A Workflow Integrating Seismic Interpretation and Stratigraphic Modelling – Application to the NPRA Basin

Abstract

When available, seismic data is a key input for basin characterization.However, seismic data are sometimes sparse, with locally poor quality, and limited resolution. Consequently, seismic interpretation provides information which is often uncertain and quantitatively not precise enough. In an other hand, process based stratigraphic modelling consists in the forward simulation of the sedimentary processes which formed the basin architecture over geolocical times. Stratigraphic modelling basically provides the same type of deliverable as the seismic interpretation, namely a description of the basin architecture : major stratigraphic discontinuities and lithology distribution. The output stratigraphic model is precisely quantified everywhere in the basin, and is supposed to be geologically consistent. Here, the uncertainty on the final basin model is related to the parameters used for the numerical simulations. These two approaches provide, through different ways, complementary information of the same nature. Integrating them in the same basin characterization workflow will obviously decrease the uncertainty on the final geological model. In this paper, we describe how we propose to integrate the two approaches in a unique workflow, in order to provide a unified description of the basin, which is both consistent with the seismic data and with a process-based stratigraphic modelling technique.