Integrating disciplines for petroleum system analysis – from seismic interpretation to stratigraphic and basin modelling

Abstract

This special issue focuses on the integration of different disciplines, ranging from seismic sequence stratigraphy and seismic interpretation to stratigraphic and basin modelling. Integration has been a recurring topic for several decades in the industry, but it is a topic that requires constant attention to bring to new levels of maturity in the workplace. The question is why – especially since the industry has widely acknowledged that the integration of disciplines is vital. Looking at possible factors, integration is often difficult due to lack of knowledge of the other disciplines, a perennial need for well-documented examples, and obstacles to communication. With this special issue of Petroleum Geoscience , and the EAGE Research Workshop in September 2006 from which these articles derive, we are contributing to discipline integration by communicating results of real-life case studies. Improving communication and exchanging results generated by these different disciplines will enable us to achieve a better overall understanding of the geological setting in basins. For example, basin modellers are aware that their models can be improved by additional information, such as porosity values, lithology variation within formations (Hantschel 2006), fluid migration pathways (Ligtenberg & Thomsen 2003) and detailed structural data, available from application of sequence stratigraphy, stratigraphic modelling, interpretation and inversion of seismic data (Klarner et al . 2008). Similarly, sequence stratigraphers should be able to derive useful additional information from seismic data and could be assisted by information from stratigraphic and basin modelling. However, such integration of different methods is often hampered due to unstructured communication between the different disciplines involved and insufficient case studies to establish best practice. The current practice of building reservoir models often patches together separate models for the different data, which can lead to inconsistent results without truly balancing scales, resolution and coverage. For example, to achieve integration, what …