Contents

Seismic Inversion............................................................................................................................. 2
Goals of Inversion: .......................................................................................................................... 2
Types of Seismic Inversion .............................................................................................................. 4
Pre-Stack Seismic Inversion:........................................................................................................ 4
a) Simultaneous Pre-Stack Inversion: ...................................................................................... 5
b) EEI Inversion: ....................................................................................................................... 5
c) Deterministic Inversion ........................................................................................................ 5
d) Stochastic Inversion: ........................................................................................................... 5
e) AVO Inversion: ..................................................................................................................... 5
f) LMR Inversion:...................................................................................................................... 6
Post-Stack Seismic Inversion: ...................................................................................................... 6
a) Relative Inversion: ............................................................................................................... 6
b) Simulated Annealing: .......................................................................................................... 7
c) Constrained Sparse-Spike Inversion (CSSI): ......................................................................... 7
d) Geostatistical inversion: ...................................................................................................... 7
e) Model-Based Inversion:....................................................................................................... 8
Types of Inversion Used In Hydrocarbon Exploration .................................................................... 8
1) Velocity Inversion................................................................................................................. 8
2) Amplitude Inversion ............................................................................................................. 8
Conclusions / Discussion ................................................................................................................. 8
References: ..................................................................................................................................... 9

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 Seismic Inversion
Seismic Inversion is a technique for creating subsurface geological model using the seismic data
as input and well data as controls.
Seismic inversion is the process of converting seismic reflection data into seismic impedance
(volumetric rock properties).
The Seismic Inversion is basically an Inverse Modelling, where the input is the seismic record
that inverse modeled into the Acoustic Impedance (A.C) section. The Inverse Modeling
algorithm basically is the deconvolution between the seismic records and the seismic waves
which then produce the Acoustic Impedance section.

INVERSE MODELING
(INVERSION)

SEISMIC RESPONSE
RECORDED SEISMIC DATA

MODELING ALGORITM
DECONVOLUTION

EARTH MODEL

Goals of Inversion:
The goal of inversion, however, is far beyond just finding a "best-fit" model. The data are often
noisy, the forward modeling is inexact, and there may not be sufficient data. Compared to
working with seismic amplitudes, inversion results show higher resolution and support more
accurate interpretations. This in turn facilitates better estimations of reservoir properties such as
porosity and net pay. An additional benefit is that interpretation efficiency is greatly improved,
more than offsetting the time spent in the inversion process. It will also make possible to
estimate the uncertainty and risk.

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Figure 2: Forward Modelling(a) and Inversion(b) Is shown in above figure.

Basically, the recovering of seismic record is a forward modeling. In this subject the data input is the
Acoustic Impedance(AC) or reflection coefficient (RC) series of the earth layer itself which then forward
modeled into the seismic records. The forward modeling algorithm, basically, is a convolution process
between seismic wavelet passing thru the RC series of the earth.
On the other hand, the seismic inversion is basically an inverse modeling, where the input is the seismic
record that inverse modeled into the AI section.

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 Types of Seismic Inversion

The two main types of inversion is the one performed before stacking and inversion performed
after it, known as Pre-Stack and Post-Stack. Most seismic surveys provide images using data that
have been stacked. Stacking is a signal-enhancement technique that averages many seismic
traces.

 Pre-Stack Seismic Inversion:

Pre-stack inversion can generate both the Compression and shear information such as an acoustic
(AI) and shear (Is) impedances, acoustic and shear wave reflectivity, and Low frequency
acoustic and shear impedance of a rock. Having two independent elastic parameters, the
ambiguity of the results will be reduced by optimizing misfits and synthetic reflectivity
reconstruction. Pre-stack seismic data contains additional information about the rock properties
of the earth and these can be inverted for, using several different methods:

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a) Simultaneous Pre-Stack Inversion:

Simultaneous Pre-Stack is a common method, it is a form of seismic inversion which inverts for several
rock property parameters simultaneously using the pre-stack gather data.

b) EEI Inversion:

It is also possible to perform a type of calibration before inversion. This is where the pre-stack
data is combined to create new seismic properties which are most closely related to properties
such as petrophysical quantities like porosity or shale volume. A robust and natural way to
achieve this is to use a method called Extended Elastic impedance or EEI. An extended elastic
impedance uses the angle gather information (the same information required by a pre-stack
simultaneous inversion) and projects the data across new angles using standard AVO intercept
and gradient analysis. The new angles required as output are chosen to correspond to rock or
petrophysical quantities of interest, such as porosity or shale volume, usually by analyzing well
log data.

c) Deterministic Inversion

It introduces the missing low frequency to the Seismic Inversion, and gives the appearance of
trends. It is only a modeled trend with relative impedance. Can also be written as:
Deterministic Inversion = Relative Inversion + Model (Francis, 2014)

d) Stochastic Inversion:

It is the technique of simulating possible rock property models using the seismic data. It helps
remove tuning effects, it models the uncertainty and it be computed at fine scale.

e) AVO Inversion:

AVO inversion, is the first step in analysis processing, which uses the pre-stack seismic data and
well log data by a combination of visual, analytical and modeling processes to measure weighted
stacking of each partial stack to estimate reservoir characterizations mostly in oil and gas
industries. Since AVO method dealt with the information of each input partial stack with a
unique wavelet separately, so stacking process is not suitable process in data analysis, and pre-
stack seismic inversion is good choice. The ultimate goal of AVO inversion is to improve
seismic data to have a better estimation and more detailed view of the subsurface structure and
physical parameters, which is inevitable under certain conditions.

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f) LMR Inversion:

The LMR technique is an AVO inversion, in which prestack seismic CMP gathers are inverted to extract
volumes of Lamé’s elastic rock parameters. It has been an important technique in exploration for gas
sands the high amplitude reflection events, for example analysis of “Bright Spots” or low impedance silts
of no commercial values “False Bright Spots”. (Young & Tatham, 2007)

Several oil and gas company use AVO inversion to have a better efficiency and quality estimation in rock
properties such as porosity in their information to reduce risk in hydrocarbon exploration and
exploitation now.

 Post-Stack Seismic Inversion:

Post-stack seismic Inversion, developed in the 1970s, reverses the forward modeling procedure,
allowing us to derive the impedance from the reflectivity:

Figure 1: Simple Post-Stack Model

a) Relative Inversion:

Compares a conventional seismic reflectivity section with the simplest form of inversion, known
as a relative impedance, which is directly estimated from the seismic with no model inputs and
so is a robust and reliable seismic property. One feature of a relative inversion such as colored
inversion is that the data is trendless.

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Figure 2: Conventional seismic reflection data compared with colored impedance data. The colored picture cannot be seen in
Black and white print

b) Simulated Annealing:

In the realm of seismic inversion, the current usage of simulated annealing are in exploration
geophysics in several fields including seismic, resistivity, gravity and AVO inversion, seismic
modeling, deconvolution, fracture estimation, and vice versa. This method assumes stochastic
distribution of elastic parameters and models in order to consider many pairs of them to achieve
the best fit of synthetic and real seismic data. (Francis, 2014)

c) Constrained Sparse-Spike Inversion (CSSI):

CSSI transforms seismic data to a pseudo-acoustic impedance log at every trace. Acoustic
impedance is used to produce more accurate and detailed structural and stratigraphic
interpretations than can be obtained from seismic (or seismic attribute) interpretation. In many
geological environments acoustic impedance has a strong relationship to petrophysical properties
such as porosity, lithology, and fluid saturation.

d) Geostatistical inversion:

Geostatistical inversion integrates high resolution well data with low resolution 3-D seismic, and
provides a model with high vertical detail near and away from well control. This generates reservoir
models with geologically-plausible shapes, and provides a clear quantification of uncertainty to assess
risk. Highly detailed petrophysical models are generated, ready for input to reservoir-flow simulation.

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e) Model-Based Inversion:

A model-based inversion uses a forward model to calculate synthetic seismic data as part of the
inversion algorithm.

Types of Inversion Used In Hydrocarbon Exploration

The types of Inversion in Exploration and Production Industry, Seismic Specialists are:
1) Velocity Inversion
It is also called Travel time Inversion. It is used to solve a variety of problems. It is used for
depth imaging. It uses seismic traces that spaced widely and used to generate a velocity-depth
earth model that best describes the recorded arrival times of seismic waves. This solution is
applied in data-processing steps such as migration and stacking. Seismic interpreters use these
images to determine the shape and depth of subsurface reflectors.
2) Amplitude Inversion

The use of Amplitude data in the inversion can help to solve the velocity-depth uncertainty
because the amplitudes and travel times respond quickly to different features of the model,
therefore providing more accurate information about subsurface features, structures and velocity
distribution. The reflected seismic wave amplitude can be determined by the reflection
coefficients and to some extent the deviation of the reflector from the plane.

In other words we can say It uses the arrival time and the amplitude of reflected seismic waves at
every reflection point to solve for the relative impedances of formations bounded by the imaged
reflectors. This inversion called seismic inversion for reservoir characterization reads between
the lines, or between reflecting interfaces, to produce detailed models of rock properties.
(Barclay , et al., Spring 2008)

 Conclusions / Discussion

Interpreters need to consider seismic inversion whenever interpretation is complicated by interference

from nearby reflectors or the end result is to be a quantitative reservoir property such as porosity.
Output in the format of geologic cross-sections of rock properties (as opposed to seismic reflection
amplitudes) is endlessly useful as a means a put geologist, geophysicists, petrophysicists and engineers
“on the same page”.

Although there are several problems that we face with Seismic Inversion for example, seismic ‘tuning’,
and the other one is with using seismic inversion data in reservoir modeling is the large difference in

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vertical resolution between the model and the seismic impedance and other problem is faced in
deterministic inversion in which our reservoir model could follow the trends of another model we have
created by mistake.

Apart from all the problems Seismic Inversion is a powerful tool for extracting reservoir rock and fluid
information from seimic data. Although most seismic surverys are designed for imaging alone,
companies are increasingly applying inversion to get more out of their investments in seismic data.
Seismic inversion are now being performed on every seismic dataset and no drilling is being done
without it.

 References:
Barclay , F., Bruun , A., Cooke , A., Cooke, D., Salter , D., Godfrey , R., . . . Alfaro, J. C.
(Spring 2008). Seismic Inversion: Reading Between the Lines. Oilfield Review, 42-63.
Rajput, S., & Ring, M. (2014). The Role of Seismic Inversion in Exploration and Development:
Adding Value and Reducing Uncertainties . Offshore Technology Conference (pp. 2-16).
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysi: Baker Hughes Incorporated.
Young, K. T., & Tatham, R. H. (2007). Lambda-mu-rho Inversion As a Fluid And Lithology
Discriminator In the Columbus Basin,Offshore Trinidad. San Antonio, Texas: Society of
Exploration Geophysicists.