Here we have a very typical Gulf Coast example comparing a PSTM image to WIT's RTM image. First, notice that the frequency content of RTM is similar to PSTM. Second, notice how fault plane reflections are imaged by RTM, and amplitudes truncate sharply against the faults. Moreover, the fault geometry makes more sense with RTM. WIT's depth migrations can handle isotropic, VTI, and TTI media.

You'll be surprised at the relatively low cost of RTM. Because of the low cost of modern high-performance computing, we're able to offer an entire workflow of wave equation PSDM velocity model building, RTM, and attributes for around the cost of basic time processing from larger vendors.

The key to successful depth imaging is high quality velocity analysis. The image at right shows WIT's final velocity model from a typical Gulf Coast project, overlaying the RTM image. Note how WIT's dense angle gather velocity updates, using WEM or RTM angle gathers, can detect short-scale velocity variations across faults and in geopressure zones. We can build fully anisotropic earth models and tie all available well control.

Interested in learning more about WIT Depth?

• Cosmin Macesanu presented an SEG Abstract at the 2011 meeting which describes how WIT's implementation of TTI RTM is superior to the approximations made by other authors.

• We made a presentation at the 2011 AAPG which has many field data examples of WEM and RTM.

• WIT's own Cosmin Macesanu presented the theoretical aspects of our angle decomposition technology to a highly technical audience at BP's February, 2010 Technical Luncheon.

• February, 2010 Permian Basin Geophysical Society Luncheon - This talk highlighted the performance of our two-phase velocity model building methodology on a South Texas case study, West George West, that we market with our collaboration with ECHO Geophysical.

• April, 2009 Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City Continuing Education Seminar - This talk highlighted the performance of our WIT Depth workflows on a Mid-Continent inspired synthetic model. The comparison of PSTM and PSDM on a simple "sinkhole" example is particularly enlightening.