First, the Teal South datasets are interesting. The P-wave datasets can be (have been)
used to study AVO and pressure changes over time in this producing field. Second, because
they are small datasets (around 2.5 GB for the C-wave gathers to around 5.5 GB for the P-wave
gathers), the phase 1 and phase 2 datasets are computationally cheap to study time-lapse
changes.
Some history
The Teal South field is in the Gulf of Mexico, about 80 miles offshore, in Eugene Island Block 354.
In 1995, Texaco conducted a streamer survey (PP-waves only) in Teal South. This survey was done
before production started in the Teal South field. The streamer data, which are not included here,
are called the Legacy data.
In July 1997, Texaco conducted an ocean-bottom cable (OBC), 4-component survey. (Four-component
recording means each ocean-bottom receiver position has an inline geophone, a crossline geophone,
a vertical geophone, and a hydrophone, all in one package.) The July 1997 survey is called Phase 1.
At the time of this survey, the 4500 ft sand had been in production for over eight months
(Ebrom et al., 1998).
In late 1997, Texaco turned control of the project over to the Energy Research Clearing House (ERCH).
In April 1999 (21 months after Phase 1), ERCH completed another OBC, 4-component survey, Phase 2.
The ERCH did its best to use the original positions of the four east-west cables, it added three
north-south cables, and extended source positions to the east.
Useful documents
Click here to
download a zip bundle of documents about the Teal South field. Of course, pay particular attention
to any document with "Teal South" in the title.
Without modesty, I suggest you start your reading with the paper I wrote for people who come
to this page,
SeismicRocks_2024_TealSouth.pdf.
It is an introduction to the Teal South geographic setting and data acquisition, the steps the CGG
contractors used to process these datasets, and an appendix of P-P and P-S stacking velocities.
These datasets are available to us because of the generosity of Gene W. Sparkman and the Energy
Research Clearing House.
Primary seismic datasets — SEG-Y, big endian format
The primary seismic datasets are the P-P common midpoint (CMP) gathers and the P-S common conversion point (CCP)
gathers after processing by CGG. (Refer to SeismicRocks_2024_TealSouth.pdf for CGG processing steps.)
Note: Two datasets above, phase2-pz-1 and phase2-pz-2 are actually one dataset —
they should be combined to become the phase 2 PZ data. These are two files because, unfortunately, they were
originally on two Exabyte 8mm tapes; all of the phase 2 PZ dataset could not fit on one Exabyte tape.
Secondary seismic datasets — SEG-Y, big endian format
The secondary seismic datasets are small files, products of processing the CMPs and CCPs of the primary datasets.
Confessions: (1) I am not certain what CGG means by "matched migration." (2) I think R' means the
radial component of the C-wave recordings. (C-waves are "converted" waves — P-wave down, S-wave up.)
Other Teal South data
Below are links to download various non-seismic data.
Click here
to download TealSouth_ApacheWellLogs.zip, a bundle of Apache Corp. well logs.
Click here
to download TealSouth_Bits.zip, a bundle of various files that might or might not be in other zip bundles. Some of the
contents are: four quality control plots of airgun tests, more directional survey files, two UKOOA files,
a file of Teal South formation tops.
Click here
to download TealSouth_DirectionalSurveysWithSideTracks.zip, a bundle of directional surveys and side tracks.
Click here
to download TealSouth_Phase2-Tape-LogsAndNotes.zip, a file of phase 2 acquisition notes.
Click here
to download TealSouth_VSP.zip, a bundle of VSP seismic data with notes.
Click here
to download TealSouth_WellLogs.zip, a bundle of well logs.
Beware: The P-P (also called PZ) data have proven reliable and interesting to a variety of
researchers. However, the P-S (converted wave) data seem to have unreliable amplitudes. I do not know
of any researcher (including myself) who has trusted the P-S data to make reliable conclusions.
