Feasibility of time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring: The physical basis

Abstract

As reservoir fluids are produced or fluids are injected during enhanced oil recovery, the reservoir’s seismic properties may change. If these changes are large enough, repetitive surveys can map fluid distributions, pressure/fluid fronts, and temperature changes which means, at least in theory, that we can perform time-lapse seismic reservoir monitoring (herein called TLSRM instead of the popular, but inaccurate, term 4-D seismology).