A deterministic 4D processing flow to suppress acquisition-related noise at Dalia and Rosa fields

Abstract

Summary Time-lapse seismic is now being used more frequently to assist reservoir development, prevent infrastructure damage or monitor geological storage. To better reveal true 4D signals while suppressing acquisition-related noise as a result of, for example, water velocity changes, source positioning errors etc., a new processing flow which focusses on correcting each noise-contributing factor based on its physical characteristics, has been developed to replace the conventional non-deterministic correction approach based on cross-survey matching. Our proposed flow is based on using common water bottom and the water-bottom travel time to invert each factor and correct for it, which allows for processing of each monitor survey independently and the possible acceleration of standard 4D processing timelines. We applied this workflow on two fields offshore Angola, one with strong subsidence and one without, and showed the superiority of this new approach to reveal the true 4D information. The subsidence effect, observable from the reservoir up to the water bottom, now better matches with the model of pressure changes in the new 4D results compared to legacy results. Even for field experiencing no subsidence effect, the time shift and NRMS maps obtained at the reservoir level are cleaner and easier to interpret from new flow.