations and to other local authorities to ask for their preliminary opinion. Besides the strictly protected exclusion zones there were two main temporal restrictions which basically determined the further planning steps: because of the spring time breeding season and passage of birds at autumn - on the lakes and wetlands the field works were allowed only from July to October municipality of Szeged prescribed a very short time window for the data acquisition in the city - from mid of September to end of October Owing to these restrictions the project had to be divided into two parts in space and time: the northern part containing the fishing lakes was surveyed in 2000, and the urban data acquisition was postponed to the autumn of 2001. Only the processes of urban operation are reviewed below.

Preparation Stage Processes

Client and Contractor formed a Quality and Process Management Team (QPMT) to determine the preparation and operational process steps and to identify and examine the critical processes. They declared the need for continuous improvement of the processes and completed scenarios for the expected challenges. QPMT specified the main processes, which were followed during the preparation stage:

Logistics
-Obtaining permits of the municipal and county police, road-, rail-road, city transport, telecommunication-, water and drainage-, gas-, electricity suppliers and authorities. -Planning time schedule, work force and equipment capacity for the project. -HSE plans for preparation and training for crewmembers. -Public campaigns in local newspapers, TV and radio advertisements to inform the inhabitants on the planned seismic works. -Open information forums for city leaders and representatives of civil organizations on the aims of the survey. -Open vibration show was organized in the down-town for the city leaders and inhabitants. -Completion of vibration monitoring measurements with different source efforts to define source distance particle motion functions for safety distances at buildings and pipes.

Surveying
-Definition of the excluded source locations respecting the prescriptions of the authorities and public utility companies. -Permanent but removable markers have to be used for the surveyed receiver and source locations. -Continuous fold and offset modeling during the surveying period providing a feedback for the QPMT on the expected data coverage.

Recording
Spread: Receivers and cables must not cause any trouble or obstacle in city traffic and they had to be laid onto relatively protected, safe locations: -More than a hundred kilometer of spread cables were laid down along the streets and hung on the public lampposts at busy road-crossings and over the tram power lines with help of the local electricity company. -Geophones were planted into the unpaved edges of the streets, into water ditches and small garden areas. On paved areas receivers were stick to the road surface close to the walls. Recording equipment: Spread was separated into two parts and controlled by two SN-388 Central Units operated in Master-Slave mode, because rivers Maros and Tisza were not allowed to cross with cables and microwave data transmission was not permitted either. -The spread was observed and kept alive (guarded as well) all around the clock. -Background cultural noise was monitored continuously with the implemented SQCPRO systems. -1:2000 digital map of city public works was loaded into the computer of Master-Unit, and surveyed source locations were put on visualized map.

Data Acquisition Processes

The effective data acquisition could be started when all the 3000 receivers were planted, and cca. 2800 source point locations were reviewed and accepted by the representatives of public utility companies. QPMT audited and evaluated the preparation processes and gave the start signal for data acquisition. A 24 hour hot line was managed at the crew for information purposes and for the reception of the complains. -As the pre-acquisition noise monitoring had showed the background field noise was under the acceptable limit only between 23-04 oclock at night, so the recording hours had to be shifted to this time interval. -HSE education and training focusing on the night operation was held for the crewmembers. -The Master-Slave mode operation enabled a 2400 channel recording capacity. Equipment performance - by usual daily tests - was checked two times per day. -12 IVI Y-2400 Birdwagens were applied for vibration in 3-5 groups. All of them were equipped with Trimble sub-meter RTDGPS systems and their actual positions were continuously followed on a screen in the doghouse by a responsible source location observer. -Each vibrator group had its own field manager, who directed the operation and moving of the vibrator group according to the actual vibration scenario and kept eye on safety distances. -Close to the critical safety distances at underground pipe and drain locations the vibrator positions were checked before the vibration on the digital map. -At special and historic buildings the peak particle motion was recorded as the vibrators got closer to the safety distance to prevent any damage.

-The evaluation of seismic data quality- signal energy, signal to noise ratio, dominant frequency was performed on the spot at real time, on the other hand a QC on-site processing was carried out to control the stacked data quality as well. After 3 month of the direct preparation period the urban data recording itself was a very short process. 2800 urban source points were recorded during 10 nights ( See Fig.2 ). The strict process identification and implementing the elements of the quality management into the planning and field operation improved the efficiency and quality of the processes satisfying the both the Client requirements ( See Fig. 3) and prescriptions of the authorities. Under the entire operation period neither damage nor accident happened in the city in connection with the crews activity.

Interpretation Results
Basic structural interpretation with definition of major unconformities and tectonic elements has been accomplished. Petrophysical- seismic integration studies were performed to ascertain reservoirs-reflection correlation. Elemental DHI-s as bright spots, flat spots and dim spots were recognised and mapped on the covered area. Investigation for detecting of satellite fields and reflection in-field characteristics and by-passed hydrocarbon has been initiated. Seismic sequence stratigraphic interpretation- with strict well control- comes to an end soon. Seismic attribute maps provided valuable depositional features that are first-rank candidates for wildcat drilling.

Acknowledgments
The authors hereby like to thank to MOL plc. for the permission to present this paper. Also thanks to the geophysicists, geologists and other colleagues from MOL and GES, who contributed to realization of this work.

Figure 1 Location map of Szeged-Algy 3D project Figure 2 Source- and receiver point distribution on the urban area Figure 3 Fold distribution of the 3D project

Figure 1 Location map of Szeged-Algy 3D project