There seems to be a trend these days to take technology developed for marine seismic acquisition and processing and apply it to land. Recent examples have included a company that uses land “streamers” towed behind a truck rather than a boat and the announcement from Shell and PGS that the two companies would develop a land version of PGS’ OptoSeis fiberoptic technology.

A small company called Wave Imaging Technology (WIT) hopes to accomplish a similar move to dry land in seismic processing, using depth imaging techniques commonly applied to subsalt plays onshore, particularly in shale plays. With revenues tripling this year, it might not be a small company much longer.

Morgan Brown, president and CEO of WIT, said depth imaging on land is the wave of the future. “We’re not the only ones saying that,” he said. “WesternGeco authors published an SEG abstract in 2009. Its title was, ‘The case for depth imaging all 3-D data.’”

While tilted transverse isotropy and reverse time migration (RTM) have become almost default processing techniques in deepwater plays, Brown said the land industry probably is 10 years behind in terms of adoption of these technologies. “Our reason for existence is to take some of the technologies that have added a lot of value in the subsalt and bring them onshore where they can also add value but just haven’t – for reasons of inertia, really.”

According to Brown, as majors like ExxonMobil and Shell become involved in shale plays, they are likely to expect the same technologies to be applied that have helped them offshore. “Two years from now the scientific bar is going to be raised as far as what they can get out of seismic data,” he said. “And they’re going to have more time to get more out of the data.” Brown added that seismic currently is used as a hazard mitigation tool in the shales, but in the future will be helpful in finding sweet spots.

“We’re a little bit shut out from the true economic information, but when Exxon’s in the game, you can be sure they’re going to be pushing the profits hard,” he said.

The company got its start when Joe Higginbotham retired from Chevron and was given the license to SeisPak, the depth imaging system within Texaco that he developed. Brown said Higginbotham was an early pioneer of wave equation imaging and parallel computing, and having access to him and the software helped the company start “with a lot of wind at our back.”

WIT specializes in wave-equation migration (WEM), an imaging technique that has not been widely used in depth imaging because traditionally it did not allow for building of velocity models, a key element for depth imaging. The company has developed two proprietary technologies for wave-equation velocity analysis.

“If we run a final migration with WEM or RTM, we’re building velocity models with the same technology,” Brown said. “There’s a consistency to the way we operate.”

He added that, to his knowledge, WIT is the only processing shop that is all WEM. “Success or failure hinges almost exclusively on the success of your model building,” Brown said. “That’s really where the men and women are separated from the girls and boys. We’re a different animal. And by definition of the kinds of technologies that we have and the kinds of plays we’re targeting, we’re competing with the big guys and will continue increasingly to do so.”

WIT also has a proprietary RTM code, a methodology that has been applied to subsalt plays with great success. “I think it’s got a lot of value on land too,” Brown said. “In one-way WEM, you start losing coherency on dips when they exceed 45 degrees. RTM images those nicely. You get all of the benefits of the WEM – better amplitudes, better focusing of complex velocity effects. But you can also image steep reflectors.”

Although RTM is an expensive algorithm, Brown said his shop applies it on almost every job.

With new technology and a different mindset toward land seismic, WIT is poised to become a big player in the shales. Brown said 2010 has been a year of growing exposure to different markets and growing credibility. He expects 2011 to be the year “when we start competing with the big guys.

“I had one consultant in Denver tell me, ‘My clients are very interested. They’re intrigued by your technology. But I have one important question: Are you for real?’ 2011 is the year that we are for real, I hope.”