Quantitative Use of 4D Seismic Data for Reservoir Description

Abstract

Summary The major contribution of this paper is the description of an efficient, gradient-based method for incorporating time-lapse seismic impedance data in anautomatic history matching procedure. We use a finite-difference, black-oilreservoir simulator, with rock physics included, to predict seismic impedanceas a function of saturation and pressure. The adjoint method is used to computethe derivatives of seismic impedance change in each gridblock with respect toporosity, permeability, pressure and phase saturation. With a quasi-Newtonminimization method to efficiently minimize the difference between observedimpedance changes and the impedance changes predicted using the reservoirsimulator, our procedure can be applied to field-scale problems. Thefeasibility of this method of utilizing time-lapse seismic data is illustratedwith an application to a semi-synthetic model created from a relatively largemiddle-eastern oil field.