OG21 Innovation Seminar TTA2 - Exploration and Reservoir Characterization

Integration of technology for future exploration solutions

Examples from the
'Presseis' and the 'Joint Inversion' projects
Ute Mann

SINTEF Petroleum Research

Exploration challanges at the NCS and elsewhere

29% of the remaining hc resources at the NCS
are located in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea.
25% of the world remaining undiscovered
conventional hc resources are located in the Arctic.
Salt
Basalt
Deep water
HPHT areas

SINTEF Petroleum Research

From NPD Resource Report 2007

Little explored areas

environmental issues
harsh environment
deep water
salt, basalt
decreased data availability
Well explored areas
small fields
environmental issues
plenty of various data available

Increase reserve replacement

SINTEF Petroleum Research

PRESSEIS
A novel approach to pressure prediction combining
interpretation of seismic data with basin modeling techniques

SINTEF Petroleum Research

Standard pore pressure prediction

Interpreted
seismic horizons

Seismic data

Basin Modelling

Seismic

Pressim:
compaction and
diagenesis

Velocity
extraction

Pressim: 3D flow
and pressure
model

Pressure prediction

SINTEF Petroleum Research

Standard pore pressure prediction

Interpreted
seismic horizons

Seismic data

Rock Physics
Rock Physics
models

Seismic

Basin Modelling
Pressim:
compaction and
diagenesis

Initial velocity
model

Pressim: 3D flow
and pressure
model

Velocity
extraction

Pressure prediction

Final 3D pressure prediction

SINTEF Petroleum Research

PRESSEIS input data

Interpreted seismic horizons

Well data:

Log-data: GR, sonic, RHOB, neutron-density

Pore pressure data

Velocity cube

SINTEF Petroleum Research

PRESSEIS calibration
Interpreted horizons, decompaction (SEMI)

Porosity

Smectite/Illite

Calibrate
velocity
model
in
well locations

Heat conductivity

Temperature

Pr
e

ss

ur
e
Sonic Log data
Pressure data

Velocity depth

SINTEF Petroleum Research

PRESSEIS prediction

25-250 m

Smectite/Illite

Heat conductivity

25
-

25
0

Porosity
Match using
pressure as
tuning parameter
cube volume,
seismic frequencies

20 ms

Temperature

seismic
cube
Velocity depth

SINTEF Petroleum Research

PRESSEIS integration

25-250 m

Smectite/Illite

25
-

25
0

Porosity
Optimize
using
velocity and
fluid flow

Heat conductivity

Temperature

20 ms

seismic
cube

Pressim

Velocity depth

Overpressure cube
SINTEF Petroleum Research

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MWD / LWD

Pore pressure estimates before drilling are important

with respect to well planning and drilling safety

Cuttings, Gas, Temp., Flow, Kicks, etc.

Prediction ahead of the bit can be improved by whiledrilling updates

Drilling Exponents
ROP, RPM, WOB,TVD, HD, ECD

MWD, LWD

Seismic while drilling has the potential of improving

the geomodel and pore pressure prediction ahead of bit

PWD

AHEAD OF BIT

Interpretation of SWD data should be integrated into the

real-time pore pressure work flow

Leak-off test

Fracture Pressure
Pore Pressure

PRESSIM

ALONG WELL PATH

PRESSEIS - Integration of Seismic-while drilling

SWD

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Joint inversion
of
seismic, gravity and EM data

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12

Exploration challenge: Sub-salt, sub-basalt

large hydrocarbon potential
but
high exploration and production risks

Worldwide distribution of offshore salt sheets (Farmer et al., 1996)

Seismic imaging
Compromized in sub-basalt and sub-salt cases
Only sparse information from beneath a basalt layer
Complex wave field propagation
Gravity and magnetic data
Non unique
CSEM data
Resolution not sufficient for imaging reservoirs
beneath salt- and basalt bodies (long wavelengths)

SINTEF Petroleum Research

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Example: Sub-salt seismic imaging problems

Salt bodies are a problem for conventional seismic imaging:
High velocity contrast
Complex salt geometries
Rugose salt surfaces

Subsalt Multipathing
Illumination gaps
Shadow zones

Shadow zones

(Clap, 2005)

Consequences :
Base and flanks not well defined
Wrong velocity estimation

Geological misinterpretation
Dry wells
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Integrative tomograpic approach

CSEM

gravity

joint inversion

a priori
information

using structural approach

resulting models are consistent with all data sets
and a priori information

seismic

correlation of parameters uncontaminated

petrophysical parameters
a priori models
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15

Joint inversion of various data sets

Combine different data sets to exploit complementary information
Preserve the benefits of each individual data types and inversions
Structural correlation between models
Cross-gradient method (e.g. Gallardo and Meju, 2004)

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Example: Joint inversion of Seismic, MT and gravity

(Heincke et al., SEG 2006)

Separate inversion results

seismic

gravity

MT

Joint inversion result

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Example: Joint inversion of Seismic, MT and gravity

(Heincke et al., SEG 2006)

High
Highpotential
potentialfor
forimproving
improvingresolution
resolution
ififdata
dataare
arecomplementary
complementary
Joint inversion result

True model

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