Thursday, March 25

IP2
Monitoring Subsurface Fluid Flow with Time-Lapse Seismic Data

9:15 AM-10:00 AM
Room: Texas Ballroom B
Chair: Hamdi Tchelepi, Chevron Petroleum Technology Co.

"4D seismic" monitoring is the process of repeating 3D seismic surveys at a given site in time-lapse mode. This technique allows us to make 3D images of changes in dynamic subsurface properties as a function of time. In particular, images of heterogeneous fluid flow can be obtained that show spatial and temporal variation in fluid saturation, pressure and temperature. The 4D seismic technique is being developed by the oil industry with major applications such as mapping bypassed oil; monitoring injected reservoir fluids such as water, steam and CO2; and estimating fluid-flow heterogeneity related to pressure compartmentalization, and the hydraulic properties of faults and fractures. There are analogous potential applications in studies of crustal fluid flow, ranging in scale from near-surface groundwater and contaminant flow, to fluid-flow effects in tectonics and earthquake seismology.

Successful monitoring of fluid flow with the 4D seismic technique requires tightly integrated collaboration among the disciplines of structural and stratigraphic geology, fluid-flow simulation, rock physics, and seismology. In this talk, the speaker will show how these disciplines are integrated in the 4D seismic monitoring technique, in terms of theory, data and analysis, using examples from ongoing Chevron 4D projects around the world.

David E. Lumley
4D Seismic Reservoir Monitoring Team
Chevron Petroleum Technology Co

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MMD, 11/19/98