QC procedures for archiving seismic data to the National Hydrocarbons Data Archive (NHDA)

This report describes the QC procedures for the archival of seismic data to the National Hydrocarbons Data Archive (NHDA). The NHDA has been set up with DTI agreement as a means of allowing companies to waive their statutory requirement to hold and maintain all exploration data in perpetuity by donating re-mastered seismic data sets to the NHDA along with a single ‘dowry’ payment to BGS to cover archival costs. The NHDA could then provide third parties these data for the cost of reproduction. Three principle data types are archived; original raw data i.e. field data usually provided on SEGD tapes, final and near-final processed data provided on SEGY tapes and navigation data provided in UKOOA format. Other data in addition are lodged with the NHDA such as acquisition and processing reports. Each data type requires different QC processes. However, the overall aims are the same for each i.e. to ensure that all the data that was agreed to be archived has been received in full and is fully internally consistent. In addition to describing the QC procedures, this manual lists the various UNIX scripts that have been created to perform the QC tasks to act as a permanent record and reference, so that they can be recreated easily in the event of disc malfunction.