Saudi Arabian Oil Company

Yi Luo

Tong Wang Fei

Hongwei Liu

Yue Ma

Dongliang Zhang

Yubing Li

Lu Liu

Xu Ji

Yi He

Constantinos Tsingas

Song Han

Yue Du

Weiguang He

Yujin Liu

Mohammed N Alfaraj

Lei Cao

Yunlai Yang

Mohammed Mubarak

Jiarui Yang

Yuchun Eugene Wang

Yan Wu

Fuhao Qin

Saleh Mohammed Al-Saleh

Pavel Golikov

Mustafa Naser Al-Ali

Saleh A Dossary

Vincent Etienne

Abdulaziz Mohammad Almuhaidib

Ewenet Gashawbeza

Qiang Fu

Jianwu Jiao

Hong Liang

Ali Ameen Almomin

Maher I Al-Marhoon

Saleh A Aldossarry

Mustafa N Ali

Emad Abdo Al-Hemyari

Tak Man Desmond Lee

Mohammad Huwaidi

Hongbin Xiao

Xiongwen Wang

Ali Ameen Al-Momin

Systems and a method are disclosed. The method includes obtaining a plurality of raw seismic datasets for a subterranean region of interest, wherein each raw seismic dataset is generated by a high-speed train traversing a train track at a unique speed. The method further includes determining a plurality of processed seismic datasets by processing each of the plurality of raw seismic datasets and determining a final seismic dataset by combining the plurality of processed seismic datasets. The method still further includes identifying subterranean features within the subterranean region of interest using the final seismic dataset.

Seismic acquisition and processing with a high-speed train source

Methods and systems are disclosed for automatically integrating subsurface structural maps with strike and dip information measured in subsurface wells. The method includes obtaining a seismic image volume for a subsurface region of interest and a well log for each of a plurality of wellbores penetrating the subsurface region of interest. Further, the method includes determining a seismic map of a geological surface from the seismic image volume, wherein the seismic map comprises an estimated depth and an estimated vector normal to the seismic map at a plurality of horizontal locations and determining an intersection point for each of the plurality of wellbores with the geological surface. Additionally, the method includes forming a cost function based, at least in part, on the seismic map and the intersection points of the plurality of wellbores and constructing a subsurface map by solving a constrained optimization problem based on the cost function.

Automatic tying structure maps of subsurface horizons to well-derived orientation information

A method of determining a presence of hydrocarbons is disclosed. The method includes obtaining a surface seismic dataset, composed of a plurality of seismic gathers, determining a redatumed gather for a target horizon based on the seismic gather, determining a time window of the redatumed gather around the target horizon, and determining a spectrum of a portion within the time window. The method further includes determining a hydrocarbon indicator based, at least in part, on an amplitude of a higher-frequency portion and lower-frequency portion of the spectrum of the plurality of seismic gathers, determining a geographic map of values of the hydrocarbon indicator from the plurality of seismic gathers, and determining a presence of hydrocarbons based, at least in part, on at least one anomalous value on the geographic map. A system including a seismic acquisition system and a seismic processor for executing the method is disclosed.

Holographic inversion for hydrocarbon indicator

Methods and systems are disclosed for forming an image of a subterranean region of interest. The method includes receiving an observed seismic dataset and a seismic velocity model for the subterranean region of interest, and generating a simulated seismic dataset based on the seismic velocity model and the geometry of the observed seismic dataset. The method further includes determining a transformed observed seismic dataset by applying a nonlinear amplitude transform to the observed seismic dataset and determining a transformed simulated seismic dataset by applying the same transform to the simulated seismic dataset. The method still further includes forming an objective function based on the transformed observed seismic dataset and the transformed simulated seismic dataset, and determining an updated seismic velocity model based upon finding an extremum of the objective function.

Method and system for determination of seismic propagation velocities using nonlinear transformations

A method may include obtaining seismic data for a geological region of interest. The method may further include determining various velocity semblance values for the geological region of interest using a time window and the seismic data. The method may further include determining, automatically by a computer processor, one or more stacking velocities for the geological region of interest using a traced path based on the velocity semblance values and a path tracing algorithm. The path tracing algorithm may recursively determine an accumulated amplitude array based on the velocity semblance values. The path tracing algorithm may further determine the traced path among the velocity semblance values and the accumulated amplitude array, the traced path corresponding to the one or more stacking velocities. The method may further include generating a velocity model of the geological region of interest using the one or more stacking velocities.

Method and system for determining seismic velocities using global path tracing

A method may include obtaining seismic data based on a seismic survey regarding a geological region of interest. The method may further include obtaining grid data based on the geological region of interest. The method may further includes determining various travel times using the seismic data, the grid data, an Eikonal function, and a velocity model for the geological region of interest. The method may further include determining various attenuated travel times using the travel times, the grid data, and a forward modeling function that includes various gradient components. The method may further include determining various updated attenuated travel times using the attenuated travel times, the grid data, the forward modeling function, and a fast sweeping method. The method may further include generating an attenuation model of the geological region of interest using the updated attenuated travel times.

Method and system for determining attenuated seismic time

A method and apparatus of locating subsurface geohazards in a geographical area that includes: receiving a plurality of seismic trace signals in the geographical area based on a shot gather from a seismic shot source; isolating and stacking the plurality of seismic trace signals to generate a windowed trace signal associated with refraction traces from the seismic shot source; transforming the windowed trace signal to a frequency domain; calculating a low frequency to high frequency ratio for the transformed trace signal; outputting the calculated ratio to a two-dimensional array representing the geographical area at a source location and at a mean receiver location; repeating the steps for a plurality of other shot gathers in the geographical area; and multiplying each source location ratio with one or more mean receiver location ratios on the two-dimensional array to generate a final frequency ratio map.

Method, apparatus, and system for identifying surface locations corresponding to subsurface geohazards based on frequency ratios among seismic trace signals

Methods of and systems for forming an image of a subterranean region of interest are disclosed. The method includes obtaining an observed seismic dataset and a seismic velocity model for the subterranean region of interest and generating a simulated seismic dataset based on the seismic velocity model and the source and receiver geometry of the observed seismic dataset. The method also includes forming a plurality of time-windowed trace pairs from the simulated and the observed seismic datasets, and forming an objective function based on a penalty function and a cross-correlation between the members of each pair. The method further includes determining a seismic velocity increment based on the extremum of the objective function and forming an updated seismic velocity model by combining the seismic velocity increment and the seismic velocity model, and forming the image of the subterranean region of interest based on the updated seismic velocity model.

System and method for forming a seismic velocity model and imaging a subterranean region

A method for generating a geophysical image of a subsurface region includes defining a computational sub-volume for the geophysical image including a predetermined number of seismic traces of a plurality of seismic traces and a predetermined number of samples per each one of the plurality of seismic traces, generating a data matrix corresponding to a first sub-volume of the subsurface region based on the defined computational sub-volume, the data matrix comprising the predetermined number of samples for the predetermined number of traces of a portion of a seismic dataset corresponding to the first sub-volume. The method also includes estimating a coherence between the predetermined number of traces of the data matrix by performing a sum of a variance of the predetermined number of samples of the data matrix, and assigning the estimated coherence to a location in the geophysical image.

Systems and methods for detecting seismic discontinuities by coherence estimation

Methods and systems are disclosed for updating a seismic velocity model of a subterranean region of interest. The method includes receiving an observed seismic dataset and a seismic velocity model, and generating a simulated seismic dataset based on the seismic velocity model and the geometry of the observed seismic dataset, wherein each dataset is composed of a plurality of seismic traces. The method further includes determining a transformed observed seismic dataset and a transformed simulated seismic dataset by determining the instantaneous frequency of at least one member of the plurality of observed seismic traces; and at least one member of the plurality of simulated seismic traces. The method still further includes forming an objective function based on the transformed observed seismic dataset and the transformed simulated seismic dataset and determining an updated seismic velocity model based on an extremum of the objective function.

Method and system for updating a seismic velocity model

Methods and systems for forming a three-dimensional ('3D') seismic image of a subterranean region of interest is disclosed. The method includes obtaining a seismic dataset a seismic trace for each of a plurality of pairs of one source and one receiver location and obtaining a 3D travel-time cube for each source location and each receiver location. The method further includes dividing the seismic dataset into a plurality of seismic subsets composed of set of source locations, set of receiver locations a seismic trace for each pair of source and receiver location and the 3D travel-time cube for each source for each receiver location. The method still further includes transmitting, to a random-access memory block of a computer processing unit the seismic subset, and forming a seismic partial image based on the seismic subset, and determining the 3D seismic image based on a combination of the seismic partial images.

Method and systems for computational efficiency 3D prestack Kirchhoff depth migration

A method may include obtaining seismic data regarding a geological region of interest. The method may further include obtaining a property model regarding the geological region of interest. The method may further include determining an adjoint migration operator based on the property model. The method may further include updating the property model using the seismic data and a conjugate gradient solver in a least-squares reverse time migration to produce a first updated property model. The conjugate gradient solver is based on the adjoint migration operator. The method may further include updating the first updated property model using a threshold shrinkage function to produce a second updated property model. The threshold shrinkage function comprises a sign function and a maximum function that are applied to the first updated property model. The method may further include generating a seismic image of the geological region of interest using the second updated property model.

Method and system for super resolution least-squares reverse time migration

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for generating a subsurface image using diffraction energy information are disclosed. The systems, methods, and apparatuses may include converting a shot gather into one or more plane-wave gather using a Radon transform. The plane-wave gathers may be extrapolated into source-side wavefields and receiver-side wavefields and further generate a pseudo dip-angle gather. The diffraction energy information may be extracted from the pseudo dip-angle gather, and an image containing subsurface features may be generated from the extracted diffraction energy information. The receiver-side wavefields may be decomposed using a recursive Radon transform.

Diffraction imaging using pseudo dip-angle gather

A method for generating a seismic image representing a subsurface includes receiving seismic data for the subsurface formation, including receiver wavelet data and source wavelet data. Source wavefield data are generated based on a forward modeling of the source wavelet data. Receiver wavefield data are generated that compensate for distortions in the seismic data by: applying a dispersion-only model to the receiver wavelet data to generate a first reconstructed back-propagated receiver wavefield portion, applying a dissipation-only model to the receiver wavelet data to generate a second reconstructed back-propagated receiver wavefield portion, and combining the first back-propagated receiver wavefield portion and the second back-propagated receiver wavefield portion into the receiver wavefield data. The method includes applying an imaging condition to the receiver wavefield data and the source wavefield data and generating, based on applying the imaging condition, visco-acoustic reverse time migration (VARTM) result data.

Seismic imaging by visco-acoustic reverse time migration

Methods and systems including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for utilizing equivalent linear velocity for first arrival picking of seismic refraction. In one aspect, a method includes receiving data for the shot gather record, generating a diving wave equation curve for a particular parameter pair of multiple parameter pairs, and integrating the shot gather record data corresponding to the diving wave equation curve over a selected range of offsets of the shot gather to generate an equivalent linear velocity value for the particular parameter pair and the shot gather record data, selecting, from the equivalent linear velocity values for the plurality of parameter pairs, a greatest equivalent linear velocity value of the equivalent linear velocity values, the greatest equivalent linear velocity value corresponding to a first-arrival parameter pair, and determining, using the first-arrival parameter pair, a set of first-arrival onsets for the selected sub-range of offsets.

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Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Yi Luo