Nine majors supporting 4D seismic R&D program

May 18, 2022
Sharp Reflections has opened its Foundation Project V (FP-V) initiative, titled "Quantitative tools for efficient 4D seismic analysis in PreStack Pro."

Offshore staff

STAVANGER, Norway — Sharp Reflections has opened its Foundation Project V (FP-V) initiative, titled "Quantitative tools for efficient 4D seismic analysis in PreStack Pro."

The R&D program, supported by nine oil and gas majors, aims to establish PreStack Pro as a leading platform for time-lapse seismic analysis.

It builds on earlier R&D that led to development of 4D seismic data infrastructure, 4D post-migration seismic processing and 4D data display capabilities.

Sharp’s goal now is to develop a solution for analysis of prestack and multi-vintage 4D seismic datasets. Over the next few years, it will work with ConocoPhillips, Equinor, Exxon Mobil, Hess, Lundin (Aker BP), Petrobras, TotalEnergies, Vår Energi and Wintershall DEA to implement proven 4D quantitative seismic analysis methods.

This will lead to new software tools designed to swiftly analyze production-induced changes in seismic travel times and amplitudes in prestack seismic data. Sharp’s team will test these methods on field datasets and integrate the new methods into its backers’ workflows.

Operators should benefit, the company added, in terms of improved understanding of subsurface fluid and pressure changes in reservoirs, and in their field management and production management decision-making.

The 4D seismic data analysis tools will include prestack time-shift estimation and analysis methods as well as 4D inversion capabilities to detect reservoir property changes, augmented by new functionality for scenario modeling of the expected 4D response.

The project also should create improved data exchange capabilities in PreStack Pro compatible with the open subsurface data universe (OSDU) platform.

Sharp will work with the Edinburgh Time-Lapse Partnership at Heriot-Watt University, Scotland, on these developments.

05.18.2022