Q stands for a big question

This article reports on the launch of the Schlumberger's Q-Marine approach to seismic imaging and the almost simultaneous establishment of Western Geco from the merged Western Geophysical and Schlumberger's Geco-Prakla, and examines the effects of these activities on the seismic data acquisition market. Details are given of the ability to carry out repeated 3-dimensional seismic surveys over a reservoir during production using conventional streamer acquisition allowing in effect 4-dimensional reservoir monitoring. The on-board computer processing systems, the streamer steering system, and the collection of accurate high resolution data are discussed