Reservoir Delineation Research

Abstract

This report describes work performed by the Reservoir Delineation Consortium during the past year. We have made progress in the areas of theoretical analysis of wave propagation, data analysis, and significant field work at the Michigan test site. Research on wave propagation focused on developing new algorithms for rapid and flexible calculation of full waveform synthetic seismograms. These methods provide the modeling tools for surface seismic, crosshole, single hole experiments and data interpretation. Initial progress on a finite volume method is summarized, and simulations using parabolic equations, attenuation modeling, and elastic wave simulations with multiple multipole methods are also examined in this report. New work in the area of data processing and analysis is represented by hydraulic fracturing imaging via source location methods and nonlinear refraction imaging. The past year (1995) has been one of the most active in our entire experience with the Michigan test site, and a summary report documents the crosshole survey, single well imaging experiments and dipole logging performed recently. This introduction to the report describes first the wave propagation research, including a summary statement providing our motivations for continued research in this area. Briefly, while there are many algorithms currently available for modeling tasks, each of them has its own limitations and advantages in regard to both accuracy and speed. Given a strong incentive for accurate and efficient inversion or migration algorithms, there is a continuing need for improving the modeling routines that serve as the basis for data analysis. Following this motivation is a brief summary of each of the reports mentioned above. The overview concludes with a summary of the field work results and the two papers on data processing tasks.