From seismic reflections to diffractions - case study of interpretation for development of a complex gas reservoir

In this case study, we investigate how the use of different information derived from a seismic dataset improves the understanding of a complex gas reservoir in a development context. We are adapting a versatile imaging algorithm (the generalized radon transform) to create seismic images with enhanced S/N ratios and enhanced diffractions. These are better suited to the interpretation challenges of the reservoir. On one hand, the S/N enhanced images and gathers were used as clean and detailed input to an elastic seismic inversion. These complemented the structural interpretation and led to a better understanding of reservoir properties and connectivity in the main part of the reservoir. On the other hand, the diffraction images were incorporated in a more standard interpretation workflow as high-resolution input to seismic geomorphology in order to predict the quality at the fringe of the reservoir. This was not possible with conventional input and methods.