Integrating time-lapse seismic with production data: A tool for reservoir engineering

Abstract

Methods to use time-lapse seismic data for reservoir management range from purely qualitative evaluation to its use as a constraint in rigorous numerical dynamic model optimization. The numerical optimization involves updating the reservoir model through history matching constrained by time-lapse seismic and production data. This can be defined as “model-based” integration. However, the large gap existing between these qualitative and quantitative methods not only inhibits wider use of time lapse seismic data as a reservoir monitoring tool, but also represents an unnecessary delay in integrating seismic and production data until the very advanced stages of reservoir model building.