Estimation of Resrvoir Properties by Joint Inversion of Seismic AVO and CSEM data

Abstract

Porosity and water saturation in a horizontal top-reservoir are estimated from seismic AVO (Amplitude Versus Offset) data and Controlled Source Electromagnetic (CSEM) data jointly. A model connecting porosity and saturation to both AVO effects and to the phase shift of electromagnetic signals is constructed. In this model, Gassmann's equations, Archie's law, Zoeppritz' equations and ray-tracing is involved. We use a Bayesian approach to solve the inversion problem, and the solution is given as posterior distributions for the parameters of interest. We also investigate the noise levels in the two types of data, and how these affect the estimates of the reservoir properties. Gaussian assumptions and linearizations are made to ensure analytically tractable posterior distributions for porosity and saturation, and a Gibbs sampler is used to explore the joint posterior for porosity, saturation and noise levels. The method is applied to both synthetic data, and field data from the Troll gas field. The results from the joint inversion are compared to results from using seismic data exclusively and a clear improvement is found in the estimates of the synthetic case. The results from the Troll data are more ambiguous, probably caused by the problem of picking seismic data along the top-reservoir and inaccuracies in the fixed parameters in the geophysical forward model.