--> Abstract: Volume Interpretation from Regional to Prospect Scale: on the Desktop; #90063 (2007)

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Volume Interpretation from Regional to Prospect Scale: on the Desktop!

 

Weatherill, Philip M.1, Mark Stockwell2, Howard Chan2, Les Ruthven2, Paul Xu2, Rick Palmer2, Charlie Huang2, Tom Holley2 (1) Shell International E&P, Houston, TX (2) Shell International E&P,

 

We describe why interpreters should be making more use of volume interpretation and vizualization now, enablers which facilitate deployment of this technology on the desktop, and a case history of applying these techniques within Shell.

Several trends have converged to yield a powerful tool for the interpretation of large seismic data sets in 3D: 1) Significantly improved graphics performance of recent workstations, 2) Multi-gigabyte memory is available at reasonable cost, 3) Operating systems capable of addressing large memory volumes, 4) High performance I/O capabilities, including new formats, streamline input of data from disk, 5) Cost of disk storage is now negligible in the price of an interpretation workstation, 6) New and improved applications enable realistic interpretation workflows from regional to the prospect scale.

 

Because of these improvements we have reached a tipping point with volume interpretation. Unfortunately, many interpreters, overburdened with an ever-increasing workload, are likely unaware at just how much the field has changed.

 

Deepwater offshore Brazil is an active play for Shell. We recently implemented two volume interpretation and visualization projects over very large areas (10-20,000 sq km), on high-end desktop workstations, to better integrate all data and knowledge with the aim of deriving further exploration insights and reducing interpretation cycle-time.

This initiative has been successful. Demonstrated benefits include visualization of entire petroleum systems and faster regional mapping. All interpreters interrogating complex 3D problems who wish to extract maximum insights from their datasets in short timeframes will need to embrace the new volume interpretation and visualization technologies.

 

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California