Insight article
Science and seismic innovation for smarter and faster energy exploration
15 May 2025
Written by: Susanne Rentsch-Smith, Head of Geoscience The need for cutting-edge seismic technologies and innovative seismic thinking in energy exploration has never been greater. The energy industry is navigating competing pressures: fiscal discipline, shorter project timelines, increasing complexity of geological targets, and greater scrutiny of environmental performance. Meanwhile, the range of applications of seismic data has broadened – from traditional hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir monitoring to carbon capture and storage, and renewable energy.
These challenges place geoscience and technology at the centre of the rapidly evolving energy landscape. From designing surveys to processing, imaging, and interpretation, geologists and geophysicists play a vital role in solving complex subsurface challenges while ensuring that the data is delivered swiftly, enabling exploration and development decisions at the right time.
“We need drill-ready data within 60 days of the last shot fired.” That quote, from a client, captures the challenge that drives seismic innovation. It’s a concise need but packed with complexity.
As the number of projects demanding rapid delivery is growing, so are the expectations for data quality: it’s not enough to deliver data fast; it needs to be suitable for decision making. The demands in terms of quality and turnaround are only achievable through the pace of science and thinking differently.
Cycle time for all projects must decrease, and geoscientists, fully leveraging technology, are at the centre of making this happen.
Meeting the industry’s new demands
As global energy demand continues to rise, companies face increasing challenges in securing access to the necessary resources. There are limited high-quality opportunities with prospective geology and great conditions that haven’t already been developed. Exploration and asset teams need to mitigate risks and optimise resources more than ever. To meet these demands, energy companies don’t just need a seismic data vendor – they need a seismic partner who understands.
What sets Shearwater apart is not just our seismic capabilities—it’s how we work. We believe that close collaboration with our clients and understanding their needs and subsurface challenges is the key to delivering truly effective solutions. We listen actively, engage early and continuously to comprehend each project's specific challenges, risks, and goals. This ensures the right experts are involved at every step—from survey design through acquisition, processing, and interpretation.
No two projects are truly alike. Our broad range of expertise jointly assesses key factors such as survey objectives, geological conditions and complexity, the suitability of technology, operational risks, and environmental considerations. We then optimize every part of the seismic value chain—from source to sensor to image—tailoring technologies and approaches to meet exact requirements around cost, quality, turnaround, and environmental performance.
Driving innovation through geoscience for smarter and faster energy exploration
By integrating geoscience into every decision, we drive innovation that benefits our clients. This approach helps us identify gaps in existing tools, technologies, and methodologies—then work across teams to develop new solutions, ensuring we deliver real-world value. Whether that means improving source design, maximising sensor performance, refining acquisition strategies, or creating new processing techniques, advancement – sometimes incremental and sometimes large - is always driven by the needs we and our client’s encounter.
As an example: While computing power and processing capabilities continuously expand, so does what can be extracted from seismic data. Recent progress in Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) exemplifies this: we’ve demonstrated that the full potential of seismic data is unlocked when it is acquired with the right type of receivers and sources.
Advances in low-frequency acquisition are delivering tangible improvements in subsurface clarity. For example, in seabed acquisition, our Pearl nodes offer the industry’s lowest low-frequency cutoff, reaching down to 0.5 Hz, delivering an exceptional low-frequency signal essential for high-fidelity velocity model building and imaging. The nodes also pack in numerous other features – dense batteries, wireless communication, miniaturisation, to radically change the efficiency of ocean bottom seismic surveys.
In streamer acquisition, our Isometrix system captures high-fidelity broadband data with frequencies as low as 1.5 Hz. The system is packed with hundreds of thousands of sensors and is fully digital from the sensor onwards. This allows us to not only deliver superior data but also increase operational efficiency.
Pairing sensors that deliver exceptional low-frequency content with enhanced low-frequency-rich broadband source technologies like Harmony (link to Harmony insights article) enables us to push subsurface clarity further. Solutions like Elementi (link to Elementi news article), our advanced new Spectral Element FWI method (link to SEM FWI insights article), can then leverage high-performance compute capabilities to deliver exceptional data, fast.
The net result is accurate velocity models, improved imaging, higher-quality interpretations, better-defined geobodies, and geological attributes under tight deadlines. All of which are essential ingredients for timely, confident decision-making.
Ultimately, our purpose is to support energy security—by enabling exploration and development that is faster, smarter, and more responsible. Through the integration of advanced technology and broad geoscience expertise, we help our clients maximise the value of their seismic investments and reduce uncertainty. And we do this not alone, but side by side with our clients. It’s amazing what scientists like us can do—especially when we do it together.
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