Seismic geophysics represents a fundamental tool for both the exploration and development of hydrocarbon resources. This course provides the fundamentals and the practical application of seismic principles, including aspects of acquisition, processing, and interpretation. Primary emphasis is toward interpretation aspects and workflow. Key topics include survey design for maximizing interpretational goals such as multicomponent and azimuthal surveys, processing techniques including prestack versus poststack migration, visualization and presentation techniques, general 2D/3D/4D interpretational techniques and principles including various pitfalls of seismic interpretation, integration of seismic data and other datasets (especially well data), and attribute and AVO/AVA analyses.
Upon successful completion of this course, the delegates will be able to:
Introduction to Seismic Geophysics: the need for seismic interpretation and reservoir analysis, with worldwide case examples illustrating their importance to hydrocarbon production and development.
Seismic Reflection Surveying – general principals of reflection surveying from acquisition, processing, and interpretation including 2D versus 3D versus time-lapse (4D), survey design and optimization, and other principles such as wavelength and resolution, primary versus multicomponent surveys, p-wave versus s-wave surveys (and multicomponet data), amplitude preservation, migration, binning, zero-phase versus phased data (and recognition of), wavelet extraction, inverse modeling, etc.
Seismic Interpretation Principles – discussion and application of various interpretation techniques and principles as applied to exploration and reservoir characterization, including concepts of structural interpretation (lines/cross-lines, arbitration [user-defined] lines, time slices, visualization techniques, user-tracking versus auto-tracking, etc.), and stratigraphic interpretation (sequence stratigraphy, appearance of key stratigraphic features, texture mapping, etc.). A detailed discussion of display concepts and interpretation procedures/options will be discussed.
Seismic Attribute Analysis – the fundamental concepts of seismic attributes, including amplitude, phase, and frequency derived attributes, as well as AVA (amplitude versus angle); additional emphasis on specific attributes as related to structure (e.g., coherence, dip displays, derivative, etc.), stratigraphy (horizon slices and windows, amplitude and other attribute extractions, etc.), and reservoir (see below); and shear-wave anisotropy.
Reservoir Identification and Evaluation – fundamental concepts of reservoir characterization, including attribute analysis and hydrocarbon indicators, fluid analysis, defining reservoir limits, porosity evaluation, net pay, etc.
Seismic Petrophysics and Data Integration – concepts including extraction of petrophysical information from seismic data, and the integration of well log (including well bore geophysics) and geological analyses to develop coherent reservoir models.