ISSN:
1365-2478
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
Notes:
In seismic tomography the observed traveltimes or amplitudes of direct waves are inverted to obtain an estimate of seismic velocity or absorption of the section surveyed. There has been much recent interest in using cross-well traveltime tomography to observe the progress of fluids injected into the reservoir rocks during enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. If repeated surveys are carried out, then EOR processes may be monitored over a period of time.This paper describes the results of a simulated time-lapse tomography experiment to image the flood zone in an EOR process. Two physical models were made out of epoxy resins to simulate an essentially plane-layered sedimentary sequence containing a reservoir layer and simple geological structure. The models differed only in the reservoir layer, which was uniform in the ‘pre-flood’ model and contained a flood zone of known geometry in the ‘post-flood’ model. Data sets were acquired from each model using a cross-well survey geometry. Traveltime and amplitude tomographic imaging techniques have been applied to these data in an attempt to locate the extent of the flood zone.Traveltime tomography locates the flood zone quite accurately. Amplitude tomography shows the flood zone as a region of higher absorption, but does not image its boundaries as precisely. This is primarily because of multipathing and diffraction effects, which are not accounted for by the ray-based techniques for inverting seismic amplitudes. Nevertheless, absorption tomograms could complement velocity tomograms in real, heterogeneous reservoirs because absorption and velocity respond differently to changes in liquid/gas saturations for reservoir rocks.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2478.1993.tb00873.x
