Leveraging SKUA structural framework with Parametric Surface for Fault Seal Analysis

Zoya Romanenko and Claude Cavelius and D. A. Medwedeff. ( 2016 )
in: 2016 RING Meeting, ASGA

Abstract

Evaluating rock material connectivity across faults is a challenge faced at the different stages of Oil & Gas assets lifecycle, as for example, in exploration when assessing the sealing capacities of fault traps and evaluating risks of compartment leakage, or in appraisal and development when estimating juxtaposition zones across reservoirs, or in production when calculating fault transmissibility for flow prediction. Typically, a faulted horizon framework is built from well data and seismic interpretation, then turned into a geocellular model, and sometimes upscaled for better flow simulation performance. During the geocellular model construction process, for the sake of making a model suitable for flow simulation, it is very common to simplify fault geometry or even exclude some faults as well as defining cell resolution to be coarser than the seismic data, thus reducing the details near the faults or at fault intersections. Accurately representing the fault framework is critical to get a chance to properly understand what is happening in the fault zones. In this paper, we propose a geocellular model-free method to overcome the upscaling problems and get a rock material connectivity analysis more faithful to the modeled interpretation. Using volume-based technique such as SKUA® allows us to obtain a full fault framework without compromising its representation. From these faults, we create parametric surfaces that can store seismic or other data without upscaling, at the same resolution as the seismic. Leveraging the deposition time information associated to the SKUA® model, seismic data can be fetched away from the faults (e.g. outside fault shadow zone) then mapped back onto them by following the stratigraphy. We will show how the parametric surfaces intrinsic capabilities of performing mathematical operations can be used in a fault seal analysis context for making juxtaposition maps, Allan diagrams and SGR calculations.

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BibTeX Reference

@inproceedings{RUNKJRM41,
 abstract = { Evaluating rock material connectivity across faults is a challenge faced at the different stages of Oil
& Gas assets lifecycle, as for example, in exploration when assessing the sealing capacities of fault traps
and evaluating risks of compartment leakage, or in appraisal and development when estimating
juxtaposition zones across reservoirs, or in production when calculating fault transmissibility for flow
prediction.
Typically, a faulted horizon framework is built from well data and seismic interpretation, then turned
into a geocellular model, and sometimes upscaled for better flow simulation performance. During the
geocellular model construction process, for the sake of making a model suitable for flow simulation, it is
very common to simplify fault geometry or even exclude some faults as well as defining cell resolution to
be coarser than the seismic data, thus reducing the details near the faults or at fault intersections.
Accurately representing the fault framework is critical to get a chance to properly understand what is
happening in the fault zones.
In this paper, we propose a geocellular model-free method to overcome the upscaling problems and
get a rock material connectivity analysis more faithful to the modeled interpretation. Using volume-based
technique such as SKUA® allows us to obtain a full fault framework without compromising its
representation. From these faults, we create parametric surfaces that can store seismic or other data
without upscaling, at the same resolution as the seismic. Leveraging the deposition time information
associated to the SKUA® model, seismic data can be fetched away from the faults (e.g. outside fault
shadow zone) then mapped back onto them by following the stratigraphy. We will show how the
parametric surfaces intrinsic capabilities of performing mathematical operations can be used in a fault
seal analysis context for making juxtaposition maps, Allan diagrams and SGR calculations. },
 author = { Romanenko, Zoya AND Cavelius, Claude AND Medwedeff, D. A. },
 booktitle = { 2016 RING Meeting },
 publisher = { ASGA },
 title = { Leveraging SKUA structural framework with Parametric Surface for Fault Seal Analysis },
 year = { 2016 }
}