AccScience Publishing / JSE / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/JSE025410084
ARTICLE

High-precision full-waveform inversion velocity modeling and broadband processing for a deepwater exploration of the South China Sea

Wei Liu1 Yi Liao2 Jie Cui3* Ning Zhang1 Guo Dong Zhang2 Zi Jing Gong3 Rong Li3 Lian Lian Liu3 Miaoyang Yuan3
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1 China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd. Zhanjiang Branch, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China
2 China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd. Hainan Branch, Haikou, Hainan, China
3 Department of Digital and Integration, SLB, Beijing, China
Submitted: 11 October 2025 | Revised: 9 December 2025 | Accepted: 15 December 2025 | Published: 7 January 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

In deepwater fields, drilling costs are extremely high, and the “one sand, one well” situation is common, in which a single well must control an overly large area of the gas field. Structural accuracy decreases in areas distant from the well locations, making gas reservoir prediction and sand body delineation challenging due to the limited resolution of seismic data. To address these challenges, this study applied high-precision full-waveform inversion (FWI) velocity modeling and broadband imaging technology in a deepwater exploration of the South China Sea. In the preprocessing stage, based on the geological challenges and features of the acquired seismic data, we selected appropriate signal-processing methods and optimized the algorithms and parameter sets, successfully developing a customized broadband processing workflow specifically tailored for deepwater applications. The entire broadband processing sequence effectively supported subsequent FWI modeling. During the imaging stage, FWI was successfully applied for the 1st time in the deepwater of the South China Sea. Together with Q pre-stack depth migration, this integrated approach effectively addressed challenges in structural depth prediction and significantly improved imaging resolution. This study provided real-time support for gas field development and optimized the well placement for deepwater development.

Keywords
Deepwater
Low-frequency noise attenuation
Broadband processing
Full-waveform inversion
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Journal of Seismic Exploration, Print ISSN: 0963-0651, Published by AccScience Publishing