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Lopez Virtual Checkshot
Lopez Virtual Checkshot
Lopez Virtual Checkshot
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A l b e n a M a t e e v a , A n d r e y B a k u l i n , P a t s y J o r g e n s e n and J o r g e L o p e z
Shell International Exploration and Production, Inc.
be distorted and difficult to pick; and (ii) the fastest arrival may
not come along the shortest path between the source and
the receiver (see Figure 1a). Both of these problems could
be alleviated by placing the source in the well, so that the travelpath of the first arrival is short and close to a straight line (see
Figure 1b). In practice, it is difficult to place a physical source
downhole. However, it is easy to create a virtual source (VS) in
the well from walk-away (WAW) or 3-D VSP data. Measuring the
first arrival traveltime from a VS to a number of receivers below it,
we can construct a virtual checkshot that is insensitive to
overburden complexity.
An extension of this idea would be to create a virtual shear source in
Sk
S k
Complex overburden
Virtual source
(at R )
Well
S k
Simpler middle
overburden
Target
velocities that are in very good agreement with sonic logs under salt at
Virtual Source
Air guns
20,000
data that would have been recorded in the same receivers if we had
Depth (ft)
10,000
Receivers
Take a trace from shot k (at the surface) to receiver and gate
the first arrival (the gate size and position do not matter much as
The survey was shot in four passes of the same shot line, with
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its base, and the rest were below the salt (see Figure 3). The
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www.dresser-rand.com
EVERY DATUM
COMPRESSOR
COMES WITH A
COMMITMENT.
the salt. The first arrivals on sub-salt receivers from virtual sources gave
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24
48
Receivers in salt
72
96 1
24
48
Subsalt
Receivers in salt
72
96
Subsalt
200
Salt Velocities
Time (ms)
400
600
800
6,300
6,350
6,400
6,500
Depth (m)
salt geometry.
6,550
Conclusion
The
6,600
virtual
checkshot
technique
circumvents
fundamental
6,650
6,700
and under salt. The more complicated the overburden, the better
and more valuable the virtual checkshot. This new technique is not
6,750
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
V (m/s)
Virtual checkshots use only the first arrivals of VS data while the VS
Vp from virtual source
Vs from virtual source
Vp sonic
Vp estimates:
Mean (VS smoothed log) = 0%
Std (VS smoothed log) = 2%
Max (VS smoothed log) <5%
Vs sonic
Vp sonic (30m smoothing)
Vs sonic (30m smoothing)
Vs estimates:
Mean (VS smoothed log) = 1%
Std (VS smoothed log) = 5%
Max (VS smoothed log) = 10%
generated, one may still wonder where the strongest ones come
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raytracing. To create the shear VS, we used the inline horizontal (X)
Acknowledgements
We thank TGS for the permission to show the surface seismic data in
EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION OIL & GAS REVIEW 2007 OTC EDITION