Diffraction tomography for geophysical imaging in hydrocarbon reservoirs

Summary form only given. Clastic reservoirs saturated with heavy oils have been observed to exhibit a marked relationship between the velocity of propagation of acoustic waves and the temperature of the oil-saturated sediments. This observation forms the basis for a method of monitoring the changes which occur in the reservoir when thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) procedures are used. An algebraic formulation of the diffraction reconstruction problem provides a sound basis for algorithm development. A variety of error criteria may then be considered. These considerations have led to highly accurate full wave reconstruction algorithms, which are now in use for imaging hydrocarbon reservoirs. In addition, resolution analyses developed for nonlinear inverse problems, such as the diffraction tomographic reconstruction problem, allow confidence limits to be placed on the accuracy of reconstruction at each point in the processed tomogram.<>