Abstract
Time-lapse (TL) seismic or 4D seismic has great potential in monitoring and interpreting time-varying variations in reservoir fluid properties during hydrocarbon production. The TL surveys interpret dynamic changes in reservoir parameters by detecting differences in seismic responses from different vintages, which are obtained by repeated seismic surveys over the same area. For a proper and more precise quantitative interpretation of the TL seismic responses, TL seismic processing enhances repeatability of the TL-data sets, and thus reduces artificial differences that come from unavoidable differences in repeated-seismic-survey environments. This study aims to bring an insight to the state of the art in both TL seismic data processing and interpretation by reviewing previously-published researches. TL data processing is a sequential process conducting 4D binning and simultaneous 4D pre-stack processing; 4D binning improves spatial repeatability while “simultaneous 4D pre-stack processing” derives common processing operators employing cross-equalization (XEQ) as a core technique. TL seismic interpretation is categorized by the characteristics of data being interpreted into two strategies: interpretation of data sets from all TL vintages and interpretation of differences in seismic data between vintages.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, R.N., Boulanger, A., He, W., Xu, L., Flemings, P.B., Burkhart, T.D., and Hoover, A.R., 1997, 4D Time-Lapse Seismic Monitoring in the South Timbalier 295 Field, Gulf of Mexico. 67th Annual Meeing of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), Dallas, Nov. 2–7, p. 868–871.
Berryman, J.G., Berge, P.A., and Bonner, B.P., 2000, Transformation of seismic velocity data to extract porosity and saturation values for rocks. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107, 3018–3027.
Brown, L.T., 2002, Integration of rock physics and reservoir simulation for the interpretation of time lapse seismic data at Weyburn Field, Saskatchewan. M.S. thesis, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, p. 229.
Buland, A. and El Ouair, Y., 2006, Bayesian time-lapse inversion. Geophysics, 71, R43–R48.
Buland, A. and Omre, H., 2003a, Bayesian linearized AVO inversion. Geophysics, 68, 185–198.
Buland, A. and Omre, H., 2003b, Bayesian wavelet estimation from seismic and well data. Geophysics, 68, 2000–2009.
Buland, A. and Omre, H., 2003c, Joint AVO inversion, wavelet estimation and noise-level estimation using a spatially coupled hierarchical Bayesian model. Geophysical Prospecting, 51, 531–550.
Bunch, A.W.H. and White, R.E., 1985, Cross-equalisation of seismic traces. Geoexploration, 23, 239–256.
Chadwick, A., Williams, G., Delepine, N., Clochard, V., Labat, K., Sturton, S., Buddensiek, M.-L., Dillen, M., Nickel, M., Lima, A.L., Arts, R., Neele, F., and Rossi, G., 2010, Quantitative analysis of time-lapse seismic monitoring data at the Sleipner CO2 storage operation. The Leading Edge, 29, 170–177.
Clifford, P.J., Trythall, R., Parr, R.S., Moulds, T.P., Cook, T., Allan, P.M., and Sutcliffe, P., 2003, Integration of 4D Seismic Data into the Management of Oil Reservoirs with Horizontal Wells between Fluid Contacts. Proceedings of SPE Offshore Europe Oil & Gas Exhibition & Conference, Aberdeen, Sep. 2–5, SPE 83956. doi: 10.2118/83956-MS
Connolly, P., 1999, Elastic impedance. The Leading Edge, 18, 438–452.
Cosban, T., Helgesen, J., and Cook, D., 2002, Beyond AVO: Examples of Elastic Impedance Inversion. Proceedings of Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, May 6–9, OTC 14147, p. 1248–1253.
Coulon, J.-P., Lafet, Y., Deschizeaux, B., Doyen, P.M., and Duboz, P., 2006, Stratigraphic Elastic Inversion for Seismic Lithology Discrimination in a Turbiditic Reservoir. 76th Annual Meeting of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), New Orleans, Oct. 1–6, p. 2092–2096.
Domenico, S., 1984, Rock lithology and porosity determination from shear and compressional wave velocity. Geophysics, 49, 1188–1195.
Dong, Y. and Oliver, D.S., 2003, Quantitative Use of 4D Seismic Data for Reservoir Description. Proceedings of SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Denver, Oct. 5–8, SPE–84571. doi: 10.2118/84571-PA
Eastwood, J., Johnston, D.H., Shyeh, J., Huang, X., Craft, K., Vauthrin, R., and Workman, R., 1999, Time-Lapse Seismic Processing and Analysis: Gulf of Mexico Example, Lena Field. Proceedings of Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, May 3, OTC–10743. doi: 10.4043/10743-MS.
Elde, R.M., Haaland, A.N., Ro, H.E., Ystad, B., and Zachariassen, E., 2000, Troll West- Reservoir Monitoring by 4D Seismic. Proceedings of SPE European Petroleum Conference, Paris, Oct. 14–15, SPE–65154. doi: 10.2118/65154-MS
He, W., Guerin, G., Anderson, R.N., and Mello, U.T., 1998, Time- Dependent Reservoir Characterization of the LF sand in the South Eugene Island 330 Field, Gulf of Mexico. The Leading Edge, 17, 1434–1437.
Helgerud, M.B., Miller, A.C., Johnston, D.H., Udoh, M.S., Jardine, B.G., Harris, C., and Aubuchon, N., 2011, 4D in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The Leading Edge, 30, 1008–1018.
Jenkins, S.D., Waite, M.W., and Bee, M.F., 1997, Time-lapse monitoring of the Duri Steamflood; a Pilot and Case Study. The Leading Edge, 16, 1267–1273.
Johnston, D.H., 1997, A Tutorial on Time Lapse Seismic Reservoir Monitoring. Journal of Petroleum Technology, 49, 473–475.
Johnston, D.H., McKenny, R.S., Verbeek, J., and Almond, J., 1998, Time-Lapse Seismic Analysis of Fulmar Field. The Leading Edge, 17, 1420–1428.
Johnston, D.H., Eastwood J.E., Shyeh J.J., Vauthrin R., Khan M., and Stanley, L.R., 2000, Using Legacy Seismic Data in an Integrated Time-Lapse Study: Lena Field, Gulf of Mexico. The Leading Edge, 19, 294–302.
Kato, A. and Stewart, R.R., 2010, Joint AVO Inversion for Time- Lapse Elastic Reservoir Properties: Hangingstone Heavy Oilfield, Alberta. 80th Annual Meeting of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), Denver, Oct. 17–22, p. 4436–4441.
Kragh, E. and Christie, P., 2002, Seismic Repeatability, Normalized RMS, and Predictability. The Leading Edge, 21, 640–647.
Kumar, A., Bhattacharyya, N., and Mohan, S., 2006, Cross-Equalization for Time-Lapse Study in Balol Field, India. 6th International Conference and Exposition on Petroleum Geophysics, Kolkata, Jan. 9–11, p. 1143–1148.
Lafet, Y., Duboz, P., Deschizeaux, B., Lefeuvre, F., and Hubans, C., 2005, 4-D Stratigraphic Inversion of the Girassol Field — Towards a More Quantitative Approach. 67th Conference and Exhibition of European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (Expanded Abstract), Madrid, June 13–16, C018.
Lafet, Y., Roure, B., Doyen, P.M., Bornard, R., and Buran, H., 2008, Global 4-D Seismic Inversion and Fluid Prediction. 70th Conference and Exhibition of European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (Expanded Abstract), Rome, June 9–12, p. 1–5.
Lafet, Y., Roure, B., Doyen, P.M., Buran, H., and Taylor, R., 2009, Time — Lapse Fluid Monitoring with 4D Global Inversion. PESA News, 100, 48–51.
Landro, M., 2001, Discrimination between Pressure and Fluid Saturation Changes from Time-Lapse Seismic Data. Geophysics, 66, 836–844.
Li, G., Purdue, G., Weber, S., and Couzens, R., 2001, Effective processing of nonrepeatable 4-D seismic data to monitor heavy oil SAGD steam flood at East Senlac, Saskatchewan, Canada. The Leading Edge, 20, 54–63.
Lumley, D., Adams, D.C., Meadows, M., Cole, S., and Wright, R., 2003, 4D seismic data processing issues and examples. 73rd Annual Meeing of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), Dallas, Oct. 26–31, p. 1394–1397.
Lumley, D.E., 1995, 4D seismic monitoring of an active steamflood. 65th Annual Meeing of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), Houston, Oct. 8–13, p. 203–206.
Lumley, D.E., 2001, Time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring. Geophysics, 66, 50–53.
Lumley, D.E., Behrens, R.A., and Wang, Z., 1997, Assessing the technical risk of a 4-D seismic project. The Leading Edge, 16, 1287–1291.
Lumley, D.E., Nunns, A.G., Delorme, G., Adeogba, A.A., and Bee, M.F., 2000, Meren Field, Nigeria: A 4D Seismic Case Study. Proceedings of Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, May 1, OTC–12098. doi: 10.4043/12098-MS
Maver, K.G. and Rasmussen, K.B., 2004, Simultaneous AVO Inversion for Accurate Prediction of Rock Properties. Proceedings of Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, May 3, OTC-16925. doi: 10.4043/16925-MS
Naeini, E.Z., Hoeber, H., King, B., Rumyantsev, D., and Büker, F., 2009, Simultaneous Multi-vintage 4D Binning. 71st Conference and Exhibition of European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (Expanded Abstract), Amsterdam, June 8–11, p. 2742–2746.
Ouair, Y.E. and Stronen, L.K., 2006, Value creation from 4D seismic at the Gullfaks Field: achievements and new challenges. 76th Annual Meeting of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), New Orleans, Oct. 1–6, p. 3193–3197.
Rickett, J.E., Lumley, D.E., and Martin, H., 1997, An amplitude bias correction for 4D seismic cross-equalization. Stanford Exploration Project, 95, 195–204.
Rickett, J. and Lumley, D.E., 1998, A cross-equalization processingflow for off-the-shelf 4D seismic data. 68th Annual Meeting of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), New Orleans, Sep. 13–18, p. 16–19.
Rickett, J.E. and Lumley, D.E., 2001, Cross-equalization data processing for time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring: A case study from the Gulf of Mexico. Geophysics, 66, 1015–1025.
Roos, M.C. D., Oldenziel, T., and Kruijsdijk, C.P.J.W., 2001, Neural Network as an Alternative to Rock Physics Modeling in Time-Lapse Seismic Reservoir Monitoring. Proceedings of Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, April 30, OTC-13162. doi: 10.4043/13162-MS
Ross, C.P., Cunningham, G.B., and Weber, D.P., 1996, Inside the crossequalization black box. The Leading Edge, 15, 1233–1244.
Sarkar, S., Gouveia, W., and Johnston, D., 2003, On the inversion of time-lapse seismic data. Proceedings of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), Dallas, Oct. 26–31, p. 1489–1492.
Shyeh, J.J., Johnston, D.H., Eastwood, J.E., Khan, M., and Stanley, L.R., 1999, Interpretation and Modeling of Time-Lapse Seismic Data: Lena Field, Gulf of Mexico. Proceedings of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), Houston, Oct. 3–6, SPE–56731.
Silverman, B.W., 1986, Density Estimation for Statistics and Data Analysis. Biometrical Journal, 30, 876–877.
Sonneland, L., Hafslund Veire, H., Raymond, B., Signer, C., Pedersen, L., Ryan, S., and Sayers, C., 1997, Seismic reservoir monitoring on Gullfaks. The Leading Edge, 16, 1247–1252.
Tura, A. and Lumley, D.E., 2000, Estimating Pressure and Saturation Changes from Time-Lapse AVO Data. Proceedings of Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, May 1, OTC–12130.
Vedanti, N., Pathak A., Srivastava, R.P., and Dimri, V.P., 2009, Time Lapse (4D) Seismic: Some Case Studies. Earth Science India, 2, 230–248.
Walls, J.D., Dvorkin, J., and Smith, B.A., 1998, Modeling seismic velocity in Ekofisk Chalk. Proceedings of Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstracts), New Orleans, Sep. 13–18, p. 1016–1019.
Zou, Y., Bentley, L.R., and Lines, L.R., 2004, Integration of reservoir simulation with time-lapse seismic modeling. Proceedings of National Convention 2004 of Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (Expanded Abstract), Calgary, May 10–13, p. 1–4.
Zou, Y., Bentley, L.R., Lines, L.R., and Coombe, D., 2006, Integration of seismic methods with reservoir simulation, Pikes Peak heavy-oil field, Saskatchewan. The Leading Edge, 25, 764–781.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nguyen, P.K.T., Nam, M.J. & Park, C. A review on time-lapse seismic data processing and interpretation. Geosci J 19, 375–392 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-014-0054-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12303-014-0054-2