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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 Refraction 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:

Z2 - Z1
RC = Z +forZ RC: Acoustic impedance contrast
(near) vertical incidence
1 2
between 2 different materials

• Acoustic Impedance Z:
Z=V where:  is density
V is velocity
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Convolutional Model for Synthetic
Rock Acoustic Seismic Trace
Source
Reflectivity Reflector Synthetic
column
Impedance waveletresponsesseismogram
from sonic & density logs

Minimum phase
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3D seismic cube configuration Video

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Seismic section display

Variable Density Variable WiggleDifferent Seismic Displays
& Color Schemes
 i ty
tiv
n ic r sis
e o pe re
Seismic-to-Well
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i c i ty a n c
/ s l i g s i m
e
h et ctiv ed ity / ca din ker / t
Tie y n t
e fl e
i m
p ns R
e G r e a
m
a r
T VD
s r d
e p-
• Process of correlating de
the 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)
ence (lateral amplitude change) Small scale faults
al 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
Interpretati
on
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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
Unconformity: as significant breaks in vertical velocity
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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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