A cooperative seismic-oriented magnetotelluric data inversion, a tool for hydrocarbon reservoir imaging

Abstract

Hydrocarbon reservoir imaging plays a crucial role in the oil and gas exploration industry. Seismic data processing is commonly employed as the primary imaging tool, but interpreting the data in complex geological settings can present challenges. To supplement seismic imaging, magnetotelluric (MT) data offers valuable information on the electrical conductivity of subsurface structures. MT data is highly effective for differentiating the components of a hydrocarbon system characterized by varying resistivity and boundaries; however, it encounters challenges in thinly layered formations, which are often easier to identify through seismic data. In these contexts, the unconstrained inversion of MT data is inherently non-unique. There has been a growing interest in enhancing hydrocarbon reservoir imaging through the cooperative inversion of seismic and MT data which combines information from multiple methods to improve the estimation of subsurface rock properties. To implement this approach, seismic reverse time migration (RTM) result is first utilized to establish appropriate initial boundaries for the MT sharp boundary inversion scheme, resulting in robust and reliable MT seismic-oriented modeling outcomes. To illustrate the feasibility of using seismic imaging techniques as constraints for the MT sharp boundary inversion, synthetic hydrocarbon trapping systems are simulated and investigated to disclose the efficiency of the proposed method.