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Introduction to Seismic Interpretation

Copyright: Shell Exploration & Production Ltd.

By:

Hosny Diab
Explorationist Seismic Interpreter / Onshore Exploration Team

Shell Egypt N. V.

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How oil trapped & Technology used video

Seismic Acquisition operations

Seismic acquisition offshore Seismic acquisition onshore

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Ambient and Cultural Noise Recording Instruments

Ground Receiver Coupling Receiver Frequency Response Array Effects Shot Hole Upcoming Wavelet Free Surface Ghost? Source Effects Low Velocity Layer

Refractions Scatterers

Downgoing Wavelet

Spherical Spreading Interface Losses

Refractions Short Period Multiples Long Period Multiples

Q-Factor

Reflection Coefficient

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3D seismic Video

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What can be seen on seismic data?

Zoeppritz equations simplify to:
Z2 - Z1 RC = Z + Z 1 2
for (near) vertical incidence RC: Acoustic impedance contrast

between 2 different materials

Acoustic Impedance Z:
Z=V
where: is density V is velocity

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Convolutional Model for Synthetic Seismic Trace

Rock Acoustic Reflectivity Source Reflector Synthetic column Impedance wavelet responses seismogram
from sonic & density logs

Minimum phase

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3D seismic cube configuration Video

Seismic section display

Variable Density Variable Wiggle Different Seismic Displays & Color Schemes

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Seismic-to-Well Tie
Process of correlating the seismic signal close to a wellbore to well information (synthetic seismogram, lithology log, deep-reading resistivity log, tops)
To identify seismic reflections for horizon interpretation; in calibration for quantitative

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synthetic

deep-reading resistivity

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Seismic terms

Wavelet: a seismic pulse usually consisting of only a few cycles which represents the reflection shape from a single positive reflector at normal incidence Event: general feature in seismic data
Explicit events are features depicted by amplitude extrema (trough peak) Implicit events are features depicted by terminations of explicit events (faults, unconformities)

Trace: a vertical record of seismic amplitudes at a given shot point or 3D grid coordinate (time or depth), Fault shadow: zone of reduced imaging quality in the footwall

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Seismic terms (Cont.)

Grid: a 2-dimensional array to store horizon, attribute and fault data with a regular x/y sampling Horizon Slice: a horizontal display of seismic amplitude data, extracted at a constant distance from a seismic horizon, powerful for viewing stratigraphic information (Coherence data) Attribute: a measurement executed on seismic data, with varying base geometries
Trace attribute: along a trace, e.g. Phase
Horizon attribute: along a horizon, e.g. Amplitude Window attribute: between horizons or within a fixed gate, e.g. RMS energy

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Seismic terms (Cont.)

Structural (Slip) Vector / Volume dip & azimuth:

A volume attribute that represents lateral change of phase, e.g. As caused by tectonic deformation of subsurface strata; commonly used for highlighting of faults and flexures in timeslices and horizon slices.

Inversion: a method of restoring broad-band acoustic impedance signal of the subsurface from the ordinary band-limited reflectivity signal of seismic data. Techniques used:
Sparse-spike Inversion: deconvolution / whitening plus adding low frequencies from well data Model-based Inversion: both low and high frequencies are added from interpreted borehole measurements, extrapolating away from boreholes along horizons

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Seismic terms (Cont.)

Flattening: datuming of vertical and horizontal seismic displays parallel to a seismic horizon .
A flattened timslice is also called horizon slice. Useful for interpretation of stratigraphic geometries

Mis-tie: inconsistency between 2 interpretation of the same features on different seismic displays, e.g. Crossing 2D lines or inlines-crossline displays of 3D seismic. Also in seismic-to-well tie. Jump correlation: identification of a seismic event on either side of a fault for regional horizon interpretation.

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Guidelines for 3D seismic interpretation Faults interpretation

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Guidelines for the Interpretation of Faults

Interpret all visible faults - in order to maximise the understanding of deformational history and the controls on trapping and flow The definition of appropriate selection criteria for faults to be interpreted as 3D planes is essential to be used
along the entire Subsurface Interpretation workflow (structural and reservoir model building, upscaling, reservoir simulation).

Sequencing faults for interpretation should consider structural setting and kinematics. As a minimum, all faults that directly affect volumetrics must be fully interpreted, i.e. those faults that are (potentially) sealing and occur in (potential) trap geometries. Generally these faults are also

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Common orientations and shapes of faults

Most hydrocarbon accumulations occur in
Structural traps involving extensional to moderately transpressional deformation,
Their faults tend to be rather steep (ranging from about 60 with normal displacement for extensional faults through nearly vertical strike-slip faults to reverse faults of about 60 dip in mildly transpressional regimes).

Fault shape is controlled by the magnitude of differential stress between the horizontal stress axes,
Bends and kinks can occur if the stress field is laterally variable

All faults are either straight or at least have constant curvature in

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Choosing the most suitable digitisation direction Fortunately many 3D surveys are oriented such that the seismic grid is aligned with the predominant dip direction (azimuth) in the subsurface, and are thereby also aligned with most faults,
it will be sufficient to generate two sets of arbitrary lines, each at 45 with the seismic grid

It is important that the corner coordinates of used arbitrary lines are stored, as otherwise the interpretation on such lines cannot be revisited or corrected.

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Interpretation strategy

The seismic evidence for faults is

implicit (reflection terminations), ambiguous (not all reflection terminations are caused by faults) incomplete (intervals without reflective interfaces also lack evidence for faults). may have many different geometries including (self-)branching,

Good interpretation practice means taking into account

kinematic considerations, The specific geophysical response and rock competence of each interval when making choices with ambiguous evidence.

Generation of fault planes by linear interpolation or triangulation

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Fault (discontinuity) highlighting volume in support of structural interpretation:

Coherence (lateral amplitude change)
(vertical displacement > 0.25 wave length)

Structural Vector (lateral phase chang Small scale faults

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Where and how to pick

Pick preferably at the hanging-wall terminations (above the fault plane) as the seismic image below the fault plane is often of poorer quality (fault shadow) and does not provide a good contrast between continuous unfaulted reflections and clear terminations towards a fault plane.

If fault plane reflections are present but do not coincide with the hangingwall termination, better ignore them because, as very steep features, they are much more sensitive to inaccuracies in migration velocities.
Interpret fault segments consistently from upper to lower tip. Split-the-distance method. In this workflow one would start interpretation with a very large increment that can be divided by 2 for a number of times: ideally the power-2 system 1-2-4-8-16-32-64, but the system 5-10-20-4080 is often easier to manage. Fault junctions and amalgamated faults: shape complexity increases

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Nigeria Data raw seismic

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Nigeria Data with Horizon & Fault Interpretation

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Guidelines for 3D seismic interpretation Horizon & unconformity interpretation

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Guidelines for 3D horizon interpretation

Horizon interpretation should be executed after initial fault interpretation The minimum set of horizons:
all unconformities and sequence boundaries major lap surface and maximum flooding surfaces

Other levels may also be needed: time to depth conversion, structural modelling & kitchen/maturity modelling Start with shallow horizons on obvious events and to interpret stepby-step from top to bottom, as structural complexity increases and imaging breaks down. Correlate a particular horizon on a coarse grid of lines away from

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Guidelines for 3D horizon interpretation

Ensure that there is no misties of horizons and faults It is then safer not to interpret closer to a fault plane than 1-3 traces. Jump correlations across faults:
Get an idea about the throw distribution along the interface between two blocks by tentative horizon interpretation Work top down, starting from levels with confident correlation across the fault.

Base your choice on sequence correlation rather than event correlation

Take discrete sedimentary features such as unconformities, incised

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Unconformity: as significant breaks in vertical velocity trends. Its interpretation depends on the recognition of characteristic reflection geometries rather than on amplitude information

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Guidelines for 3D seismic interpretation Exercises

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