2011 31st Annual GCSSEPM Foundation Bob F. Perkins Research Conference
"Attributes: New Views on
Seismic Imaging—
Their Use in Exploration and Production"
December
4-7, 2011
Hilton Houston North, Houston, Texas
The aim of the 31st Bob F. Perkins Research Conference is to establish the value and limitations of both modern seismic attributes and their interpretation workflows in improving our understanding of the earth's subsurface as illuminated by modern 3D seismic reflection data. Geoscientists apply attributes in two ways. The first application is to use attributes to illuminate subtle features that allow us to reconstruct the depositional, tectonic deformation, and diagenetic history of the imaged earth volume. From these images we use principals of seismic geomorphology, structural geology, and fluid flow to infer lithology, the presence of fractures, or diagenetic alteration to enhance or destroy porosity. The second application is more quantitative, where densely-sample attributes sensitive to reservoir thickness, porosity, and fluid product are correlated to sparse well logs and/or production data to provide predictions of the well or production property on a dense grid. Multiattribute analysis tools range from simple animation, through more sophisticated multiattribute visualization and cluster analysis, to geostatistics.
The 1996 GCSSEPM Research addressed how seismic attributes such as AVO can aid geologists in predicting lithology and fluid product. Since that time, spectral decomposition, coherence, volumetric curvature, and elastic impedance inversion, as well as the 3D visualization, neural network, and geostatistical tools to analyze them have become available to almost all seismic interpreters.