Acquisition of a modern seismic survey in the Vienna Basin

The Vienna Basin is a declining basin for oil and gas production. The first wells were drilled a few years after World War II and production has not stopped ever since. Most hydrocarbons have been produced from shallow reservoirs at depths of less than three kilometers. Efforts to postpone an inevitable decline in production have included drilling of over a thousand wells and Enhanced Oil Recovery with water injection and lately polymer injection. A more recent strategy has been to look for deeper prospects, at depths hardly explored previously. One such attempt is targeting leads identified on geological models alone as no seismic data provide deep enough information. Geological models have existed for almost three decades but have not been confirmed by seismic. These models propose a very complex geology of the Calcareous Alps, recently backed up by new salt tectonic research. 2D seismic datasets have tried to provide some answers but have never fully succeeded, being able to image crests but not the steeply dipping folds of the main structures. Hence the current “last chance” attempt with a large 3D seismic survey. Before a seismic program could be envisioned, important seismic modeling efforts were conducted. The idea was to confirm that a seismic survey could provide an image of the possible targets and to define acquisition parameters which would give the highest chance of success. It was then necessary to work on the economic feasibility of the defined survey. Amongst other things, high productivity techniques to speed up seismic acquisition were carefully considered. Though not the norm in Europe, these techniques are standard in desert environments and a matter of pass-or-fail in this case. Finally, the seismic acquisition itself was started and proved that a full azimuth survey with long offsets could be acquired in Europe. So well in fact, that the survey was extended and doubled in size. Presentation Date: Tuesday, September 17, 2019 Session Start Time: 1:50 PM Presentation Time: 3:55 PM Location: Poster Station 11 Presentation Type: Poster