Speaker: Peter Eick P.G.
Subject: An Introduction to Compressive Seismic and its Applications
Abstract: Compressive sensing is a sparse sampling technique that allows the accurate reconstruction of a higher
resolution data volume from an appropriately sampled dataset. Compressive Seismic is the application
of this sparse sensing technique to seismic data acquisitions. This has allowed the seismic industry to
acquire more data faster at a similar costs of conventional seismic acquisition. This can be accomplished
because CS relaxes conventional Nyquist sampling requirements for band-limited data. By not adhering
to the regular Nyquist requirements—and exploiting irregular sampling—the CS acquired data
effectively distributes the normally coherent aliased energy into incoherent energy, which can be
effectively removed using conventional processing techniques, and is favored by modern sparse
inversion. Furthermore, the irregularly sampled data can be wavefield reconstructed to a regularized
dataset with higher fold for further time and depth imaging.
In summary, CS surveys acquire more data during the wavefield reconstruction step by outputting a
regularized dataset to the nominal minimum station spacing in the design. CS projects tend to be faster
because it uses less equipment and crew. The technology is compatible with sparse sampling and
blending of sources in the survey so the data can be acquired in a both “CS sampled” and “blended”
mode. This allows multiple sources firing at randomly distributed time or fire-at-will to then be
separated into appropriate shot records. CS data can be acquired at similar costs as conventional
surveys because you are using the same continuous recording hardware found in nodes or cable-based
recorders. The primary difference between conventional seismic and CS projects is the irregular station
spacing down the line. In-Depth’s patented CS with Regular-Indexing facilitates the on-the-fly designing
of 3D CS survey geometry and highly efficient and amplitude preserving CS reconstruction.
This talk will explore the basic concepts of Compressive Seismic, history and how the techniques are
currently applied. It will then focus on the different technology approaches, and will present example
projects and results. CS concepts can also be applied to off-the-shelf, conventionally designed, existing
3D seismic reprocessing projects. In the reprocessing case, CS can infill gaps due to offsets or obstacles
and improve the regularization of the data for a better final imaging. Examples will be shown comparing
CS to conventional 5D regularization demonstrating better imaging in the CS case. Finally we will
explore some of the limitations of the technology and its successful application.
Bio: Peter Eick received a M.S. in Geophysics from the University of Utah in 1989, and a B.S.
in Geology from Michigan Technological University in 1987. He joined Conoco in 1990
in the United States and has worked as an explorer and potential field’s interpreter in the
Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, Rocky Mountains and the Permian Basin.
He switched from explorer to seismic acquisition coordinator early in his career for
Conoco and later ConocoPhillips. As Principal Acquisitions Geophysicist in the
Geophysical Operations Group at ConocoPhillips, he worked over 20 years designing and
acquiring borehole, marine and land 3D and 2D seismic surveys worldwide. He is an
active researcher and is the co-inventor of the ZenSeis™ acquisition seismic method. He
is the named inventor on 60 US patents in addition to many international patents. He left
ConocoPhillips in 2015 and started Serenity Geophysical Consultants working on shear
wave and high resolution seismic exploration projects. In 2017 he joined In-Depth
Compressive Seismic to help promote the technology. Currently he is the CCO for In-
Depth Compressive Seismic and is managing the application of compressive seismic
acquisition and processing projects worldwide for their clients.
Mr. Eick is a licensed Professional Geophysicist, Continuing Education Instructor for the
SEG, and an active member of the SEG, IAMG, GSH, AAPG and HGS.