Australia’s energy security and decarbonisation objectives depend on reducing subsurface uncertainty across hydrocarbon exploration, carbon capture and storage, and subsurface storage projects. Seismic data are the most reliable method of imaging the subsurface. Seismic data quality is a first-order control on subsurface uncertainty, exploration success, and risk mitigation. While reprocessing legacy seismic data can deliver improvements, it is fundamentally constrained by the design of the original acquisition. Using examples from Gulf of America, Nigeria, and Indonesia, this paper demonstrates that, in many settings, new seismic acquisition is a necessary enabling investment to support titleholder-led interpretation, good technical practice, and the delivery of energy transition objectives.
Simon Molyneux (2026) studied this question.