EarthScoop + OrthoEarth

THE Sweetspotter!

Why is the Hubble Space Telescope stationed in outer space? NASA stationed it there to eliminate all effects of Earth's turbulent atmosphere and obtain crisp images of the universe. Won't it be nice to have something like that for looking at our reservoirs?

EarthScoop + OrthoEarth is that free ticket you are looking for.  This powerful suite of solutions that will re-datum your surface-seismic data to a datum close to the reservoir (EarthScoop), followed by advanced reservoir characterization and wavefield imaging to resolve thin layers and full-azimuth Orthorhombic AVO inversion for generating high-resolution and accurate rock, fracture, and stress attributes (OrthoEarth).

EarthScoop

Get rid of the Overburden!

EarthScoop is a patent-pending re-datuming solution that can simulate any virtual acquisition positioned at any horizon in the subsurface. This powerful technique is completely data-driven, does not require any velocity information, is robust, and generates high-quality pre-stack gathers.

Advantages

  • Eliminate Overburden Effects -- Get rid of all overburden effects, whether it be complicated velocity, anisotropy, or attenuation. EarthScoop removes all overburden effects such as attenuation, geometrical spreading etc., even if they are azimuthally varying.
  • No Overburden Information Required -- The re-datuming technology do not require any velocity field and is completely data-driven
  • Design any Acquisition Geometry -- EarthScoop can generate any subsurface geometry of choice, whether it be OVT (offset-vector tiles) or COCA (common-offset common-azimuth) gathers
  • Enhance SNR -- The resulting gathers have significantly enhanced S/R and are also devoid of coherent noise like ground-roll
  • High-Fidelity Amplitudes -- Amplitudes of the re-datumed gathers are accurate and very useful for AVO and AVAZ inversion.
  • Enhance Resolution -- The powerful algorithm enhances both low and high ends of the spectrum which helps resolve thinner beds and perform more accurate geo-steering.

Business Impact

  • Minimize Processing Costs -- The technology obviates the need for traditional processing flows and minimizes processing costs.
  • Quick Turnaround -- The algorithm is fast and fully automated which helps us deliver the re-datumed gathers within days.
  • Use any Data -- Any legacy or modern data can be re-datumed with this technology.
  • Add Value -- With significant reduction in processing costs, turnaround time, and inversion volumes, {\tiny{\ffmfamily{EarthScoop}}} will add significant value to your projects and increase the return on your investment.

Deliverables

  • Re-datumed Gathers -- The primary deliverable are the re-datumed pre-stack gathers in any acquisition geometry of choice, including OVT and COCA gathers.
  • Time/Depth Migrated Volume -- An optional time or depth migrated volume generated using RTM can also be delivered.
OrthoEarth

Because it is Fractured

OrthoEarth is a proprietary inversion tool that computes rock, fracture, and stress parameters from pre-stack seismic data. Because fractured media have at least Orthorhombic symmetry, this inversion system inverts for orthorhombic anisotropy parameters in velocity and attenuation. Robust estimates of AVO and AVAZ attributes are also output.

Deliverables

  • Velocity Analysis -- Fracture and Geomechanical Attributes
    • SH-max
    • Fast and Slow NMO velocities
    • Orthorhombic anisotropy parameters
  • AVO & AVAZ -- Fracture attributes
    • Dominant fracture direction
    • AVO intercept
    • Azimuthally-varying gradient and curvature
  • Attenuation -- Rock Properties
    • Attenuation rock property map
    • Azimuthally-varying attenuation attribute

Business Impact

  • Minimize Drilling Risk -- OrthoEarth outputs fracture orientations, maximum horizontal stress directions, and favourable rock properties that can be combined to map sweet spots. Maximum horizontal stress maps will help you evaluate borehole stability and help plan productive wells.
  • Is it a Sealing Fault? -- Mapping faults is critical in any field development. The attenuation attribute not only maps the faults but also may indicate if the fault is sealing or not.
  • Plan Development -- Velocity and attenuation attributes can be used jointly to effectively predict organic content and its maturity in unconventional reservoirs. The high-resolution rock properties when combined with 4D seismics and/or flow simulators will help you get the most out of your reservoir.
  • Calculate Economics -- The fracture maps in conjunction with the rock properties can be input into a discrete fracture network modeling to predict depletion and thereby calculate project economics and future cash flow.

Basins & Formations Applied

Knowledge and utilization of in-situ stress and fracture distributions in the subsurface determine the operational success in most unconventional plays. Besides stress and fracture distributions, seismic attributes derived from amplitude-variation-with-offset (AVO), velocity, and attenuation analyses play key roles in the characterization and development of these plays. In this case study of the Wattenberg Field, we use only the surface seismic data to decipher the stress distribution from azimuthal velocity analysis, fracture orientation and rock properties from azimuthal AVO inversion, and fault properties through attenuation inversion. Since the robustness and accuracy of the above attributes are extremely sensitive to the overburden effects, we utilize a novel re-datuming technique to eliminate all effects of overburden. The re-datumed COCA gathers clearly show azimuthal moveout (related to in-situ stress distribution). The re-datuming also generates high-resolution gathers and enhances the signal-to-noise ratio which should help in geo-steering and in possibly distinguishing Niobrara and Codell formations. The azimuthal velocity analysis yields the direction of Vfast that corresponds to the direction of maximum stress. The study shows that this direction for the Niobrara-Codell formations in the Wattenberg Field is predominantly W-E and WSW-ENE. The attenuation attribute shows that the regional fault oriented N-S within the Wattenberg Field is of significantly lower attenuation compared to the surroundings. The most likely explanation for such low attenuation is that the fault has undergone calcite mineralization and is therefore sealing. Such an inference has major implications for not only field development but also for environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing because this regional fault would not conduct hydraulic-fracturing fluids to the surface. The AVO attributes show a distinct change across the regional fault which again points to the possibility of the fault being sealing. Such a contrast might arise from differences in pore-pressure or in lithology. Moreover, the AVAZ attribute is similar to the Vfast direction which indicates that the dominant fracture direction coincides with the in-situ maximum horizontal stress direction.