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ART 2009 02 GeologicModeling

ART 2009 02 GeologicModeling

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43 views2 pages

ART 2009 02 GeologicModeling

ART 2009 02 GeologicModeling

Uploaded by

anima1982
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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As seen in

the February
2009 issue of

Reservoir Characterization

Geologic modeling for seismic inversion


Impedances inverted from seismic data
help generate attributes for reservoir
property analysis and estimation.
AUTHORS
Joanne Wang, Stan Jayr,
and Duane Dopkin, Paradigm

eismic inversion is routinely


applied to exploration and development assets to generate spatial
models of reservoir (elastic) properties
and to create seismic responses that
correlate to stratigraphy. In the case of
Figure 1. Structural styles used for property modeling. (All images courtesy of Paradigm)
mature fields, seismic inversion procedures can benefit from a wealth of a
Background geologic model
priori data. If this a priori data is conveseismic data in a synchronous and
The background geologic model proniently synthesized in the form of a geo- global manner are referred to as
vides the initial estimate of impedance
logic model, that model can be used to simultaneous inversions.
values and provides constraints for subapply necessary but flexible constraints
The seismic term minimizes the difsequent updates in the internally iterato control the non-uniqueness of seisference between the observed seismic
mic inversion. The flexibility allows
data (angle stacks) and synthetic angle tive inversion procedure. One of these
critical constraints includes the incorpous to selectively place more emphasis
stacks obtained from forward modelration of low-frequency components
on the seismic data or on the model.
ing of the geologic property models
that are missing from the seismic data.
Most importantly, the confidence in
using a linearized approximation to
Consequently, the background geologic
the reservoir property models generthe Zoeppritz equation. The geologic
model is used to control both inversion
ated by the seismic inversion process is
term incorporates a priori impedance
predicated on the confidence in the
and density model(s) with micro-layer non-uniqueness and accuracy.
The background model is often created
structural positioning and property disgeometry descriptions to steer the
from sparse well log data and seismic
tributions of the geologic model. In this inversion operator. Minimization of
interpretation data using geostatistical
regard, a model-driven seismic inversion this component is based on perturbaprocedures. Through geostatistics, well
procedure should be driven by a model- tions to those models.
ing process that properly honors strucThis approach has a number of ben- log information (e.g., P-wave impedance
logs) is interpolated following the structural detail (faults) and a modeling
efits. First, the inversion is performed
ture style within the project area to create
procedure that distributes properties in simultaneously over all input angle
the impedance volumes. There are differits depositional state.
stacks for multiple elastic parameters
such as compressional (P) impedance, ent ways to honor the geologic structure
Seismic inversion
during the geostatistical process. Figure 1
shear (S) impedance, and density.
Modern seismic inversion procedures
shows common structural styles (parallel
Second, it is model-based. A multigive consideration to the dimensional- channel and geologically oriented filto top, parallel to bottom, proportional,
ity (offset or, preferably, angles) of
and horizontal) that can be used to guide
ter is incorporated in the inversion
seismic data and the dimensionality
the geostatistical process.
process that follows the micro-strucAlthough geostatistical methods are
(structure, compressional impedance, ture to better constrain the inversion
both readily available and generally
shear impedance, density) of the georesponse. Consequently, the inversion
easy to use, they are also burdened
logic model. Inversion methods that
results are more accurate than tradiwith restrictions, namely the requireaccommodate the dimensionality of
tional inversion procedures.

www.EPmag.com

February 2009 | E&P | 33

Reservoir Characterization

Figure 2. Seismic inversion results with proper fault handling (left) and simplified
fault handling (right).
ment that distances between grid
nodes are the same throughout the
model in the current space or paleo
space. In the presence of structure,
these assumptions will not be met, and
differences will exist between distances
obtained in the restored and depositional states. This problem is more
severe in faulted reservoirs where
modeling of data in the pre-faulted
state will result in better spatial correlations of data.

Better modeling and inversion


There are two major challenges in
model building. The first challenge is
how to build a water-tight structural
model that represents the current-day
geological structure style. This problem is exacerbated in structurally complex regimes where the geoscientist is
often tasked with generating models
with tens or hundreds of faults within
a short period of time. The process of
structure framework building is to
make sure that the fault network and
fault-horizon intersections are created
correctly and seamlessly. This process
is often time-consuming and laborintensive.
The second challenge is how to represent a 3-D property grid within this
structural framework that restores the
connectivity of properties that existed
in the depositional state. Addressing
both of these challenges will result in
a better background model to drive
the seismic inversion procedure.
These challenges are being addressed

by recent developments in structural


framework and reservoir modeling
technologies. Through automatic fault
network connectivity detection and
stratigraphic sequence modeling, the
structure framework can be built accurately and in a timely manner.
Another breakthrough in reservoir
modeling is geologic grid construction
using paleo-geochronological transformation. This transformation (UVT)
is carried out such that a unique
geochronological time (T) is assigned
to a seismic horizon carrying the two
dimensions (UV) of paleo-space that
define the paleo-geography of each
T plane. Using the paleo-geochronological transform, a grid can be constructed inside the present-day XYZ
space that will have cells split by faults
and offset by fault throws. No cell
deformation will be present, so that
geobodies, reservoir properties, and
other attributes can be correctly modeled in their depositional states.

Figure 3. Inversion result differences from


the two geologic models.
inversion of the simplified geologic
model. The difference between the two
is shown in Figure 3. The blue color indicates no difference, while the red color
indicates a large difference. Green and
yellow represent intermediate differences. The presence and distribution of
the red color (large difference) is largely
associated with the faults.

Conclusions

Seismic inversion is routinely used in


reservoir characterization projects,
particularly in mature fields where
new reservoir compartments need to
be identified or reservoir performance
needs to be improved. We use impedances inverted from seismic data to
generate other attributes for reservoir
property analysis and estimation.
Seismic inversion, by definition, is a
Applications
data bridge or data integrator that
The approach described above is
relies heavily on the quality of the geoappealing for building accurate geologic background model. We prefer a
logic models of impedance data to con- global inversion approach that is perstrain the seismic inversion.
formed simultaneously and globally
Figure 2 shows the results obtained
for all angles and all data and an
from seismic inversion with different
approach that is model-based with
background geologic models. On the left geologically oriented filters. Geologic
is the P-wave impedance data obtained
models that incorporate faults without
from the simultaneous inversion using
cell deformation and without comprothe more accurate background model.
mising project times should be given
On the right is the P-wave impedance
high consideration for all seismic
data obtained from the simultaneous
inversion projects.

Copyright, Hart Energy Publishing, 1616 S. Voss, Ste. 1000, Houston, TX 77057 USA (713)260-6400, Fax (713) 840-8585

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