Seismic Coloured Inversion (now built using Qt®)

A superior fast track method for the inversion of seismic data

	Enables the rapid inversion of 2D/3D seismic data.
	Allows the Interpretation Geophysicist to generate relative Acoustic Impedance in a time frame previously thought impossible.
	Can be seamlessly integrated with existing seismic interpretation systems and allows Interpretation Geophysicists to gain access to inversion techniques.
	Now available as an OpendTect plugin
	Provides a globally optimised inversion consistent with observed behaviour from well logs.
	Rapid, robust, inexpensive and eliminates the need for expert users.
	De-trend and normalisation, allow the relative amplitude changes observed in the impedance volumes to be interpreted quantitatively.
	Used in conjunction with 4C/4D data, SCI can assist in the interpretation effort of such data.

Product Description

Inversion of seismic data to Acoustic Impedance (AI) is usually seen as a specialist activity. In spite of publicised benefits, inverted data are only used in a minority of cases. To help overcome this obstacle, this new algorithm which is quick and easy to use, can increase the use of inversion technology. SCI performs significantly better than traditional fast-track methods such as recursive inversion, and benchmarks well against unconstrained sparse-spike inversion. With the inclusion of de-trend and normalisation functionality within SCI, geophysical meaning can now be assigned to the observed amplitude changes in the derived impedance volumes. This can be very powerful, particularly with 4D projects. Once the SCI operator has been derived, it can be simply applied using the 3D processing tool included within the SCI software. In this way, inversion can be achieved within hours since the volume data do not have to be exported to another package. Existing fast-track methods for band-limited inversion to relative AI are prone to error because no account is taken of the seismic wavelet or calibration to the Earth. Although more sophisticated techniques such as sparse-spike inversion take account of these factors, specialist skills are required. SCI takes into account the seismic wavelet and is consistent with log data. With this technique, it is now possible to routinely invert any dataset within hours and establish a base case against which more sophisticated techniques must be judged. SCI enables the rapid inversion of 2D/3D data. A single convolution inversion operator is derived that optimally inverts the data and honours available well data in a global sense. In this way, the process is intrinsically stable and broadly consistent with known AI behaviour in the area. Construction of the operator is a simple process and implementation can be readily performed within the processing module included in SCI. As an explicit wavelet is not required, other than testing for a residual constant phase rotation as the last step, this removes an inherently weak link that more sophisticated processes rely on.

Benefits of SCI

Generally, traditional inversion methods (e.g.sparse- spike) are time consuming, expensive,require specialists and are not performed routinely by the Interpretation Geophysicist, whereas SCI is rapid, easy to use, inexpensive, robust and does not require expert users. SCI and unconstrained sparse-spike appear to give broadly equivalent results. SCI seamlessly connects with third party seismic and well data repositories (including SeisWorks, OpenWorks and GeoFrame) using our client/server technology. SCI is now available as an OpendTect plugin and can be downloaded from the OpendTect downloads center. This allows SCI analysis,operator design and processing to be performed without separately importing or exporting data.

Application Support and Maintenance

With a support and maintenance contract from ARK CLS Limited, clients can download software updates in the form of new releases and patches. Online documentation is available for SciQt standalone and for SciQt  plugin

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