Model based inversion of seismic response for determining formation properties

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9542508-B2
Application number	US-201113882423-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 28, 2011
Priority date	Oct 29, 2010
Publication date	Jan 10, 2017
Grant date	Jan 10, 2017

Abstract

A method for characterizing a property of a subterranean formation including collecting well log and seismic data, inverting the data, processing for upscaled petrophysical parameters, constructing a flow model that generates saturation, pressure and temperature, constructing seismic velocity relationships from the results of the flow model, and constructing a seismic model. Some embodiments may form a full waveform model or a ray tracing model. Some embodiments may generate a velocity profile and/or waveforms using the profile. Some embodiments may use the parameters to form a reservoir model or to recover hydrocarbons from the formations. Some embodiments build a reservoir model of CO 2 injection or CO 2 presence after injection or for simulating CO 2 presence in a subterranean formation. Some embodiments may also quantify CO 2 properties in the reservoir or predict CO 2 profile evolution over time in the reservoir including spatial distribution. Some embodiments may also predict CO 2 profile evolution over time in a reservoir and risk assessment, estimate storage capacity of the reservoir, or select a storage site. Some additional embodiments may also predict fluid front arrival, fluid front monitoring, fluid movement monitoring, or injectivity. Some additional embodiments may generate saturation profiles or a pressure.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for characterizing a property of a subterranean porous rock formation filled with a fluid, the method comprising:
collecting well log and seismic data for the subterranean porous rock formation;
using the well log and seismic data to determine initial petrophysical parameters and layers for the subterranean porous rock formation;
upscaling the initial petrophysical parameters for the layers within the subterranean porous rock formation;
running a flow simulation using the upscaled petrophysical parameters and the layers to generate saturation, pressure and temperature values for the fluid within the subterranean porous rock formation;
determining effective velocities for the subterranean porous rock formation filled with the fluid from the saturation, pressure and temperature values for the fluid generated by the flow simulation; and
updating a seismic model for the subterranean porous rock formation using the effective velocities.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating synthetic data using the seismic model.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the synthetic data comprises synthetic seismic data.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein generating the synthetic seismic data comprises using a full seismic waveform model.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein generating the synthetic seismic data comprises using a ray tracing model.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining new petrophysical parameters for the subterranean porous rock formation by comparing the synthetic data to observed data.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising using the new petrophysical parameters to predict hydrocarbon recovery from the subterranean porous rock formation.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the new petrophysical parameters are determined by minimizing a difference between the synthetic data and observed data.

9. The method of claim 6 , further comprising generating a reservoir model using the new petrophysical parameters.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising using the reservoir model to simulate CO 2 injection into the subterranean porous rock formation.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising using the reservoir model to select a CO 2 storage site.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising using the reservoir model for simulating CO 2 presence in the subterranean porous rock formation.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using the reservoir model to quantify CO 2 properties in the subterranean porous rock formation.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using the reservoir model to estimate CO 2 storage capacity of the subterranean porous rock formation.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using the reservoir model to predict fluid front arrival in the subterranean porous rock formation.

16. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using the reservoir model to predict fluid movement in the subterranean porous rock formation.

17. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using the reservoir model to generate fluid saturation profiles in the subterranean porous rock formation.

18. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using the reservoir model to predict CO 2 injectivity.

19. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using the reservoir model to predict fluid pressure in the subterranean porous rock formation.

20. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using the reservoir model to predict CO 2 profile evolution over time in the subterranean porous rock formation.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the CO 2 profile evolution over time comprises a spatial distribution of the CO 2 in the subterranean porous rock formation.

22. The method of claim 20 , further comprising predicting CO 2 profile evolution over time in the subterranean porous rock formation for risk assessment.

Assignees

• Altundas Yusuf
• Ramakrishnan Terizhandur S
• Singh Satish C
• Queiser Manuel
• Li Junlun
• Schlumberger Technology Corp

Inventors

• Altundas Yusuf
• Ramakrishnan Terizhandur S
• Singh Satish C
• Queiser Manuel
• Li Junlun

Classifications

• G01V2210/67

  Wave propagation modeling · CPC title

• G01V2210/614

  Synthetically generated data · CPC title

• G01V1/30

  Analysis (G01V1/50 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F30/20

  Design optimisation, verification or simulation (optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30) · CPC title

• G01V1/282 Primary

  Application of seismic models, synthetic seismograms · CPC title