Resolution on multiples: Interpreters' perceptions, decision making, and multiple attenuation

We investigated our ability to remove a specific short-period multiple from the Nisku and Blueridge formations in West Central Alberta, Canada. This problem is commercial in nature, and has persisted because it was believed that the multiple had too little moveout to be removed, rendering interpretation of the thin Blueridge zone impossible. Associated with this issue was the belief that the modern high-resolution Radon transforms do not materially affect the stack response of real data in this area despite their excellent performance on synthetics and on other data in the literature. Serious technical work seldom affords a discussion of “beliefs”, but this work is concerned with the decision-making of the interpreter. We show that in order to address a specific, real, short-period multiple problem, the interpreter was required to challenge previously held technical assumptions. This required the interpreter to consider the nature of the multiple itself, the nature and limitations of the multiple suppression technology used, and to objectively measure the level of success in suppressing the multiple.