Direct correlation of 4D seismic with well activity for a clarified dynamic reservoir interpretation

A method to provide an improved time-lapse seismic attribute for dynamic interpretation is presented. This is based on the causal link between the time-lapse seismic response and well production activity taken over time. The resultant image is obtained by computing correlation coefficients between sequences of time-lapse seismic changes extracted over different time intervals from multiply repeated seismic and identical time sequences of cumulative fluid volumes produced or injected from the wells. Maps of these cross-correlations show localized, spatially contiguous signals surrounding individual wells or a specific well group. These may be associated with connected regions around the selected well or well group. Application firstly to a synthetic data set reveals that hydraulic compartments may be delineated using this method. A second application to a field data set provides empirical evidence that a connected well-centric fault block and active geobody can be detected. It is concluded that uniting well data and time-lapse seismic using our proposed method delivers a new attribute for dynamic interpretation and potential updating of the model for the producing reservoir.