The major purpose of the 4D Rapid Analysis Product is to provide a "Quick Look" tool to track changes of seismic amplitude over time as hydrocarbon pool drainage proceeds. The 4D Rapid Analysis Product modules are designed to extract differences and similarities among multiple generations of 3D seismic surveys (4D seismic data). The 4D Rapid Analysis Product provides a methodology whereby hydrocarbon drainage pathways and oil/gas/water locations and volumes can be mapped over time.
The 4D Rapid Analysis Product provides all required data processing functions for 4D analysis; such as, amplitude and frequency spectral normalization, seismic attribute computation, and a rich set of data filters. The processing flow of the 4D Rapid Analysis Product proceeds from the rebinning and pre-processing of multiple 3D seismic data, to procedures for amplitude and frequency normalization, cross-correlated to minimize spatial shift and navigation errors. Then each seismic dataset is converted to a seismic attribute, usually reflection strength. The individual 3D seismic datasets are then region grown about seed points of the highest amplitudes within each seismic dataset to obtain volumetric representations of the hydrocarbon reservoirs. Then, differencing and similarity techniques are applied to the region-grown volumes.
Another important attribute of the 4D Rapid Analysis Product is the
visualization capability to display and recognize dim-outs (water
encroachment), amplitude brightening (gas cap formation) and sustained
amplitude regions that delineate locations of bypassed pay. Residual
gas is also more easily identified in 4D versus 3D seismic datasets.
All visualization is implemented in real 3D space, but since we image only within grown-regions, we have intelligently downsized the datasets for rapid manipulation with standard workstation graphics capabilities. Also, the 4D Rapid Analysis Product provides an added set of utility modules to generate print-ready and secure, Internet mountable, html output easily.
The 4D Rapid Analysis Product contains five basic operations: data loading, data pre-processing, data interpretation, 4D differencing, and 4D visualization. We provide an on-line, web-based training manual, wherein we explain these 5 operations in 12 chapters. The complete procedures to fully analyze multiple 3D seismic datasets for 4D drainage and fluid migration changes can be learned by an experienced 3D interpreter within a month.
The 4D Rapid Analysis Product is an AVS based application which does 4D seismic differencing and similarity analysis. The software is implemented in AVS modules and networks. An AVS software license is required to run the 4D Rapid Analysis Product. Installation is simple in that only executables of all 4D Rapid Analysis Product modules need be installed in any directory. Each module is accompanied by a on-line manual page which can be browsed within in the AVS environment. 4D Rapid Analysis modules are like any other AVS-provided modules, in that each performs a specific task. They can be connected into AVS symbolic (data flow) networks to accomplish more complicated jobs, and 4D networks are provided for each task. The available 4D Rapid Analysis modules are categorized into one of 4 types: data input, filter, mapper, data output, as are all AVS provided modules.
