Scale and uncertainties during well log and seismic stratigraphic correlation: a theoretical study.

Guillaume Caumon and Xinming Wu and Jonathan Edwards. ( 2015 )
in: 35th Gocad Meeting - 2015 RING Meeting, ASGA

Abstract

A recurrent task in the modeling of subsurface stratigraphic formations is to correlate samples having the same geological age. We briefly review ways to automate such correlations on wells and seismic data sets. Depending on the type and quality of the data, various degrees of uncertainty may affect these correlations. Also, the points to correlate lie in depth or seismic two-way time domains and generally reflect different physical quantities at different resolutions. To reduce the uncertainties associated to these tasks, we mathematically define a condition for well-based and seismic-based relative geological times to be consistent. Two data integration methods exploiting seismic chronostratigraphy are considered to meet this condition. First, based on well correlations, we propose to reduce uncertainties about the time/depth model by simultaneous calibration of multiple synthetic and actual seismic traces in the depositional domain. Second, based on existing well-to-seismic calibrations, we propose use the seismic-derived chronostratigraphic interpretation as prior, low-frequency information to reduce uncertainties in well correlations. We suggest that the choice between one or the other method should depend on the quality and reliability of available data.

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BibTeX Reference

@inproceedings{CaumonGM2015,
 abstract = { A recurrent task in the modeling of subsurface stratigraphic formations is to correlate samples having the same geological age. We briefly review ways to automate such correlations on wells and seismic data sets. Depending on the type and quality of the data, various degrees of uncertainty may affect these correlations. Also, the points to correlate lie in depth or seismic two-way time domains and generally reflect different physical quantities at different resolutions. To reduce the uncertainties associated to these tasks, we mathematically define a condition for well-based and seismic-based relative geological times to be consistent. Two data integration methods exploiting seismic chronostratigraphy are considered to meet this condition. First, based on well correlations, we propose to reduce uncertainties about the time/depth model by simultaneous calibration of multiple synthetic and actual seismic traces in the depositional domain. Second, based on existing well-to-seismic calibrations, we propose use the seismic-derived chronostratigraphic interpretation as prior, low-frequency information to reduce uncertainties in well correlations. We suggest that the choice between one or the other method should depend on the quality and reliability of available data. },
 author = { Caumon, Guillaume AND Wu, Xinming AND Edwards, Jonathan },
 booktitle = { 35th Gocad Meeting - 2015 RING Meeting },
 publisher = { ASGA },
 title = { Scale and uncertainties during well log and seismic stratigraphic correlation: a theoretical study. },
 year = { 2015 }
}