Abstract: This paper introduces the concept of marine multi-wave and multi-component at first, discussing the mature marine multi-wave and multicomponent acquisition system (or 4C OBC), which mainly consists of six sub systems: recording, source, cable, acoustics, navigation, and quality control. This system has been successfully applied in the exploration of Alba Oilfield in European North Sea and Yinggehai Basin west of South China Sea conducted by CNOOC. In Alba Oilfield, the seismic inversion of both longitudinal and shear waves makes it possible to improve reservoir characterization, reduce uncertainties, and obtain a better simulated model. Furthermore, the reserves has been increased by 100~200million barrels of oil equivalent. M4C has had good achievements in shallow gas exploration and has been applied to predict the lithology and gas-bearing properties of middle-deep formations. The resolution and signal-to-noise ratio of seismic data are high. This paper investigates the key equipment of the technique and it finally puts forward some proposals about the development of marine multi-wave and multi-component acquisition techniques in China.

Key words: offshore, multi-component, detector, ocean-bottom cable (OBS), seismic method