Multicomponent Seismic Acquisition, Interpretation, and Processing

Course Duration: 5 days, including lecture-based modules and hands-on exercises

Who Should Attend: Geologists, Geophysicists, Petrophysicists, Reservoir Engineers, and Exploration/Production Managers

Course Summary: This course provides an understanding of the acquisition, processing, and interpretation of multicomponent seismic data, including compressional/dilatational and shear wave seismology and seismic petrophysics through the use of AVO, shear wave surveys, and inversion techniques. Understanding rock physics and the behavior of the propagating seismic waves represents an integral part of the course, especially in the context of specific applications including enhanced seismic interpretation, rock and fluid characterization, including hydrocarbon identification and quantification, fracture identification, and stress/geomechanical analysis. Course concepts are enhanced by numerous practical exercises and case studies.

Course Outline:

• Day 1: Introductory Exercises
  • Interpretation Exercises
• Days 1-2: Review of the Seismic Process
  • Review of seismic fundamentals, including rock physics and aspects of propagating seismic waves, including surface and body (P and S) waves, mode conversion, and raypath/wavefront modeling.
  • Acquisition of compressional/dilatational shear wave data, including shear wave generation and mode conversion, multicomponent design (land and marine) and optimization strategies.
  • Processing of multicomponent data, including processing sequence, wavefield separation, vector rotation, P-Sv migration, etc.
• Day 3: General Seismic Interpretation and Integration of Shear Wave Data
  • Review of seismic interpretation techniques, including pitfalls of P-wave only interpretation.
  • Discussion of advanced interpretation and integration of shear wave data illustrating the benefits of addition of shear wave data to interpretation workflow.
• Day 4: Seismic Attributes
  • Focus on seismic attribute analysis and integration of P- and S-wave data.
  • Vp/Vs ratio and its role in seismic petrophysics and rock mechanics.
• Day 4: AVO Analysis
  • AVO as a means of acquiring shear wave information without multicomponent acquisition systems—making the most from the P-wave survey.
  • An in-depth investigation into amplitude versus offset (angle) analysis, including fundamental principles, applications, and pitfalls.
  • Examination of AVO attributes, including Vp, Vs, LMR (lambda, mu, and rho), etc.
• Day 5: Seismic Inversion
  • Examination of techniques and benefits of seismic inversion, including prestack (elastic) versus poststack inversion, deterministic versus stochastic (probabilistic) inversion, and resultant products, including extraction of physical rock and fluid properties.
  • Inversion of integration P and P-Sv datasets.
• Day 5: Shear Wave Anisotropy and Birefringence
  • Fracture ID
    • Seismic anisotropy analysis and fracture mapping from seismic data, and integration with other datasets, such as image log and core data.
  • Stress Analysis from Seismic Data
    • Extraction of stress data for prospect seal risking, wellbore stability investigations, and reservoir behavior during production.
  • Days 1-5 (interspersed throughout course): Case Studies
    • Specific case studies involving integrated P- and S-wave data, including AVO and inversion, shear wave birefringence, etc.
  • Days 1-5 (interspersed throughout course): Exercises
    • Numerous hands-on exercises throughout the course to enhance understanding of key concepts and topics.