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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
Houston Geological Society Bulletin
Abstract
Abstract: Reservoir-Scale Seismic Stratigraphy:
A Call to Integration
ConocoPhillips
The introduction of seismic-stratigraphic techniques in the
1970s gave sedimentary geologists in the petroleum industry
and academia new tools for predicting lithology and analyzing
the depositional history of sedimentary basins. Seismic
stratigraphy originally focused on large-scale exploration
problems and was based on analyses of 2-D seismic data in
areas that were relatively “data-poor” (i.e., few logs, core, or
production data). Although these conventional seismicstratigraphic
analyses are still used fruitfully, new challenges and
opportunities confront the petroleum industry as it faces the
need to improve recoveries from mature fields. These areas are
commonly data-rich (lots of log, core, and production data), and
covered by relatively small 3-D seismic surveys that do not image
all of the sequences or systems tracts
that include the reservoir rocks. As such,
a new mindset is needed, here termed
reservoir-scale seismic stratigraphy,
to help geoscientists maximize the
stratigraphic information they can
extract from seismic data. Integration of
geological and geophysical
concepts and
data is critical. Techniques employed by
geophysicists for at least the past decade
(inversion, seismic attribute studies,
seismic facies analysis, etc.) need to become routine parts of
the sedimentary geologist’s toolkit, whereas seismic interpreters
need to study outcrops, cores, and modern analogs in order to
anticipate the presence of depositional features that cannot be
resolved seismically. This cross-disciplinary interaction will
undoubtedly spawn new breakthroughs in sedimentary geology,
reflection seismology, petroleum geology, and related fields
(e.g., hydrogeology). These are exciting times.