Effects on Time-lapse Seismic

of a Hard Rock Layer beneath a

Compacting Reservoir

Pamela Tempone
Supervision: Martin Landrø & Erling Fjær
 Problem Statement
Vertical Displacement [m]
Production

Reservoir ΔP (ΔS, ΔV, Δφ,

Δρ, etc.)
Subsidence

Compaction

Depth [Km]
Reservoir + Δσ, Δε
Surrounding
Compacting
reservoir
Changes in
rock properties
Reservoir + ΔVp, Δ Vs, Δρ
Surrounding

Time-shift in
4D seismic survey

Distance [m]
 4D Time-shift Prediction Method
ΔP

1. Geomechanical Geomechanical

modeling modeling

σ,ε
∙ Geertsma’s analytical model
Rock-physical
2. Rock-physical modeling modeling

∙ Dilation parameter Vp, Vs, ρ

3. Seismic modeling Synthetic seismic

modeling
∙ Ray Tracing
4D Seismic Data vs Synthetic

Shearwater field (Staples et al, 2007)

 Objective
• Cause: hard rock layer
beneath the
compacting reservoir

• Tool for capturing the

strong time-shifts in the
underburden

• Extension to
Geertsma’s analytical
solution

Shearwater field
(Staples et al, 2007)
 Method
• Analytical solution:
superposition of 3 linear
systems;

• Additivity property of the

resultant system;

• Model assumption:
– Zero stress at free surface;
– Zero displacement at z=K;
– Linear elastic medium;
– Homogeneous medium;
– Uniform deformation
properties;
 Displacement due to a Nucleus
Underburden

System 1+2 is equivalent

to Geertsma’s solution
= Nucleus of strain
 2D model
Compacting reservoir
Velocity model

Additivity property of the

analytical solution
 Displacement Fields
System 1+2 System 3
Geertsma’s model Effect of the rigid layer
Displacement – Rigid Layer
Resultant system
Geertsma + Hard Rock Layer Vertical displacement
 Strain Field
Numerical solution
for the strain:

1  ui u j 
 ij    
2  x j xi  Reservoir

Focus on the vertical strain

 Vertical Strain
System 1+2 Resultant system 1+2+3
Geertsma’s model Geertsma + Hard Rock Layer
 Velocity Changes:
Dilation Parameter
• Change in relative seismic travel
time for a single layer of thickness
z (Landrø 2004):
Dilation
t z V Layer
  Factor
t z V Overburden 4
• Linear dependence of elastic wave
Reservoir 3.4
velocities on strain (Hatchell 2005).
V Underburden 8.5
 R   z
V Hard rock layer 10
• Lateral velocity changes
Changes in P-wave velocity
System 1+2 Resultant system 1+2+3
Geertsma’s model Geertsma + Hard Rock Layer

Horizontal position [m] Horizontal position [m]

 Synthetic Seismic Modeling
• Assuming reflector at
Hard Rock Layer
Geertsma’s

each discretization point

model

• Zero-offset TWT-shift is
computed as follows:
n
zi
TWT    1  R    zi 
1 V pi
 Time-shifts Synthetic
System 1+2 – Resultant system 1+2+3 –
Geertsma’s model Geertsma + Hard Rock Layer

Horizontal position [m] Horizontal position [m]

 Synthetics vs Real Data
Semi-analytical models:
Shearwater field
• Geertsma’s solution
(Staples et al, 2007)
(Green)

• Extension to
Geertsma’s solution
(Blu)

Time-shift
 Discussions
• Linear elastic medium
• Homogeneous medium Geomechanics
• Uniform deformation properties
• Horizontal layer

• Horizontal displacement
Rock physics
• R factor has limitations

• No layer in the overburden

• Information from amplitude Syntetic Seismic
 Conclusions I
Rigid layer causes:
• An increase of the subsidence
• An increase in the stretching between the bottom
reservoir and the rigid layer
• A decrease in time-shift under the reservoir

Geertsma’s solution does not capture the strain field due to the stiff
layer in the underburden.

The increase of the time-shift along the overburden can be captured

manipulating the R factor.
 Conclusions II
The extension to Geertsma’s model is:

• A tool for improving seismic time-lapse time-shift

interpretation

• A key for interpreting the sudden time-shift

reduction in the underburden

• Narrowing the gap between real data and

synthetic modeling
 Future work
• Geomechanics:
– Extension to dipping reservoir and dipping rigid layer
– Analytical methods vs Finite Element Method (FEM)

• Synthetic seismic: FD modeling (TIGER)

• Analysis of a real data set (Field in North

Sea)
Acknowledgments

PETROMAX