Seismic-to-well tie of a field of the Nigerian Delta

Abstract

This paper presents a rigorous but pragmatic and data driven approach to the science of making seismic-to-well ties. This pragmatic  approach is consistent with the interpreter’s desire to correlate geology to seismic information by the use of the convolution model,  together with least squares matching techniques and statistical measures of fit and accuracy to match the seismic data to the well data. Three wells available on the field provided a chance to estimate the wavelet (both in terms of shape and timing) directly from the seismic and also to ascertain the level of confidence that should be placed in the wavelet. The reflections were interpreted clearly as hard sand at H1000 and soft sand at H4000. A synthetic seismogram was constructed and matched to a real seismic trace and features from the well are correlated to the seismic data. The prime concept in constructing the synthetic is the convolution model, which represents a seismic reflection signal as a sequence of interfering reflection pulses of different amplitudes and polarity but all of the same shape. This pulse shape is the seismic wavelet which is formally, the reflection waveform returned by an isolated reflector of unit strength at the target  depth. The wavelets are near zero phase. The goal and the idea behind these seismic-to-well ties was to obtain information on the sediments, calibration of seismic processing parameters, correlation of formation tops and seismic reflectors, and the derivation of a  wavelet for seismic inversion among others. Three seismic-to-well ties were done using three partial angle stacks and basically two formation tops were correlated.

Keywords: seismic, well logs, tie, synthetics, angle stacks, correlation,