Use of multiattribute transforms to predict log properties from seismic data

We describe a new method for predicting well‐log properties from seismic data. The analysis data consist of a series of target logs from wells which tie a 3-D seismic volume. The target logs theoretically may be of any type; however, the greatest success to date has been in predicting porosity logs. From the 3-D seismic volume a series of sample‐based attributes is calculated. The objective is to derive a multiattribute transform, which is a linear or nonlinear transform between a subset of the attributes and the target log values. The selected subset is determined by a process of forward stepwise regression, which derives increasingly larger subsets of attributes. An extension of conventional crossplotting involves the use of a convolutional operator to resolve frequency differences between the target logs and the seismic data. In the linear mode, the transform consists of a series of weights derived by least‐squares minimization. In the nonlinear mode, a neural network is trained, using the selected att...