Short Course 3

Explorational Rock Physics and Seismic Reservoir Prediction
Instructors: Per Avseth (Odin Petroleum) & Tor Arne Johansen (University of Bergen)

Sunday 3 & Monday June, 09:00 - 17:00 hrs

Course Description
The field of rock physics represents the link between qualitative geologic parameters and quantitative geophysical measurements. Increasingly over the last decade, rock physics stands out as a key technology in petroleum geophysics, as it has become an integral part of quantitative seismic interpretation. Ultimately, the application of rock physics tools can reduce exploration risk and improve reservoir forecasting in the petroleum industry.

This course covers fundamentals of Rock Physics, ranging from basic laboratory and theoretical results to practical recipes that can be immediately applied in the field. We will present qualitative and quantitative tools for understanding and predicting the effects of lithology, pore fluid types and saturation, stress and pore pressure, fractures, and temperature on seismic velocity and attenuation. Moreover, we will show the importance and benefit of linking rock physics to geologic processes, including depositional and compactional trends. We further document that lithology substitution can be as equally important as fluid substitution during seismic reservoir prediction. It is important in exploration and appraisal to extrapolate away from existing wells, taking into account how the depositional environment changes as well as burial depth trends. In this way rock physics can better constrain the geophysical inversion and classification problem in underexplored marginal fields, surrounding satellite areas, or in new frontiers.

The course includes practical examples and case studies to demonstrate a best-practice workflow, together with limitations and pitfalls, where rock physics models are combined with well log and prestack seismic data, sedimentologic information, inputs from basin modeling, and statistical techniques to predict reservoir geology and fluids from seismic amplitudes. We will emphasize subsurface fluid detection from seismic data during both 3-D exploration and 4-D recovery monitoring.

Course Objective(s)
Understand the link between geologic processes and rock physics properties
Understand the pore fluid – rock interactions during wave propagation
Upscaling and heterogeneous reservoirs
Introduction to shale and carbonate rock physics
Improved understanding of the seismic signatures of saturation, pressure and impaction effects during reservoir production.
The ultimate goal is to improve the understanding of seismic amplitudes and predict geologic and reservoir parameters from seismic inversion data.

Course Outline
Basic rock physics theory and relations
Fluid and lithology substitution for reservoir rocks
Pore fluid – rock interactions during wave propagation
Upscaling and seismic signatures of heterogeneous reservoirs
Introduction to shale and carbonate rock physics
4D rock physics

About the instructors
Per Avseth is a geophysical advisor at Odin Petroleum in Bergen, Norway, and adjunct professor in geophysics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. Per received his M.Sc. in Applied Petroleum Geosciences from NTNU in 1994, and his Ph.D. in Geophysics from Stanford University, California, in 2000. Per worked as a research geophysicist at Norsk Hydro in Bergen, 2001-2006. Per’s research interests include applied rock physics and AVO analysis, for quantitative seismic exploration and reservoir characterization.

Tor Arne Johansen is a full professor in Reservoir Geophysics at the Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, and a scientific advisor for NORSAR. He received his PhD in Geophysics in 1990 from Bergen University. His research interests covers remote sensing techniques, rock physics, seismic modelling and processing.

Who should attend?
The course is intended for geophysicists, geologists and petrophysicists who will be involved in quantitative seismic interpretation, both within exploration and production.

Prerequisites
Fundamental understanding of physics and mathematics. Educational background and/or practical experience in geology, geophysics and/or petrophysics.