Seismic Technologies and their Application to Reservoir Characterization

Steve Adcock
ArkLaTex Oil and Gas

From ocean bottom 4C to microseismic, a range of exploration and production technologies have leaped upon the seismic world over the past decade. 3D seismic is the norm for most reservoir characterization projects, and 4D is on the rise. Use of attributes and inversion are part of best practice workflows, and multi-volume rendering is standard practice. Offset analysis has become common and multicomponent seismic has conquered the hurdles of acquisition and processing. Now it is making its way into interpretation workflows. There is talk of 5D and 6D. Making sense of this information, and managing the technology we employ and the knowledge we gain, is a difficult task. To integrate all of the geoscience data and recommend a drilling location and program we must understand not only the geology being imaged but the capabilities of the seismic technologies at our disposal. This presentation is an overview of the use of seismic technologies on the route to reservoir characterization.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90178©2013 AAPG Geosciences Technology Workshop, Baltimore, Maryland, July 16-17, 2013