The Exploration Potential of VSP and the Prospects for its Progressive Development

Abstract

The extensive volume of VSP work performed in recent years, the experience gained in the process, and the results obtained, constitute the basis for the discussion of the exploration potential of VSP, as well as the improvements in the effectiveness of seismic exploration associated with it, and the prospects for the progressive development of the method itself. Such a discussion may reasonably start with the range of problems solved by VSP. When appraising the exploration potential of VSP, we should discuss separately the two principal applications of VSP: one aimed at improving the effectiveness of surface observations and the other aimed at studying the region around the borehole. Whereas in the early stages of the development of the method, the first application associated chiefly with the search for and the selection of structures for drilling, was the dominant one, in the course of the method’s development the second application assumed progressively more importance as a self-contained method. This was because it offered the prospects of the extensive use of seismic studies not only during the stages of the search for and the selection of stuctures for deep drilling, but also at the stages of exploration and exploitation of the fields. It will also be expedient to discuss separately the potentialities of VSP for the solution of various research problems.