Development of Near Surface Models In Saudi Arabia For Low Relief Structures And Complex Near Surface Geology

In the past the geologic information of the near surface in Saudi Arabia was not as critical an issue due to the fact that the prospective geologic structures tended to be much larger than the near surface statics variation. Today, the majority of the prospects are lower relief structures. The static corrections in the near surface statics can include medium to long wavelength statics up to +/- 80 ms in most prospective areas in Saudi Arabia. Several approaches have been developed to resolve these near surface issues and to better image these low relief structures. These methods are the frozen model, layer modeling and geostatistics. Using these various methods the static uncertainty is reduced in the near surface which in turn gives a more accurate sub-surface image.