METHOD OF ESTIMATING GEOLOGICAL FORMATION DEPTHS BY CONVERTING INTERPRETED SEISMIC HORIZONS FROM THE TIME DOMAIN TO THE DEPTH DOMAIN

摘要

According to one aspect of the invention, a method of estimating geological location depths by converting horizon data from the time domain to the depth domain is provided, wherein the method comprises at least a data accumulation step and a data evaluation step, wherein the data evaluation step further comprises assignment of greater statistical weight to data derived from closer data acquisition points than to data derived from further data acquisition points using a weighted regression analysis, with distance being one of several weighting criteria. According to a further aspect of the invention, a method of estimating geological location depths is provided, wherein the method comprises a continuous, layer-by-layer computation of geological formation depths achieved by extracting values from horizon time data set at an exact geographic location of the next deeper horizon, thereby allowing interval computations to be carried out without the need for gridding. According to a still further aspect of the invention, a method of estimating geological formation depths is provided, wherein the method comprises estimating an expected error based on data scatter, and then allowing an alternative solution to be either partially or fully employed in areas where the accumulated data is insufficient to determine an acceptably reliable geophysical model.