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Journal of the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA)
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Interpretative filtering

Leïla Ajjabou A , Maëlle Bourdais B D , Natalia Gritsajuk A , Sébastien Lacaze C and Jean-Philippe Adam C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Estimages France, 5 Villa de Lourcine, 75014 Paris, France.

B Estimages Australia, 4/7 Ventnor Avenue, West Perth, WA 6005, Australia.

C Eliis, Parc Mermoz – 187, rue Helene Boucher, 34170 Castelnau Le Lez, France.

D Corresponding author. Email: maelle.bourdais@estimages.com

The APPEA Journal 57(2) 687-691 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ16124
Accepted: 31 March 2017   Published: 29 May 2017

Abstract

Industry already acknowledges the power of dip-steered median filters to clean-up seismic data volume in which coherent events are enhanced and random noise is reduced. By combining two powerful technologies, this paper presents a dip-steered geostatistical filtering solution, called interpretative filtering (IF), which gives remarkable results for removing random and organised noise from seismic volumes. It defines a new generation of spatial filters useful for processing and interpretation. The IF solution is based on a 3D non-stationary factorial kriging technique (M-GS technology) driven by a high-resolution interpretation of the seismic volume coming from a Relative Geological Time model. This new technique enables some non-stationary noise to be dealt with. For example acquisition footprints are well known to be non-stationary noises, with varying orientation, width and intensity as a function of the position in the volume. IF opens the way to refine filtering operations of seismic volumes even in complex structural environments.

For this paper, the solution is applied to an open-file 3D marine seismic dataset (HCA2000A 3D) covering the Exmouth sub-basin, North West Shelf, Australia. This survey presents a dense fault system, mostly intersecting the Jurassic and the Cretaceous. Results show a great improvement on reducing the acquisition footprint and random noise without compromising the definition of the subtle geological features.

Keywords: factorial kriging, footprint, interpretation noise attenuation, stationarity.

Leïla Ajjabou holds a Master’s Degree from the ENSG (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie) in France. She joined ESTIMAGES in 2012 and developed the activity of ESTIMAGES in Australia, then in Brazil and in North America. Leïla is now in charge of business development for Africa and South America.

Maëlle Bourdais holds a Master’s Degree in Geosciences from Polytech Paris - UPMC in France. She joined ESTIMAGES in 2013 in Australia. She pursued training in geostatistics in 2013 and is now in charge of the business development for the Asia-Pacific area. She has 4 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. She has supervised most of the regional velocity modelling projects carried out by ESTIMAGES in Australia covering the North West Shelf area as well as the GAB, Gippsland and Otway basins.

Natalia Gritsajuk holds a Master’s Degree from the IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris) in France. She pursued training in geostatistics in 2013 at Ecole des Mines de Paris. She joined ESTIMAGES in 2013 in Paris as a geophysicist. She has led numerous projects in velocity modelling and seismic filtering for the Paris office and also the Norwegian and Australian affiliates.

Sébastien Lacaze is a geophysicist and co-founder of Eliis, a software company specialised in seismic interpretation, which developed the software PaleoScan. He is the co-inventor of the method for 3D geological modelling from seismic data. His past experience includes employment as a seismologist at the French Atomic Energy Commission and a research geophysicist at Techsia. He has a Master of Science in Applied Geophysics (Pierre and Marie Curie University, France) and a Master of Science in Fundamental Geophysics (Brest University, France).

Jean-Philippe Adam is a geophysicist at Eliis, a software company specialised in seismic interpretation, which developed the software PaleoScan. As a member of Eliis Geoscience team, he provides support, training and services for PaleoScan customers. His past experience includes employment as QC geophysicist and senior QC geophysicist for land acquisition at CGG. He holds a Master of Science in Geophysics (School and Observatory of Earth Sciences (EOST), Strasbourg).


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