Technology Focus: Seismic (February 2026)

_ Seismic technology continues to progress at a remarkable pace, driven by advances in artificial intelligence (AI), imaging, interpretation, monitoring, and the expansion of seismic applications across the wider energy sector. One clear trend is the industry’s move toward high-frequency and ultrahigh-resolution seismic, which has pushed the limits of what can be resolved in the subsurface. Recent studies (papers IPTC 24791 and IPTC 25050) show how frequency-extension methods and updated wave-equation approaches can generate gathers approaching the Nyquist frequency. These improvements reveal thin beds, minor fault offsets, channel geometries, and other small-scale features that would not have been captured with conventional bandwidths. Similar improvements are being achieved in complex environments, where recent advances in imaging and velocity-model building are helping overcome challenges related to poor signal quality, complex overburden, and irregular acquisition geometries. The interpretation landscape is undergoing significant change. Automated methods for faults, horizons, geobodies, and property prediction (paper SPE 223476) are helping interpreters work more efficiently across increasingly large seismic data sets. A particularly important development is the emergence of seismic foundation models, large, pretrained models that capture broad seismic patterns and can be adapted to a variety of interpretation tasks. PRISM (paper SPE 227546) is one of the first large-scale demonstrations of this approach, showing how a single generalized model can support fault detection, stratigraphic mapping, and seismic conditioning. The effect of these models grows further when they are linked with large language models, creating multimodal tools capable of producing interpretation summaries, assisting with report drafting, and answering geological questions directly from the seismic volume. This integration offers a more-interactive way of working, where seismic understanding and natural-language reasoning operate side by side. Reservoir characterization remains a major focus, but the emphasis is shifting. Instead of relying solely on classical inversion and attribute interpretation, practitioners are taking advantage of higher-resolution seismic and improved inversion workflows supported by rock-physics constraints (papers SPE 222511 and IPTC 24731). In heavy-oil settings, frequency-extended seismic has enabled better recognition of thin interlayers and internal facies transitions that are critical for development planning (paper IPTC 24986). At the same time, 4D seismic is demonstrating renewed value as a dynamic monitoring tool. Work from the Campos and Santos Basins (papers OTC 35717 and OTC 36162) highlights how improved repeatability and hybrid acquisition methods are supporting production surveillance across both presalt and post-salt settings. These same methods are attracting growing interest for monitoring carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS), where time-lapse seismic offers a physics-based means of tracking CO2 migration and verifying containment.