Reservoir-Scale Seismic Stratigraphy: A Call to Integration

Bruce Hart
ConocoPhillips, Houston, Texas

The introduction of seismic stratigraphic techniques in the 1970s gave sedimentary geologists in the petroleum industry and Academia new tools for predicting lithology and analyzing the depositional history of sedimentary basins. Seismic stratigraphy originally focused on large-scale exploration problems and was based on analyses of 2-D seismic data in areas that were relatively “data poor” (i.e., few logs, core or production data). Although these conventional seismic stratigraphic analyses are still used fruitfully, new challenges and opportunities confront the petroleum industry as it faces the need to improve recovery from mature fields.

These areas are commonly data rich (lots of log, core and production data), and covered by relatively small 3-D seismic surveys that do not image all of the sequences or systems tracts that the reservoir rocks are part of. As such, a new mindset is needed, here termed “reservoir-scale seismic stratigraphy,” to help geoscientists maximize the stratigraphic information they can extract from seismic data. Integration of geologic and geophysical concepts and data is critical.

Techniques employed by geophysicists for at least the past decade (inversion, seismic attribute studies, seismic facies analysis, etc.) need to become routine parts of the sedimentary geologist’s toolkit, whereas seismic interpreters need to study outcrops, core and modern analogs in order to anticipate the presence of depositional features that cannot be resolved seismically. This cross-disciplinary interaction will undoubtedly spawn new breakthroughs in sedimentary geology, reflection seismology, petroleum geology and related fields (e.g., hydrogeology). These are exciting times.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90101 © 2010 AAPG Foundation Distinguished Lecturer Series 2009-2010