Crosswell seismic reflection/diffraction tomography: A reservoir characterization application
- Tubitak, Kocaeli (Turkey). Dept. of Earth Sciences
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (United States). Earth Resources Lab.
- Elf-UK Geoscience Research Center, London (United Kingdom)
A crosswell seismic experiment at the San Emidio oil field in Bakersfield, California, is carried out to evaluate crosswell reflection/diffraction tomography and image the interwell region to locate a possible pinchout zone. In this experiment, the two wells used are 2,500 ft (762 m) apart, and the zone to be imaged is 11,000 ft (3,350 m) to 13,000 ft (3,960 m) deep. With the considered distances, this experiment forms the first large scale reservoir characterization application of crosswell reflection/diffraction tomography. A subset of the intended data, formed of two common receiver gathers and one common shot gather, was collected at the San Emidio oil field. The cross-well data display a wide variety of wave modes including tube waves, singly and multiply reflected/diffracted waves, and refracted waves. The data are processed using frequency filters, median filters, and spatial muting filters to enhance the reflected/diffracted energy. With the encouraging results obtained from synthetic data, the ERBMI method, with the smooth background velocity model is used next to image the processed field data. Images obtained from the crosswell data show a good match with the reflected field in the zero-offset VSPs and with migrated surface seismic data. From the interpretation of these images, the potential of this crosswell seismic method for answering questions regarding reservoir continuity and existence of pinchout zones can be seen.
- OSTI ID:
- 7112757
- Journal Information:
- Geophysics; (United States), Journal Name: Geophysics; (United States) Vol. 59:3; ISSN GPYSA7; ISSN 0016-8033
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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