IPA18-557-G

PROCEEDINGS, INDONESIAN PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION

Forty-Second Annual Convention & Exhibition, May 2018

SUCCESSFUL DEPTH IMAGING AT BANYU URIP FIELD

Yuki Y. Agulia*
Michael Gurch**
Sony Mohammad*
Bastian Hutahayan ***

ABSTRACT methods have difficulty handling the large, rapid

A seismic reprocessing project was initiated by
ExxonMobil Cepu Limited (EMCL) to improve
seismic data quality at the Banyu Urip field to aid the
evaluation of potential upside hydrocarbon volumes
in the primary carbonate and secondary clastic
reservoirs. The existing seismic was hampered by a
combination of extensive shallow gas attenuation
and non-uniform seismic data coverage that was only
partially mitigated by previous state-of-the-art
reprocessing in 2007. The 2017 reprocessing
involved applying improved pre-stack processing
and Q (attenuation factor) pre-stack depth imaging to
overcome these issues and obtain a substantially
improved data set for interpretation.
Reprocessing started from field tapes and was
implemented in two phases: preprocessing /
PSTM, followed by QPSDM. The preprocessing
workflow included statics corrections to handle the
near-surface velocity issues, and de-noise to
remove ground-roll and random noise. 5D
interpolation was applied to provide uniform
sampling throughout the survey. A bandwidth
extension approach was used to improve the
resolution of the final products.
The 2017 QPSDM required both accurate velocity
and Q models. The Velocity Model Building
(VMB) workflow used a reflection tomography
based approach constrained by all available well
data. The Q Model Building (QMB) workflow was
an integrated approach that included using
amplitude extractions and an AVO envelope
attribute from the 2017 PSTM to facilitate
geobody interpretation for input into Q
tomography. Finally Controlled Beam Migration
(CBM) was selected to optimally focus the energy
beneath the top carbonate where Kirchhoff
velocity change (Zhou et al., 2011).
A key factor to the project success was intense
communication and strong collaboration between the
in-country seismic processing contractor, the in-
country geoscience team, global processing experts,
and partners. A dedicated geologist was assigned to
facilitate the long-distance collaboration and to
optimally incorporate geologic context into every
step of the reprocessing workflow.
The 2017 PSTM data have improved reflection
continuity and amplitude integrity, while the 2017
QPSDM data, besides providing significant uplift in
the vicinity of shallow gas anomalies, allow more
accurate interpretation and spatial positioning for
resource estimation.
INTRODUCTION
The Banyu Urip (BU) field, located in the Cepu
PSC, East Java Basin, Indonesia, was discovered
in 2001 and is currently producing approximately
200,000 bbls of oil per day. The primary reservoir
is an Oligo-Miocene carbonate buildup. It is
overlain by a Middle Miocene deep water clastic
reservoir. The two reservoirs are in
communication. A total of 46 wells have been
drilled in the field.
The seismic data covering the field is part of the
1,213 km2 exploration-scale Cepu 3D land seismic
survey acquired in 2001. The exploration data
were used for PSTM imaging in 2002. A 100 km2
subset of the data was PSDM reprocessed in 2007
to better image the carbonate interval. Although
there was data quality improvement, the
reprocessed data remained low fold with a
moderate Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratio.

* ExxonMobil Cepu ltd.

** ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (URC)
*** CGG

The 2017 QPSDM reprocessing was conducted to
further improve the seismic quality and cover a larger
Banyu Urip area. The reprocessing was done by PT
CGG Services Indonesia and took 12 months to
complete. The main goals were to better define the
clastic reservoir distribution and to increase
confidence in the mapping of the top of the carbonate
reservoir, especially along the steep flanks. Figure 1
shows the regional Top Carbonate Envelope (TCE)
depth structure map over the 2017 BU 3D QPSDM
reprocessing area. The 390 km2 input area for
migration is indicated by the red rectangle and the
output full fold area is indicated by the blue
rectangle.
Processing this particular data set faced challenges
caused by irregular acquisition geometry due to skips
at town and rivers which produced low (<28) and
variable fold, resulting in a strong acquisition
footprint. Extensive shallow gas, particularly in the
Ledok Formation, also contributed to amplitude
attenuation and frequency loss in deeper sections.
The 2017 QPSDM survey area was designed to
optimize the image along the carbonate flank and to
understand the clastic reservoir’s provenance,
depositional distribution and structural spill. It will
be used to reduce mapping uncertainty in the Banyu
Urip area and to support on-going reservoir
management.
METHODOLOGY
Intense collaboration between the vendor CGG,
EM’s business unit geoscientist and reprocessing
experts from URC occurred throughout the project.
Daily engagement including remote QC, and weekly
meetings with the vendor were critical to
communicating progress, technical sharing,
obtaining feedback on the ongoing testing
parameters, and planning next steps. Partners were
also invited to join the regular QC meeting.
Parallel in the background, work was ongoing to
improve the geological understanding of the survey
area. This included updating well-based clastic
reservoir stratigraphic correlation, seismic well ties,
and remapping key horizons and faults. Products
from this work substantially contributed to the
process and the decision making throughout the
reprocessing project.
The 2017 QPSDM reprocessing utilized a staged
approach workflow to optimize product delivery
versus spending. The first stage was from
preprocessing through to a decision point at PSTM
completion. The quality of the PSTM image was
reviewed before going to the second stage involving
QPSDM (Figure 2).
Processing
Reprocessing started from field tapes to better
preserve the data content. After geometry
assignment, the shot gathers were used for first break
picking for input to tomostatics. Several forms of
denoise were applied to attenuate low/high
frequency noise and handle ground-roll and random
noise.
5D interpolation using anti-leakage multi-dimension
Fourier interpolation (Trad, 2009) and regularization
was applied to increase the nominal fold and enhance
the signal-to-noise ratio. It was applied in three
passes: shot and receiver line interpolation, azimuth
regularization, and fold regularization. In the
reprocessing area, the fold increased to 124 with 4
azimuth sectors (0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees).
The result shows a denser geometry, but still
preserves the original shot and receiver lines (Figure
3). Uniform sampling was applied, to increase the
accuracy and stability of the subsequent imaging
step. This interpolation and sampling approach filled
the gas in the irregular data and improved signal
content and reflection continuity, but at the same
time minimized smearing due to the interpolation.
This resulted in substantial improvement in the
reservoir reflection continuity, especially in the
shallow clastics.
Imaging and Q Compensation
Anisotropic QPSDM velocity model building was
done in an iterative, horizon-based manner. The
initial velocity model was estimated from RMS
velocity from PSTM and was merged with the
tomostatic velocity. Several major horizons were
used to guide the VMB process: Top Ledok, Base
Ledok (Horizon 2), Top Tortonian, Top Serravallian,
TCE, and BCE (Base of Carbonate Envelope).
In order to increase the accuracy of the velocity
model and to control the velocity tomographic
update, we used seven wells which had check shot
and sonic data, and one well located just outside the
processing area. Results were QC’d by monitoring
gather flatness and well marker mis-ties (Figure 4).
Six iterations of velocity model update were
conducted in the depth imaging stage: 1) update the
global velocity model; 2) Q initial model; 3) update
the velocity model through tomography from surface
to the BCE; 4) calculate anisotropy model estimation
(epsilon and delta) and well calibration; 5) apply
velocity update for carbonate velocity scan, intra-
carbonate tomography update, Q model update, and
velocity update for BCE down to 6000 meters; 6)
perform global velocity update.
Q compensation was applied to mitigate amplitude
dimming, frequency loss, and phase distortion
caused by shallow gas. Several intervals of shallow
gas-filled bodies were identified in the reprocessing
area with most being located within the Ledok
Formation (Figure 5). They were interpreted using
far offset 2017 PSTM data, along with AVO
envelope information. Several horizons were also
used as reference for Q estimation to compare the
seismic signal in areas presumed to be un-affected by
anomalous Q to the signal in areas exhibiting
anomalous attenuation. The distribution of the old
shallow gas Tobo field wells above the Banyu Urip
field, were also used to confirm the distribution of
the shallow gas for the Q geobody.
RESULTS
In comparison with the 2002 and 2007 data set
(Figures 6 and 7), the 2017 PSTM and QPSDM show
more continuous reflections, higher frequency,
increased vertical and lateral resolution and a more
consistent and higher confidence velocity field for
depth conversion.
The improved data quality and enhanced imaging
from the 2017 QPSDM will provide significant
benefits such as a reduction in interpretation
uncertainty, leading to a better understanding of
resource size, enabling optimized development
decisions. Seismic attributes could be used to
condition geologic models and will be used to
improve placement of wells in the future.
The 2017 PSTM deliverables include PSTM gathers,
angle stack volumes, and migration velocities.
PSDM deliverables include raw and final QPSDM
gathers, angle stack volumes, velocities, anisotropy,
and Q model, tomostatic velocity, angle mute table,
navigation map. The angle stack data sets for both
PSTM and QPSDM were divided into raw, AVO
friendly, and final stack with Bandwith Extention
and AGC.
CONCLUSIONS
Seismic imaging at Banyu Urip did benefit from
several recent advancements in seismic processing
technology. 5D interpolation was key in
addressing the low and variable fold, enhancing
the signal quality and increasing the seismic
resolution.
Amplitude and frequency loss due to the shallow
gas were addressed by Q tomography and
QPSDM. Well calibration and anisotropy were
used to accurately migrate the seismic trace to the
correct position spatially.
In addition, Controlled Beam Migration (CBM)
was successful in imaging the dipping events, such
as the carbonate flanks and faults, and enhanced
the reflector continuity.
Compared to the legacy data the reprocessed 3D
QPSDM stacks shows superior improvement in
frequency content, higher signal-to-noise ratio and
improved steep dip imaging.
A very significant output of the processing is an
accurate 3D velocity model derived from the depth
processing.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge
ExxonMobil Production Company (EMPC),
ExxonMobil Cepu Limited (EMCL), partners
(Pertamina EP Cepu and Badan Kerjasama Blok
Cepu) and CGG in supporting the work and
publication of this paper.
Many individuals have contributed to this work
including Aditya Gunawan, Jesse Shaw, Adam
Palermo, Paul Hinton, Alex Martinez, Yudi
Prasetyo, Yonghe Guo, Wayne Zanussi, and others.
Special thanks go to Agung Cahyono and Sri Intan
Wirya for the input and support to publish the paper.
We would also like to acknowledge SKK MIGAS
and MIGAS for permission to publish this work.
REFERENCES
Zhou, B., Zhou, J., Wang, Z., Guo, Y., Xie, Yi.,
Ye, G., 2011. Anisotropic depth imaging with high
fidelity controlled beam migration: A case study in
Bohai, offshore China; SEG Technical Program
Expanded Abstract 2011: pp. 217-221.
Trad, D., 2009, Five-dimensional interpolation:
Recovering from acquisition constraints;
Geophysics, 74, No.6, V123-V132.
Figure 1 - The location of Banyu Urip field and the schematic diagram of 2017 QPSDM survey area that was processed, overlay with top of carbonate depth structure
map. Blue rectangle represents the full fold 200km2 of output imaging area. The red rectangle represents the input area.

Figure 2 - Staged approach workflow applied in BU 3D 2017 QPSDM. It started from preprocessing which
resulted PSTM and continue QPSDM if warranted.

 Figure 3 - Comparison of inline and shot – receiver line geometry before and after 5D interpolation

Figure 4 - QPSDM gathers after the sixth iteration of VMB and well calibration to the key horizons and
markers.

Figure 5 - Several horizons were provided to locate the distribution of the shallow gas during Q model building
(a). Minimum amplitude extraction of the 2017 far angle PSTM shows the distribution of the
shallow gas that impact the data quality to the imaging area underneath it. The shallow gas
occurrence is pretty extensive especially to the west part of the field with NW-SE orientation.
Comparison before and after Q model shows restored amplitude of previously dim, poor signal area
(b, c).

Figure 6 - A comparison line between 2002 PSTM versus 2017 PSTM. The new reprocessed seismic shows
more regular data after 5D interpolation, continues reflections, higher frequency content, and
improved structure/stratigraphy events in the clastic (yellow square) and carbonate (blue ellipse).

Figure 7 - A comparison line between 2008 PSDM (a) versus after 2017 QPSDM (b). The new reprocessed
seismic shows more continuous reflection and improve resolution within clastic and internal
carbonate definition.