Next Generation Inversion Technology Could Be Key To Additional Reserves

Copenhagen, March 2005. Ødegaard, international provider of technology to the oil industry, is introducing a new generation of technology for oil and gas companies worldwide to unlock hidden value in their seismic data, which could translate into previously unrealized reserves and revenues.

The first pre-stack version of its pioneering ISIS globally optimized and simultaneous seismic inversion solution being launched by Ødegaard takes to a new level of accuracy an oil company's opportunity to estimate key reservoir characteristics from seismic data. The benefits of the process have already been successfully tested on numerous data sets from the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

Kim Gunn Maver, managing director, Ødegaard, said: ‘We know that inversion for pre-stack seismic is what the oil companies are looking for to get maximum dollar out of available seismic data. Our ISIS reservoir characterization tool provides a remarkably accurate prediction from seismic data of the rock properties in hydrocarbon formations. '

Kim Gunn Maver admits that oil companies in the past have not seen the need to evaluate their seismic data so systematically. ‘These days every drop of extra oil counts, so companies now understand the value of our solution.'

Ødegaard has consistently led the field in showing how specialized inversion techniques applied to seismic data (2D, 3D, 4D and multicomponent) can extract the quantitative as opposed to qualitative measurements of rock properties needed by reservoir engineers.

Performing pre-stack inversion with ISIS, the full gather is utilized at any fold. Pre-conditioning can be performed such as amplitude adjustment, NMO correction and alignment. Preparing partial stacks is also possible, if required, facilitated by the lower signal-to-noise ratio. The pre-conditioning and pre-processing is tested by performing inversions, which are compared to well log data. The inversion technology provides measurable increases in the accuracy of both acoustic impedance and Poisson's ratio/shear impedance and density, all crucial determinants in building a reservoir model.

Ødegaard is a leading provider of software and service products for seismic reservoir characterization and petroleum engineering within both exploration and production. Well log analysis, rock physics modelling , inversion of 2D, 3D, 4D, and OBC seismic prepared as pre-, partial- and full-stack, neural network, geo-statistics provides prediction of porosity, fluid and lithology in time and depth. Ødegaard has offices in Copenhagen, Aberdeen, Stavanger, Houston, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur and Rio de Janeiro.