Estimating reservoir changes in a heavy oil reservoir through application of anelasticity and rock physics analysis to time-lapse seismic data

Oil-sands reservoirs offer huge resource potential with very low decline rates compared to other unconventional exploration targets. Unfortunately, this comes with the trade-off of requiring high initial investment as well as high operating costs. In order for such projects to be economic in the long-term, it is essential that we monitor changes in the reservoir to maximize production and by extension, return.
Time-lapse (4D) seismic monitoring is a common, cost-effective means of monitoring changes in reservoir due to production. Using amplitude vs. offset (AVO) inversion, we are able to estimate changes in elastic and petro-physical parameters in addition to the spatial mapping of reservoir changes. Unfortunately, the complex properties of viscous oil-sands outlines deficiencies in most commonly applied AVO inversion techniques. These algorithmic deficiencies cause errors in our elastic and petro-physical estimations. The purpose of this proposed project is to model the effect of viscous fluids on seismic data in order to either account for, or remove its effects to obtain a more accurate AVO inversion result. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Kristopher Innanen

Student:

Evan Mutual

Partner:

Qeye Labs Canada Ltd

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Oil and gas

University:

University of Calgary