Retrieving drill bit seismic signals using surface seismometers

Seismic while drilling (SWD) is an emerging borehole seismic imaging technique that uses the downhole drill-bit vibrations as seismic source. Without interrupting drilling, SWD technique can make near-real-time images of the rock formations ahead of the bit and optimize drilling operation, with reduction of costs and the risk of drilling. However, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of surface SWD-data is severely low for the surface acquisition of SWD data. Here, we propose a new method to retrieve the drill-bit signal from the surface data recorded by an array of broadband seismometers. Taking advantages of wavefield analysis, different types of noises are identified and removed from the surface SWD-data, resulting in the significant improvement of SNR. We also optimally synthesize seismic response of the bit source, using a statistical cross-coherence analysis to further improve the SNR and retrieve both the drill-bit direct arrivals and reflections which are then used to establish a reverse vertical seismic profile (RVSP) data set for the continuous drilling depth. The subsurface images derived from these data compare well with the corresponding images of the three-dimension surface seismic survey cross the well.