Paving the road to real-time reservoir monitoring—The next step? Summary of an ERCH workshop

摘要

Five years ago the Energy Research Clearing House held a workshop on improved reservoir characterization using time-lapse 3-D seismic data. A few companies at that time had applied this infant technology, but the perceived potential applications were limited. It was found to be useful in very good data areas such as the offshore Gulf of Mexico where bypassed pay in untapped compartments could be identified from repeat streamer cable surveys. Wall Street was talking about this new technology that was labeled as 4-D with time being the fourth dimension of repeated 3-D surveys. Since then, industry has been expanding the use of time-lapse technology cautiously, like an apprehensive swimmer testing the water by dipping a toe before jumping in.