Wide Azimuth Processing (WAP)

Wide-azimuth processing is the confluence of marine and land processing. Reaping the benefits of this exciting new technology requires a major overhaul of all standard processing techniques in order to accommodate the complex geometries and the enormous increase in the amount of collected data.

Thanks to our vast experience onshore, offshore and in transition zones, Geotrace is uniquely qualified to bring you the sophisticated tools and expertise required to take on these tough challenges.

Offset Vector Tiles (OVT)
The process starts with the formation of Hybrid Gathers, a re-sorting of the data coming from a single intersecting line of sources and receivers. Offset Vector Tiles or OVTs are generated from Hybrid Gathers by selecting data in a range of offsets and azimuths. The resulting data sets “tile” the survey area and can be migrated.

Offset Vector Gathers (OVG)
The OVTs can then be migrated in time or depth and produce a remarkable new set of migrated gathers that essentially generalize our traditional “scalar” gathers into “vector” gathers called Offset Vector Gathers or OVG.

OVGs in turn allow for a direct measurement of the difference between the “fast” and the “slow” travel times and the direction (azimuth) in which this propagation occurs.

FracMap
This technique measures the azimuthal “moveout” and direction of minimum travel times (∆t,φ) in the OVG to extract the fracture density and orientation. The result is a visual image or “map” of fractured volumes.

Fracture Detection with Offset Vector Technology