Paper submitted to EAGE Annual 2026
Summary
Many successful Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) studies rely on long-offset, low-frequency data acquired with full-azimuth geometries, which are widely regarded as key requirements for robust inversion results (Roende et al., 2020). In contrast, relatively few published examples address the application of FWI, particularly Elastic FWI to narrow-azimuth (NAZ) seismic data. This paper demonstrates that, despite the inherent limitations of NAZ acquisition, Elastic Dynamic Matching Full Waveform Inversion (E-DMFWI) can be successfully applied to resolve small-scale volcaniclastic features and complex structural settings. The approach mitigates many of the challenges associated with conventional tomography and interpretation driven velocity model building workflows. A direct comparison between elastic and acoustic FWI highlights the additional uplift provided by elastic physics, with elastic FWI delivering improved resolution while requiring reduced manual intervention and operating in a data-driven framework. The results indicate that NAZ seismic data in Brazilian basins contain exploitable information beyond that recovered by traditional imaging approaches, enabling more cost-effective exploration and development through the application of advanced Elastic FWI technologies.