Planning and executing a 4D baseline ocean bottom node seismic survey in the Gulf of America in adverse conditions

In the early 1980s, geophysicists seeking higher resolution structural imaging around key production fields discovered that there was a secondary benefit from having multiple datasets of different vintages in the same area after production began. They discovered that seismic data over the same locations but from different time periods could be used to detect differences in reservoir characteristics. This technique of time-lapse processing later became known simply as 4D with the primary acquisition being known as the 4D baseline and the subsequent acquisitions as 4D monitor surveys.