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Introduction to Seismic Interpretation

Copyright: Shell Exploration & Production Ltd.

By:

Hosny Diab
Explorationist Seismic Interpreter / Onshore
Exploration Team
Shell Egypt N. V.
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How oil trapped & Technology used video

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Seismic Acquisition operations

Seismic acquisition offshore Seismic acquisition onshore
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A mbient and
Cultural N oise

Reco rd ing Instruments

Ground Receiver C oupling

Receiver Frequen cy R esponse
A rray Effects

Upcoming
Shot Wavelet
H ole Free Low
Su rface Velocity
Gho st?
Layer R efractions
Source Effects Scatterers

Spherical
Do wng oin g Spreading Refract ion s
Wavelet Short Period
Interface Losses M ultiples

Long Period
Q-Factor M ultiples

Reflection
Coefficien t
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3D seismic Video
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What can be seen on seismic data?

• Zoeppritz equations simplify to: RC: Acoustic impedance contrast between 2

Z2 - Z1 different materials
RC = Z + Z for (near) vertical incidence
1 2

• Acoustic Impedance Z:
Z=V where:  is density
V is velocity
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Convolutional Model for Synthetic Seismic Trace
Rock Acoustic ReflectivitySource Reflector Synthetic
columnImpedance wavelet responses seismogram
from sonic & density logs

Minimum phase
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3D seismic cube configuration Video

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Seismic section display Different Seismic Displays &

Color Schemes
Variable Density Variable Wiggle
 it y
i c er t iv
is
e o n es
y anc / s alip ng r rs e
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tic i t t i m
h e c t iv ped sity / c adi rke D /
Seismic-to-Well Tie n t
sy ref
le im den GR -re ma TV
e ep
• Process of correlating the d

seismic signal close to a

wellbore to well information
(synthetic seismogram,
lithology log, deep-reading
resistivity log, tops)
• To identify seismic
reflections for horizon
interpretation; in calibration
for quantitative interpretation
• Match relative amplitudes
between seismic signal and
synthetic.
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synthetic deep-reading resistivity
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Seismic terms
• Wavelet: a seismic pulse usually consisting of only a few cycles which represents the
reflection shape from a single positive reflector at normal incidence
• Event: general feature in seismic data
– Explicit events are features depicted by amplitude extrema (trough – peak)
– Implicit events are features depicted by terminations of explicit events (faults,
unconformities)
• Trace: a vertical record of seismic amplitudes at a given shot point or 3D grid
coordinate (time or depth),
• Fault shadow: zone of reduced imaging quality in the footwall (below) major faults
with a distinct velocity contrast to the hanging wall (above), can also be caused by
wider fault damage zones with anomalous velocity
– Effect is usually aggravated by strike acquisition
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Seismic terms (Cont.)
• Grid: a 2-dimensional array to store horizon, attribute and fault data with a regular x/y sampling
• Horizon Slice: a horizontal display of seismic amplitude data, extracted at a constant distance
from a seismic horizon, powerful for viewing stratigraphic information (Coherence data)
• Attribute: a measurement executed on seismic data, with varying base geometries
– Trace attribute: along a trace, e.g. Phase
– Horizon attribute: along a horizon, e.g. Amplitude
– Window attribute: between horizons or within a fixed gate, e.g. RMS energy
– Volume attribute: multi-trace (change) measurement, e.g. Coherency; represents lateral
amplitude change, e.g. At reflection terminations; commonly used for highlighting of faults
and abrupt stratigraphic variations in timeslices and horizon slices.
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Seismic terms (Cont.)
• Structural (Slip) Vector / Volume dip & azimuth:
– A volume attribute that represents lateral change of phase, e.g. As caused by tectonic deformation of
subsurface strata; commonly used for highlighting of faults and flexures in timeslices and horizon slices.

• Inversion: a method of restoring broad-band acoustic impedance signal of the

subsurface from the ordinary band-limited reflectivity signal of seismic data.
Techniques used:
– Sparse-spike Inversion: deconvolution / whitening plus adding low frequencies from well
data

– Model-based Inversion: both low and high frequencies are added from interpreted
borehole measurements, extrapolating away from boreholes along horizons
• Isochron: TWT isoline, either from seismic datum to a horizon or as isochrone thickness, measured between
2 horizons, with wave travelling vertically assumption
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Seismic terms (Cont.)
• Flattening: datuming of vertical and horizontal seismic displays parallel to a seismic
horizon .
– A flattened timslice is also called horizon slice.
– Useful for interpretation of stratigraphic geometries

• Mis-tie: inconsistency between 2 interpretation of the same features on different

seismic displays, e.g. Crossing 2D lines or inlines-crossline displays of 3D seismic.
Also in seismic-to-well tie.
• Jump correlation: identification of a seismic event on either side of a fault for regional
horizon interpretation.
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Guidelines for 3D seismic interpretation

“Faults interpretation”
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Guidelines for the Interpretation of Faults

• Interpret all visible faults - in order to maximise the understanding of deformational
history and the controls on trapping and flow
• The definition of appropriate selection criteria for faults to be interpreted as 3D planes
is essential to be used
– along the entire Subsurface Interpretation workflow (structural and reservoir model
building, upscaling, reservoir simulation).
• Sequencing faults for interpretation should consider structural setting and
kinematics.
• As a minimum, all faults that directly affect volumetrics must be fully interpreted, i.e.
those faults that are (potentially) sealing and occur in (potential) trap geometries.
Generally these faults are also the ones that are to be included in the static reservoir
model.
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Common orientations and shapes of faults

• Most hydrocarbon accumulations occur in
– Structural traps involving extensional to moderately transpressional deformation,
– Their faults tend to be rather steep (ranging from about 60° with normal displacement for
extensional faults through nearly vertical strike-slip faults to reverse faults of about 60° dip in
mildly transpressional regimes).
• Fault shape is controlled by the magnitude of differential stress between the horizontal
stress axes,
– Bends and kinks can occur if the stress field is laterally variable

• All faults are either straight or at least have constant curvature in the direction of their
displacement,
– At larger faults, this rule may appear to be broken if the fault position is offset at
incompetent intervals with plastic rather than brittle deformation.
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Choosing the most suitable digitisation direction

• Fortunately many 3D surveys are oriented such that the seismic grid
is aligned with the predominant dip direction (azimuth) in the
subsurface, and are thereby also aligned with most faults,
– it will be sufficient to generate two sets of arbitrary lines, each at 45°
with the seismic grid
• It is important that the corner coordinates of used arbitrary lines are
stored, as otherwise the interpretation on such lines cannot be
revisited or corrected.
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Interpretation strategy
• The seismic evidence for faults is
– implicit (reflection terminations), ambiguous (not all reflection terminations are
caused by faults)
– incomplete (intervals without reflective interfaces also lack evidence for faults).
– may have many different geometries including (self-)branching,

• Good interpretation practice means taking into account

– kinematic considerations, The specific geophysical response and rock competence of
each interval when making choices with ambiguous evidence.
• Generation of fault planes by linear interpolation or triangulation between
manually interpreted ‘segments’ may be easier if the manual ‘seed’ interpretation is
oriented in the direction of highest irregularity of fault shape, i.e. normal to the
slip vector.
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Fault (discontinuity) highlighting volume in support of structural
interpretation: Structural Vector (lateral phase change)
Coherence (lateral amplitude change)
Small scale faults
vertical displacement > 0.25 wave length)


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Where and how to pick
• Pick preferably at the hanging-wall terminations (above the fault plane) as the seismic image
below the fault plane is often of poorer quality (‘fault shadow’) and does not provide a good
contrast between continuous unfaulted reflections and clear terminations towards a fault plane.
• If fault plane reflections are present but do not coincide with the hanging-wall termination, better
ignore them because, as very steep features, they are much more sensitive to inaccuracies in
migration velocities.
• Interpret fault segments consistently from upper to lower tip.
• ‘Split-the-distance’ method. In this workflow one would start interpretation with a very large
increment that can be divided by 2 for a number of times: ideally the power-2 system 1-2-4-8-16-
32-64, but the system 5-10-20-40-80 is often easier to manage.
• Fault junctions and amalgamated faults: shape complexity increases towards the lateral tips of
fault planes, where the local stress fields start interfering. This implies that interpretation density
should usually increase towards fault tips.
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Nigeria Data
raw seismic
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Nigeria Data
with Horizon &
Fault
Interpretation
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Guidelines for 3D seismic interpretation

“Horizon & unconformity interpretation”

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Guidelines for 3D horizon interpretation
• Horizon interpretation should be executed after initial fault interpretation
• The minimum set of horizons:
– all unconformities and sequence boundaries
– major lap surface and maximum flooding surfaces
• Other levels may also be needed: time to depth conversion, structural modelling &
kitchen/maturity modelling
• Start with shallow horizons on obvious events and to interpret step-by-step from top to bottom,
as structural complexity increases and imaging breaks down.
• Correlate a particular horizon on a coarse grid of lines away from wells, and make sure you always
close a loop back to your starting point to verify that the horizon of interest is consistently
picked.
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Guidelines for 3D horizon interpretation
• Ensure that there is no misties of horizons and faults
• It is then safer not to interpret closer to a fault plane than 1-3 traces.
• Jump correlations across faults:
– Get an idea about the throw distribution along the interface between two blocks
by tentative horizon interpretation
– Work top  down, starting from levels with confident correlation across the fault.
– Base your choice on sequence correlation rather than event correlation
– Take discrete sedimentary features such as unconformities, incised valley fills
and channels as anchor points for jump correlation
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Unconformity: as significant breaks in vertical velocity trends.

Its interpretation depends on the recognition of characteristic reflection geometries rather than on amplitude
information
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Guidelines for 3D seismic interpretation

“Exercises”
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