Seismic characterization of carbonate platforms and reservoirs: an introduction and review

Abstract Improved seismic data quality in the last 10–15 years, innovative use of seismic attribute combinations, extraction of geomorphological data and new quantitative techniques have significantly enhanced understanding of ancient carbonate platforms and processes. 3D data have become a fundamental toolkit for mapping carbonate depositional and diagenetic facies, and associated flow units and barriers, giving a unique perspective on how their relationships changed through time in response to tectonic, oceanographic and climatic forcing. Sophisticated predictions of lithology and porosity are being made from seismic data in reservoirs with good borehole log and core calibration for detailed integration with structural, palaeoenvironmental and sequence stratigraphic interpretations. Geologists can now characterize entire carbonate platform systems and their large-scale evolution in time and space, including systems with few outcrop analogues such as the Lower Cretaceous Central Atlantic ‘pre-salt’ carbonates. The papers introduced in this review illustrate opportunities, workflows and potential pitfalls of modern carbonate seismic interpretation. They demonstrate advances in knowledge of carbonate systems achieved when geologists and geophysicists collaborate and innovate to maximize the value of seismic data from acquisition, through processing to interpretation. Future trends and developments, including machine learning and the significance of the energy transition, are briefly discussed.