Value Creation by a Long-term Time-lapse Processing Approach on the Heidrun Field

Abstract

One of the challenges in processing and analysis of time lapse data is the long turnaround required to process the data. The long turnaround can decrease the value of the time lapse data as the conclusions drawn from the seismic might not impact critical decisions i.e. well planning. A further strain on resources arises by the need to re-process all required vintages as it is normally not possible to process the newly acquired dataset in a comparable manner to existing datasets from previous years due to software changes or updates. Therefore a lot of time and resources are spent on the re-evaluation of re-processed datasets leading to prolonged decision cycles. This paper describes the case history of the Heidrun 4D processing and subsequent analysis of the 2011 acquired data using a long-term processing strategy in order to achieve a short turnaround, maintaining the best possible data quality and limiting the data output to newly acquired datasets only. Further we will show how these factors increase the value of the 4D seismic data by impacting well decisions.