Single-well salt-flank seismic imaging
Reservoirs located adjacent to near-vertical salt flanks can be difficult to image accurately using surface seismic techniques. Exxon has developed a single-well profiling tool to seismically illuminate the salt flank from a nearby well among other uses. High-resolution images obtained from this data will aid reservoir assessment and placement of up-dip wells. Seismic imaging of a salt flank was analyzed using synthetic data generated from a computer model. The computer model, containing over three hundred layers, was based on a typical Gulf of Mexico geologic salt flank cross-section. The synthetic data were generated using a finite-difference solution of the two-dimensional acoustic wave equation. Prestack depth migration was used to obtain an image because the velocity model contains rapid lateral variations. The sensitivity of the imaging process to errors in the migration velocity model was tested by migrating the data using various velocity models. As expected, the accuracy of the image varies with the accuracy of the velocity model. The borehole seismic industry is excited about the development of single-well imaging technology to image salt flanks from a nearby well. Three-dimensional modeling and imaging techniques will be developed by a consortium group on Single- Well Seismic Imaging of Salt Dome Flanks.
- OSTI ID:
- 542874
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-951013--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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