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Fault
Slicing: Study of Faults from Production Perspective
Alistair R. Brown, G. Serpell Edwards, Robert E. Howard
The manner in which a fault intersects a hydrocarbon reservoir affects
production characteristics and thus must be understood in great detail. A 3-D
seismic data volume can be sliced interactively to yield seismic sections along
and parallel to a fault plane. These fault slices can then be used for the study
of faults in several ways. Tracking of correlative horizons on fault slices
provides a map of fault throw and permits a study of the throw as a function of
time (or depth) and horizontal position. Because a fault slice remains within
one major fault block, the study of growth relationships within that block is
greatly facilitated. Splinter faults, also significant to an understanding of
production characteristics, can be studied effectively on fault slices because
of he uniform proximity of these sections to the parent fault. Correlation of
one fault slice in the upthrown block with one in the downthrown block by color
mixing is used to study formation juxtaposition and hence the sealing and
leaking characteristics of the fault
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AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91038©1987 AAPG Annual Convention, Los Angeles, California, June 7-10, 1987.