Antoun Salama

Salt Inclusion Velocity Determination by a Constrained Iterative Tomographic Approach

Subsalt imaging has been a challenge from many aspects, one of which is velocity determination of intra-salt inclusions, also referred to as dirty salt velocity model building. In recent years, the seismic imaging community realized the impact of dirty salt on subsalt imaging, but still lacks systematic study and an effective solution. In this study, we systematically analyze how the position, orientation, size, distribution, and shape of intra-salt inclusions impact the base of salt (BoS) and subsalt imaging. Acknowledging the shortcoming of conventional tomography for the special case of dirty salt velocity updating, we propose applying bounded dirty salt tomography with BoS and subsalt residual moveout (RMO) information in an iterative workflow.

Quantifying Reservoir Properties of the East Texas Woodbine Through Rock Physics And Multiattribute Seismic Inversion

Multiattribute seismic inversion (MASI) is a newly developed prestack inversion technique for inverting seismic data into elastic parameter attributes. The method integrates several major technologies (Roberts, et al., 2005), including AVO processing and analysis, well-log editing and calibration, prestack waveform inversion (PSWI) (Mallick, et al., 2000), wavelet processing, and poststack inversion. The outputs are high-resolution absolute acoustic and shear impedance and density volumes consistent with the seismic data and the well-log data. The inverted elastic parameter volumes are used for detailed interpretation of lithofacies and pore-fluid content in the subsurface. Combined with rock physics modeling and rock property mapping through LithoCube (Bachrach, et al., 2004) and joint porosity-saturation inversion (Bachrach and Dutta, 2004), the method provides a powerful tool for quantitative reservoir description and characterization. The results are the most-probable litho-class, porosity, and saturation with uncertainties of prediction at every sample point in the 3-D volume. Recently we applied this method to identify and characterize Woodbine sandstone reservoirs in an onshore East Texas field.