Seismic Attributes and Their Applications in Seismic Interpretation

By: Behzad Alaei



Instructor

Dr Behzad Alaei
(Earth Science Analytics, Bergen, Norway)

Duration

14–15 December 2021:
9:00AM-1:00PM (CET)
4 hours/day

Disciplines

Geophysics – Integrated Geophysics

Level

Intermediate

Language

English

EurGeol

4 CPD points



Keywords

DECOMPOSITION FAULTS INTEGRATION NOISE WORKFLOWS


Course Format

The EAGE Interactive Online Short Courses bring carefully selected courses of experienced instructors from industry and academia online to give participants the possibility to follow the latest education in geoscience and engineering remotely. The courses are designed to be easily digested over the course of two or three days. Participants will have the possibility to interact live with the instructor and ask questions.

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Course Description

Seismic attributes have been increasingly used in both exploration and reservoir characterization and has been integrated in the seismic interpretation process. Seismic attribute analysis can extract information from seismic data that is otherwise hidden and have been used to identify prospects, ascertain depositional environments (e.g. fluvial or deep water channels, carbonate buildups),detect and enhance faults and fracture sets to unravel structural history, and even provide direct hydrocarbon indicators. They have proven to be useful in different geological settings such as clastic, carbonate, and salt related basins as well as different tectonic regimes including extensional, strike-slip, and compressional. Developments in digital recording and modern visualization techniques had great impact on the growth of seismic attributes in the past decades. The purpose of this course is to introduce seismic attributes with their applications in seismic interpretation using examples from different sedimentary basins and also through certain attribute workflows. It is aimed to provide geoscientists with the minimum required theory of how each attribute is generated, with a greater emphasis on the application in the exploration and reservoir characterization.

The course is divided into two parts: attributes review/applications and workflows. The first part starts with a review of seismic attributes and discusses the noise (random and coherent) reduction as one essential step of all attribute studies. The number of seismic attributes has recently increased dramatically causing confusion for geoscientists to select appropriate ones. In this course, trace based attributes, volumetric dip and azimuth, fault detection and enhancement attributes, volumetric curvature, and frequency decomposition are presented using examples from different geological settings. Frequency decomposition is briefly presented with different decomposition methods such as wavelet transform,Fourier transform and matching pursuit analysis. Examples illustrate the interpretation challenges associated with frequency decomposition data interpretation. The concept of multi-attributes and geobody extraction is introduced at the end of the first part of the course with examples on combinations of amplitude, phase, discontinuity and frequency attributes to visualize different geological objects.

In the second part of the course stratigraphic and structural workflows are presented. The workflows (and the elements for their planning) aim to show the integration of several attributes for specific interpretation purposes, with examples of stratigraphic (fluvial/shallow marine clastic systems, attribute expressions of deep water turbidites and carbonate settings) and structural imaging workflows. Lastly, the course analyses the importance of the integration of seismic attribute analysis processes with the other seismic interpretation (qualitative or quantitative) workflows.



Course Objectives

Upon completion, participants will be familiar with a range of relevant attributes used in seismic exploration and reservoir characterization. They will know the basics of how those attributes were calculated and will gain understanding of their applications in seismic interpretation. They will be able to plan some attribute workflows and they will know how to integrate attribute analysis with other disciplines of qualitative/quantitative seismic interpretation.



Course Outline

Part I: Seismic Attributes

1. Introduction
• Definition and historical review
• Structure of the short course

2. Input data cleaning
• Noise reduction applications with examples
• Workflow oriented noise removal process
• Focus on structurally oriented edge preserving methods to remove noise

3. Trace-based attributes
• Complex trace analysis and the elementary attributes of envelope (reflection strength), instantaneous phase, instantaneous frequency, and cosine of phase attributes
• Simple examples with interpretation applications

4. Dip and Azimuth volumes
• Quantitative estimate of dip and azimuth through seismic volumes to map morphology of seismic texture
• Introduction and theory
• Dip and Azimuth calculation methods including:
- Calculating temporal and spatial derivatives of the phase estimated using complex trace analysis
- Explicit dip scan to find the most coherent reflector
- Gradient structure tensor
- Examples with applications for both structural and stratigraphic interpretation aspects

5. Coherence (Measurements of the similarity of seismic waveform)
• Introduction
• Different approaches including:
- Cross correlation
- Semblance
- Variance
- Eigen structure
- Gradient structure Tensor-based coherence
• Role of dip and azimuth steering volumes on coherence calculation
• Several examples and interpretation criteria

6. Fault attributes, attribute enhancement approaches
• Identify objects representing faults from background noise
• Apply filters to enhance already detected faults from background noise
• Plan different filter sizes to enhance faults with different scales (regional to small scale)

7. Curvature attribute
• Definition and background theory
• Surface and volume curvature measurements
• Interpretation applications using some examples

8. Frequency decomposition
• Introduction and mathematics of spectral decomposition using graphic illustrations
• Review of decomposition methods:
- DFT (discrete Fourier transform)
- CWT (continuous wavelet transform)
- MPD (matching pursuit decomposition)
• Examples and applications in layer thickness estimation, stratigraphic variations (seismic facies) and Direct Hydrocarbon detection
• Non-uniqueness will be addressed together with resultant challenges in interpretation of frequency decomposed data

9. Multi attributes, geobody extraction, and iso proportional slicing
• Some attribute blending methods such as RGB blending, and opacity blending
• Geological object identification
• Machine learning examples of multi attributes
• Selection of appropriate attributes
• Quantitative extraction of certain attribute volumes
• Iso proportional slicing as an important interpretation tool

Part II: Workflows

• Seismic attribute analysis workflow planning:
- Stratigraphic, structural, reservoir characterization
- Factors controlling the seismic attribute workflow planning
• Workflow examples: fault imaging, carbonate imaging
• Integration of attribute analysis with other disciplines of seismic interpretation

10. Automatic seismic interpretation using Deep Neural Network
• Introduction to automatic seismic interpretation
• Deep Neural Networks for seismic interpretation
• Fault, horizon, and geobody interpretation workflows using Deep Neural Network
• Transfer learning




Participants' Profile

The course addresses geoscientists involved in exploration and production projects where seismic studies play a role and who wish to learn the basic theory of the main seismic attributes used in exploration and production, as well as their applications and how to integrate them in exploration and reservoir characterization studies.



Prerequisites

Participants should have knowledge of seismic interpretation. Mathematical concepts of attributes are presented with minimum required equations and graphic illustrations. Some basic knowledge of seismic exploration may help.



About the Instructor

Dr Behzad Alaei

Dr Behzad Alaei is geophysicist and co-founder of Earth Science Analytics AS. He has PhD in exploration seismology from University of Bergen, Norway. He has 25 years of industry and research experience focused on seismic exploration, forward modelling of complex structures, seismic imaging, seismic attributes, and machine learning applications in geoscience. He carried out several seismic attribute studies over different sedimentary basins from Asia to Norwegian continental shelf and Gulf of Mexico. In the recent years, he has been involved in the integration of seismic fault attributes with structural geological investigations of faults as well as development of machine learning techniques in geoscience.
He is a member of EAGE, SEG, and CSEG.





EAGE supports its members and the Geoscience community in general by offering a 35% discount on the regular prices for our Interactive online short courses during these difficult times.

Registration Fees

Registered and Paid Until 6 December 2021 From 7 December 2021
Education Package1 Credit1 Credit
EAGE Member Price €125 €175
Non-Member Price €180 €230
*Non-Member price for this product does include EAGE Membership




Cancellation and Changes Policy

Registration fees will be refunded as follows:
  • Cancellation received before 30 November 2021: Refund will be processed after the event had ended. Amount will minus an administration fee of €35 per person.
  • Cancellation received on or after 30 November 2021: No refund will be made.
  • Transferring of your registration to another participant will cost €35, as administration fee, plus any differences in delegate types, where applicable (for instance when changing a registration from a member to a non-member).
  • For an overview of all EAGE Registration Terms and Conditions please click here to download.