Shell Oil Comapny

Rodney William Calvert

Albena Alexandrova Mateeva

Andrey Victorovich Bakulin

A seismic velocity profile in a region of interest in a subsurface formation is determined using at least the following steps.

Method of determining a seismic velocity profile

A method of obtaining a spatial model of a property of part of a subsurface formation located between underground seismic receivers in which at least two sets of pairs of seismic receivers are utilized and one pair of receivers is used to record a signal from a seimic source and obtaining a response by solving (s(&#x2212;t){circle around (x)}s(t))=r(t){circle around (x)}(s(&#x2212;t){circle around (x)}s21(t)), wherein the symbol {circle around (x)} denotes convolution and wherein s(&#x2212;t) is the time-reverse of the signal s(t). A path-related attribute is selected from transmission response r(t) that corresponds to the property of the subsurface formation and a tomographic reconstruction technique is applied to the path-related attribute to obtain the spatial model of the property of part of the subsurface formation.

Well-to-well tomography

A method for making a time-lapse seismic survey in a marine environment, the method designed to eliminate multiple surface reflections and changes in sea state and conditions. Seismic sources and receivers are positioned at predetermined conditions for a first set of data in which at least two sets of seismic signals are recorded at each receiver, proximate in time, such that there are insignificant changes in the subsurface formation. At a later point in time the seismic source(s) and receiver(s) are positioned at the same place when the first seismic data set was generated. A seismic source emits a sound wave and the seismic receiver receives what will be called a 'monitor signal' and the two-way water travel time is again determined. A model is then developed for the first and second seismic data sets in that includes the subsurface signal, changes in the subsurface signal and the effect of multiple reflections. A set of filter functions are then developed to filter out the multiple reflections based on the two-way water travel times of the first seismic data set. The first seismic data set, the second seismic data set and the filter function are then used to calculate the differences in the subsurface layers over the elapsed period of time between the two seismic data sets.

Marine time-lapse seismic surveying

Providing a set of seismic sources in a focusing array to enable concentrating seismic energy in a selected target point (k) in an underground formation, by performing a standard seismic survey of the underground formation using a set of impulsive seismic sources and a set of downhole seismic receivers j, and recording the signals u (t), selecting a position k to be the target point; obtaining from the signals u (t) the one-way travel times &tgr; from a number of sources i to the target point at the location k; and calculating t &equals;t &minus;&tgr; to obtain the activating times t at which the impulsive seismic sources i have to be activated, in order to get a focusing array of the seismic sources i of which the seismic waves arrive at the target point k in phase at time t .

Concentrating seismic energy in a selected target point in an underground formation

A method of seismic imaging a subsurface formation using an array of seismic sources and an array of seismic receivers located subsurface, wherein there is a complex transmission medium between the two sets by creating a virtual source at a selected receiver within the array, time-reversing a portion of the signal related to the selected source and receiver and convolving the time-reversed portion of the signal with the signal at adjoining receivers within the array and repeating the process for signals attributable to various surface sources to create a seismic image of a target formation.

Growing community of inventors

Rijswijk, Netherlands

Rodney William Calvert