Reduction of noise effects on low frequency passive seismic data

Authors
T. Nguyen, M-A. Lambert, E.H. Saenger, B. Artman, S.M. Schmalholz
Published in
71st EAGE Conference & Exhibition — Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Date of publication
08 June 2009
Abstract
Anthropogenic noise effects have always been a great concern for passive seismic because they are usually strong and difficult to remove. The problem is addressed by analysis of 2D (time-space) attribute sections derived from the record data. On the attribute sections transient noise appears as isolated points or distinctive linear trends and therefore can be suppressed by common filtering techniques. We applied the approach on a passive seismic data set from a survey line at an oil and gas field in Voitsdorf, Austria. The data set is noisy and the presence of hydrocarbon reservoirs could not be convincingly indicated by conventional analysis techniques. Attribute sections, after being filtered to reduce noise effects show a good agreement between reservoir locations and high amplitude trends on the sections. A modeling study reveals that the anomalies observed on the attribute sections match well with attribute values computed from synthetic data.