As seen in
the September
2006 issue of
Simulator workflows come of age
Data integration results in easier
modeling.
AUTHOR
Gordy G. Shanor, Schlumberger-
WesternGeco
U
sing seismic reservoir charac-
terization outputs as inputs to
high-resolution reservoir mod-
els is not a new or particularly difficult
concept to understand. However, the
application of this workflow is, unfor-
tunately, underutilized in the industry
by both exploration and development
Figure 1. Getting a feeling for scale, resolution and heterogeneity. (All images courtesy of WesternGeco)
Figure 2. High spatial resolution from seismic data (left) and high vertical resolution from imagery and log data (right).
www.eandpnet.com
Reservoir
asset teams. Part of the reason for this
is the age-old problem of discipline
segregation and data ownership as well
as a distinct tendency to “maintain the
status quo” and resistance to modify-
ing existing reservoir and simulation
models. Perhaps equally dominant is
a “fear of trying” due to the apparent
difficulty and complexity of such work-
flows.
The following sections briefly high-
light the critical advantages of apply-
ing these workflows and attempt to
dispel some of the fear and mystery
associated with them.
Optimization
Scales of changes
All integrated reservoir characteriza-
tion projects must address and incor-
porate scale changes spanning several
orders of magnitude. In most cases
seismic data and seismic reservoir
characterization cannot alone resolve
the vertical thickness or spatial hetero-
geneity of the target reservoir units
which are the focus of detailed petro-
physical analysis and heterogeneity
reservoir modeling (Figure 1).
Modern seismic data acquisition and
processing (especially 3-D) provides
excellent spatial (lateral) coverage of
E&P | September 2006
Reservoir
Optimization
Figure 3. Seismic inversion: integrating seismic data with well markers and logs.
Figure 4. Time-to-depth conversion and building high-resolution modeling grid.
the reservoir, with spacing often as
dense as 41 ft (12.5 m). This high spa-
tial resolution enables detailed struc-
tural interpretation and framework
model-building.
Image logs, well log data and their
derived interpretations provide excel-
lent vertical resolution and insight
into the distribution of the log-derived
petrophysical properties at the well
locations (Figure 2).
Rock properties from seismic
Seismic amplitude data, while provid-
ing excellent coverage for layer-based
structural and large-scale sequence
stratigraphic interpretation, lacks obvi-
ous comparison or calibration to meas-
ured log data and reservoir properties.
Seismic inversion bridges this gap by
calibrating the log data markers (in
depth) to the seismic data through the
wavelet estimation process, then invert-
ing the seismic volume to rock prop-
erty volumes (Figure 3).
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Depending on the seismic and log
data quality and the geological
sequences under investigation, more
sophisticated simultaneous global
inversion techniques can be applied
to the amplitude versus offset (AVO)
characteristics of the seismic data,
taking advantage of the near-, mid-
and far-offset stacks to characterize
the ratio of the compressional to shear
velocities (Vp/Vs) components in the
data. AVO inversions generate rock
property volumes tied to measured
or modeled log responses and can
provide Vp/Vs, impedance, Poisson’s
ratio and density volumes which are
related to both lithology and fluid
content and distribution throughout
the 3-D cube.
Higher resolution models
Seismic inversions provide high-quality
rock property volumes at seismic scale.
But what about characterizing the
reservoir scale and heterogeneity?
High vertical resolution reservoir
modeling is often performed based
solely on mapping and well log inter-
pretations without direct integration
with seismic reservoir characterization
results, leading to discipline-independ-
ent 3-D models generated through
interpolation or geostatistical modeling.
Combining WesternGeco’s new ISIS
inversion technologies with the Petrel
data analysis tools and stochastic mod-
eling capabilities enables workflows to
build consistent 3-D reservoir models
which capture both the spatial distri-
butions of rock properties from seis-
mic inversion and the high-resolution
heterogeneity of targeted reservoir
intervals beyond seismic resolution
(Figure 4).
With the reservoir model populated
by inversion results such as acoustic
impedance, density or Poisson’s ratio,
detailed heterogeneity modeling of
reservoir properties such as porosity
can be generated using stochastic sim-
ulation techniques. Sequential
Gaussian stochastic simulation pro-
vides an exceptional way to incorpo-
rate the different scales of resolution
between the seismic and the reservoir
model by allowing “soft” conditioning
to the seismic and “hard” conditioning
to the well log data. Performing multi-
ple equiprobable modeling then pro-
vides high-resolution property models
suitable for further data analysis, real-
ization ranking and upscaling to flow
simulation grids.
From seismic to simulator
High-resolution stochastic modeling
conditioned to seismic inversion
results and well data is a coherent and
data-consistent workflow that captures
reservoir characterization across multi-
scaled and multidimensional data. The
workflow provides a means to model
heterogeneity at high resolution while
benefiting from the 3-D coverage of
seismic reservoir characterization
results. It integrates geoscientists
across disciplines and data ownership
and provides reservoir engineering
with flow simulation models that
incorporate as much data as
possible.