Delaware Basin Red Tank PSDM Seismic Data:  Why near surface velocity inversion affects image integrity and improved seismic imaging brings the geology alive.

Bruce Karr*, Scott Tiefenthaler, Julie Schneider and Dong Li, Fairfield Geotechnologies, Houston, Texas 
 
Summary 
 
Pre-Stack Depth Migration (PSDM) for Permian Basin seismic data has not been widely adopted.  However a few companies began adopting PSDM starting about 4 years ago.  PSDM is most commonly associated with complex structural overburden, typical in the Gulf of Mexico Tertiary section where advances in hardware and software have allowed for significant advances in image quality.  This paper presents data comparisons in the central Delaware Basin where a deceptively simple structural overburden but a complex lateral velocity profile provides the motivation to use PSDM to improve image quality.