Improving vertical resolution in the Panny Field using 2D seismic inversion

Nicolas Williams Martin

Several authors (Neidell et al., 1985; Lindseth and Beraldo, 1985; Aves and Tappmeyer, 1985, and Russell, 1992, among others) have shown that the seismic inversion plays an important role in identifying seismic sequences and in delineating seismic facies by transforming seismic amplitude in velocity profile.

The actual seismic data was acquired in the Panny field, northern Alberta and represents a set of seven 2D seismic lines containing carbonates and interlayered salt- anhydrite formations at different depths. The most important formation in this field is the Keg River Fm which is productive from the carbonates located at the Upper Keg River.

From the seismic data is very difficult to determine the top of the Keg River Fm. as result of interference effects related to the on-structure thinning of both the basal Paleozoic clastic section and the basal Muskeg anhydrite/Precambrian interval (Anderson et al., 1989).

The objective of this study is to illustrate the usefulness of the seismic inversion method in mapping the top of the Keg River Fm from 2D bandlimited seismic data by characterizing the amplitudes by pseudo velocities in carbonates.