Seismic imaging of reservoir flow properties: Time-lapse amplitude changes

Asymptotic methods provide an efficient means by which to infer reservoir flow properties, such as permeability, from time-lapse seismic data. A trajectory-based methodology, much like ray-based methods for medical and seismic imaging, is the basis for an iterative inversion of time-lapse amplitude changes. In this approach a single reservoir simulation is required for each iteration of the algorithm. A comparison between purely numerical and the trajectory-based sensitivities demonstrates their accuracy. An application to a set of synthetic amplitude changes indicates that they can recover large-scale reservoir permeability variations from time-lapse data. In an application of actual time-lapse amplitude changes from the Bay Marchand field in the Gulf of Mexico we are able to reduce the misfit by 81% in twelve iterations. The time-lapse observations indicate lower permeabilities are required in the central portion of the reservoir.

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