<p>With the continued expansion of oil and gas exploration, both in the eastern and western regions, the quality of seismic acquisition has become a key factor in oil and gas exploration in complex areas. However, conventional seismic acquisition methods cannot efficiently avoid challenging acquisition locations and produce high-quality seismic data. In this regard, based on the curvelet transform, this paper proposes an irregular seismic acquisition method, which utilizes the high-precision characteristics of the curvelet transform and simulated annealing algorithm to establish a method for the evaluation of the coherence of irregular sampling matrices and design of observation systems. The method was verified using forward simulation and actual acquisition data. The results suggest the superior quality of seismic data gathered in complicated areas through this method over those acquired using traditional methods, which can provide technical guidance for the design of observation systems in complex areas.</p>