Exxonmobil Technology and Engineering Company

Colin J Lyttle

Matthias Imhof

Hao Bin Huang

Matthew S Casey

Ross Whitaker

Sha Miao

Guo-Shi Li

Shankar Sastry

Method and systems are provided for building a structural model of the subsurface. The method may comprise obtaining discretized data that includes surfaces, polylines, points, or combinations thereof. The surfaces in the discretized data are segmented by other surfaces to form a number of segments. Each of the segments are fit to an implicit function. The implicit function for each of the segments is thresholded to create a number of implicit surfaces. The implicit surfaces are intersected to create a number of model surfaces. The structural model is then constructed from the model surfaces.

Constructing structural models of the subsurface

Geologic modeling methods and systems disclosed herein employ fault face parameterization to constrain and improve the transformation of a faulted physical space geologic model into an unfaulted depositional space geologic model. An illustrative embodiment includes: associating a seismic image with each face of at least one fault in a subsurface region; determining a correspondence map between the seismic images for said at least one fault; parameterizing the faces using the correspondence map to match parameter value assignments for corresponding portions of the faces; creating a displacement map that draws together matching parameter values to align the corresponding portions of the faces; applying the displacement map to the geologic model to create a design space model; modifying the design space model; applying the displacement map in reverse to the modified design space model to obtain a modified geologic model; and outputting the modified geologic model.

Geologic modeling methods and systems having constrained restoration of depositional space

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Houston, TX, United States of America

Colin J Lyttle