Seismic imaging of reservoir flow properties: Resolving waterinflux and reservoir permeability

• Main Authors: Vasco, D.W., Keers, Henk
• Other Authors: USDOE. Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy.Gas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2006
• Subjects: 54; Permeability; Water; Resolution; Water Influx; Norne field
• Online Access: http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc899952/

Methods for geophysical model assessment, in particuale thecomputation of model parameter resolution, indicate the value and thelimitations of time-lapse data in estimating reservoir flow properties. Atrajectory-based method for computing sensitivities provides an effectivemeans to compute model parameter resolutions. We examine the commonsituation in which water encroaches into a resrvoir from below, as due tothe upward movement of an oil-water contact. Using straight-forwardtechniques we find that, by inclusing reflections off the top and bottomof a reservoir tens of meters thick, we can infer reservoir permeabilitybased upon time-lapse data. We find that, for the caseof water influxfrom below, using multiple time-lapse 'snapshots' does not necessarilyimprove the resolution of reservoir permeability. An application totime-lapse data from the Norne field illustrates that we can resolve thepermeability near a producing well using reflections from threeinterfaces associated with the reservoir.