Stochastic seismic inversion and Bayesian facies classification applied to porosity modeling and igneous rock identification

We apply stochastic seismic inversion and Bayesian facies classification for porosity modeling and igneous rock identification in the presalt interval of the Santos Basin. This integration of seismic and well-derived information enhances reservoir characterization. Stochastic inversion and Bayesian classification are powerful tools because they permit addressing the uncertainties in the model. We used the ES-MDA algorithm to achieve the realizations equivalent to the percentiles P10, P50, and P90 of acoustic impedance, a novel method for acoustic inversion in presalt. The facies were divided into five: reservoir 1,reservoir 2, tight carbonates, clayey rocks, and igneous rocks. To deal with the overlaps in acoustic impedance values of facies, we included geological information using a priori probability, indicating that structural highs are reservoir-dominated. To illustrate our approach, we conducted porosity modeling using facies-related rock-physics models for rock-physics inversion in an area with a well drilled in a coquina bank and evaluated the thickness and extension of an igneous intrusion near the carbonate-salt interface. The modeled porosity and the classified seismic facies are in good agreement with the ones observed in the wells. Notably, the coquinas bank presents an improvement in the porosity towards the top. The a priori probability model was crucial for limiting the clayey rocks to the structural lows. In Well B, the hit rate of the igneous rock in the three scenarios is higher than 60%, showing an excellent thickness-prediction capability.

Key parameter optimization and analysis of stochastic seismic inversion

Stochastic seismic inversion is the combination of geostatistics and seismic inversion technology which integrates information from seismic records, well logs, and geostatistics into a posterior probability density function （PDF） of subsurface models. The Markov chain Monte Carlo （MCMC） method is used to sample the posterior PDF and the subsurface model characteristics can be inferred by analyzing a set of the posterior PDF samples. In this paper, we first introduce the stochastic seismic inversion theory, discuss and analyze the four key parameters： seismic data signal-to-noise ratio （S/N）, variogram, the posterior PDF sample number, and well density, and propose the optimum selection of these parameters. The analysis results show that seismic data S/N adjusts the compromise between the influence of the seismic data and geostatistics on the inversion results, the variogram controls the smoothness of the inversion results, the posterior PDF sample number determines the reliability of the statistical characteristics derived from the samples, and well density influences the inversion uncertainty. Finally, the comparison between the stochastic seismic inversion and the deterministic model based seismic inversion indicates that the stochastic seismic inversion can provide more reliable information of the subsurface character.

Fast pre-stack multi-channel inversion constrained by seismic reflection features

Classical multi-channel technology can significantly reduce the pre-stack seismic inversion uncertainty, especially for complex geology such as high dipping structures. However, due to the consideration of complex structure or reflection features, the existing multi-channel inversion methods have to adopt the highly time-consuming strategy of arranging seismic data trace-by-trace, limiting its wide application in pre-stack inversion. A fast pre-stack multi-channel inversion constrained by seismic reflection features has been proposed to address this issue. The key to our method is to re-characterize the reflection features to directly constrain the pre-stack inversion through a Hadamard product operator without rearranging the seismic data. The seismic reflection features can reflect the distribution of the stratum reflection interface, and we obtained them from the post-stack profile by searching the shortest local Euclidean distance between adjacent seismic traces. Instead of directly constructing a large-size reflection features constraint operator advocated by the conventional methods, through decomposing the reflection features along the vertical and horizontal direction at a particular sampling point, we have constructed a computationally well-behaved constraint operator represented by the vertical and horizontal partial derivatives. Based on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) optimization, we have derived a fast algorithm for solving the objective function, including Hadamard product operators. Compared with the conventional reflection features constrained inversion, the proposed method is more efficient and accurate, proved on the Overthrust model and a field data set.

Inverse stochastic resonance in modular neural network with synaptic plasticity

This work explores the inverse stochastic resonance(ISR) induced by bounded noise and the multiple inverse stochastic resonance induced by time delay by constructing a modular neural network, where the modified Oja’s synaptic learning rule is employed to characterize synaptic plasticity in this network. Meanwhile, the effects of synaptic plasticity on the ISR dynamics are investigated. Through numerical simulations, it is found that the mean firing rate curve under the influence of bounded noise has an inverted bell-like shape, which implies the appearance of ISR. Moreover, synaptic plasticity with smaller learning rate strengthens this ISR phenomenon, while synaptic plasticity with larger learning rate weakens or even destroys it. On the other hand, the mean firing rate curve under the influence of time delay is found to exhibit a decaying oscillatory process, which represents the emergence of multiple ISR. However, the multiple ISR phenomenon gradually weakens until it disappears with increasing noise amplitude. On the same time, synaptic plasticity with smaller learning rate also weakens this multiple ISR phenomenon, while synaptic plasticity with larger learning rate strengthens it. Furthermore, we find that changes of synaptic learning rate can induce the emergence of ISR phenomenon. We hope these obtained results would provide new insights into the study of ISR in neuroscience.

Prestack seismic stochastic inversion based on statistical characteristic parameters

In the conventional stochastic inversion method,the spatial structure information of underground strata is usually characterized by variograms.However,effectively characterizing the heterogeneity of complex strata is difficult.In this paper,multiple parameters are used to fully explore the underground formation information in the known seismic reflection and well log data.The spatial structure characteristics of complex underground reservoirs are described more comprehensively using multiple statistical characteristic parameters.We propose a prestack seismic stochastic inversion method based on prior information on statistical characteristic parameters.According to the random medium theory,this method obtains several statistical characteristic parameters from known seismic and logging data,constructs a prior information model that meets the spatial structure characteristics of the underground strata,and integrates multiparameter constraints into the likelihood function to construct the objective function.The very fast quantum annealing algorithm is used to optimize and update the objective function to obtain the fi nal inversion result.The model test shows that compared with the traditional prior information model construction method,the prior information model based on multiple parameters in this paper contains more detailed stratigraphic information,which can better describe complex underground reservoirs.A real data analysis shows that the stochastic inversion method proposed in this paper can effectively predict the geophysical characteristics of complex underground reservoirs and has a high resolution.

Comparison of deterministic and stochastic approaches to crosshole seismic travel-time inversions

The Bayesian inversion method is a stochastic approach based on the Bayesian theory.With the development of sampling algorithms and computer technologies,the Bayesian inversion method has been widely used in geophysical inversion problems.In this study,we conduct inversion experiments using crosshole seismic travel-time data to examine the characteristics and performance of the stochastic Bayesian inversion based on the Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling scheme and the traditional deterministic inversion with Tikhonov regularization.Velocity structures with two different spatial variations are considered,one with a chessboard pattern and the other with an interface mimicking the Mohorovicicdiscontinuity(Moho).Inversions are carried out with different scenarios of model discretization and source–receiver configurations.Results show that the Bayesian method yields more robust single-model estimations than the deterministic method,with smaller model errors.In addition,the Bayesian method provides the posterior probabilistic distribution function of the model space,which can help us evaluate the quality of the inversion result.

Petrophysical parameters inversion for heavy oil reservoir based on a laboratory-calibrated frequency-variant rock-physics model

Heavy oil has high density and viscosity, and exhibits viscoelasticity. Gassmann's theory is not suitable for materials saturated with viscoelastic fluids. Directly applying such model leads to unreliable results for seismic inversion of heavy oil reservoir. To describe the viscoelastic behavior of heavy oil, we modeled the elastic properties of heavy oil with varying viscosity and frequency using the Cole-Cole-Maxwell (CCM) model. Then, we used a CCoherent Potential Approximation (CPA) instead of the Gassmann equations to account for the fluid effect, by extending the single-phase fluid condition to two-phase fluid (heavy oil and water) condition, so that partial saturation of heavy oil can be considered. This rock physics model establishes the relationship between the elastic modulus of reservoir rock and viscosity, frequency and saturation. The viscosity of the heavy oil and the elastic moduli and porosity of typical reservoir rock samples were measured in laboratory, which were used for calibration of the rock physics model. The well-calibrated frequency-variant CPA model was applied to the prediction of the P- and S-wave velocities in the seismic frequency range (1–100 Hz) and the inversion of petrophysical parameters for a heavy oil reservoir. The pre-stack inversion results of elastic parameters are improved compared with those results using the CPA model in the sonic logging frequency (∼10 kHz), or conventional rock physics model such as the Xu-Payne model. In addition, the inversion of the porosity of the reservoir was conducted with the simulated annealing method, and the result fits reasonably well with the logging curve and depicts the location of the heavy oil reservoir on the time slice. The application of the laboratory-calibrated CPA model provides better results with the velocity dispersion correction, suggesting the important role of accurate frequency dependent rock physics models in the seismic prediction of heavy oil reservoirs.

Pre-stack inversion for caved carbonate reservoir prediction:A case study from Tarim Basin,China

The major storage space types in the carbonate reservoir in the Ordovician in the TZ45 area are secondary dissolution caves.For the prediction of caved carbonate reservoir,post-stack methods are commonly used in the oilfield at present since pre-stack inversion is always limited by poor seismic data quality and insufficient logging data.In this paper,based on amplitude preserved seismic data processing and rock-physics analysis,pre-stack inversion is employed to predict the caved carbonate reservoir in TZ45 area by seriously controlling the quality of inversion procedures.These procedures mainly include angle-gather conversion,partial stack,wavelet estimation,low-frequency model building and inversion residual analysis.The amplitude-preserved data processing method can achieve high quality data based on the principle that they are very consistent with the synthetics.Besides,the foundation of pre-stack inversion and reservoir prediction criterion can be established by the connection between reservoir property and seismic reflection through rock-physics analysis.Finally,the inversion result is consistent with drilling wells in most cases.It is concluded that integrated with amplitude-preserved processing and rock-physics,pre-stack inversion can be effectively applied in the caved carbonate reservoir prediction.

Elastic modulus extraction based on generalized pre-stack PP–PS wave joint linear inversion

Joint PP–PS inversion offers better accuracy and resolution than conventional P-wave inversion. P-and S-wave elastic moduli determined through data inversions are key parameters for reservoir evaluation and fluid characterization. In this paper, starting with the exact Zoeppritz equation that relates P-and S-wave moduli, a coefficient that describes the reflections of P-and converted waves is established. This method effectively avoids error introduced by approximations or indirect calculations, thus improving the accuracy of the inversion results. Considering that the inversion problem is ill-posed and that the forward operator is nonlinear, prior constraints on the model parameters and modified low-frequency constraints are also introduced to the objective function to make the problem more tractable. This modified objective function is solved over many iterations to continuously optimize the background values of the velocity ratio, which increases the stability of the inversion process. Tests of various models show that the method effectively improves the accuracy and stability of extracting P and S-wave moduli from underdetermined data. This method can be applied to provide inferences for reservoir exploration and fluid extraction.

Impedance inversion of pre-stack seismic data in the depth domain

The extensive application of pre-stack depth migration has produced huge volumes of seismic data,which allows for the possibility of developing seismic inversions of reservoir properties from seismic data in the depth domain.It is difficult to estimate seismic wavelets directly from seismic data due to the nonstationarity of the data in the depth domain.We conduct a velocity transformation of seismic data to make the seismic data stationary and then apply the ridge regression method to estimate a constant seismic wavelet.The estimated constant seismic wavelet is constructed as a set of space-variant seismic wavelets dominated by velocities at different spatial locations.Incorporating the weighted superposition principle,a synthetic seismogram is generated by directly employing the space-variant seismic wavelets in the depth domain.An inversion workflow based on the model-driven method is developed in the depth domain by incorporating the nonlinear conjugate gradient algorithm,which avoids additional data conversions between the time and depth domains.The impedance inversions of the synthetic and field seismic data in the depth domain show good results,which demonstrates that seismic inversion in the depth domain is feasible.The approach provides an alternative for forward numerical analyses and elastic property inversions of depth-domain seismic data.It is advantageous for further studies concerning the stability,accuracy,and efficiency of seismic inversions in the depth domain.

Rockfill material uncertainty inversion analysis of concrete-faced rockfill dams using stacking ensemble strategy and Jaya optimizer

Numerical simulation of concrete-faced rockfill dams(CFRDs)considering the spatial variability of rockfill has become a popular research topic in recent years.In order to determine uncertain rockfill properties efficiently and reliably,this study developed an uncertainty inversion analysis method for rockfill material parameters using the stacking ensemble strategy and Jaya optimizer.The comprehensive implementation process of the proposed model was described with an illustrative CFRD example.First,the surrogate model method using the stacking ensemble algorithm was used to conduct the Monte Carlo stochastic finite element calculations with reduced computational cost and improved accuracy.Afterwards,the Jaya algorithm was used to inversely calculate the combination of the coefficient of variation of rockfill material parameters.This optimizer obtained higher accuracy and more significant uncertainty reduction than traditional optimizers.Overall,the developed model effectively identified the random parameters of rockfill materials.This study provided scientific references for uncertainty analysis of CFRDs.In addition,the proposed method can be applied to other similar engineering structures.

Output Feedback for Stochastic Nonlinear Systems with Unmeasurable Inverse Dynamics

This paper considers a concrete stochastic nonlinear system with stochastic unmeasurable inverse dynamics. Motivated by the concept of integral input-to-state stability （iISS） in deterministic systems and stochastic input-to-state stability （SISS） in stochastic systems, a concept of stochastic integral input-to-state stability （SiISS） using Lyapunov functions is first introduced. A constructive strategy is proposed to design a dynamic output feedback control law, which drives the state to the origin almost surely while keeping all other closed-loop signals almost surely bounded. At last, a simulation is given to verify the effectiveness of the control law.

Pre-stack AVO inversion with adaptive edge preserving smooth filter regularization based on Aki-Richard approximation

With the development of exploration of oil and gas resources,the requirements for seismic inversion results are getting more accurate.In particular,it is hoped that the distribution patterns of oil and gas reservoirs can be finely characterized,and the seismic inversion results can clearly characterize the location of stratigraphic boundaries and meet the needs of accurate geological description.Specifically,for pre-stack AVO inversion,it is required to be able to distinguish smaller geological targets in the depth or time domain,and clearly depict the vertical boundaries of the geological objects.In response to the above requirements,we introduce the preprocessing regularization of the adaptive edge-preserving smooth filter into the pre-stack AVO elastic parameter inversion to clearly invert the position of layer boundary and improve the accuracy of the inversion results.

Reservoir parameter inversion based on weighted statistics

Variation of reservoir physical properties can cause changes in its elastic parameters. However, this is not a simple linear relation. Furthermore, the lack of observations, data overlap, noise interference, and idealized models increases the uncertainties of the inversion result. Thus, we propose an inversion method that is different from traditional statistical rock physics modeling. First, we use deterministic and stochastic rock physics models considering the uncertainties of elastic parameters obtained by prestack seismic inversion and introduce weighting coefficients to establish a weighted statistical relation between reservoir and elastic parameters. Second, based on the weighted statistical relation, we use Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations to generate the random joint distribution space of reservoir and elastic parameters that serves as a sample solution space of an objective function. Finally, we propose a fast solution criterion to maximize the posterior probability density and obtain reservoir parameters. The method has high efficiency and application potential.

An inverse method for characterization of dynamic response of 2D structures under stochastic conditions

The reliable estimation of the wavenumber space(k-space)of the plates remains a longterm concern for acoustic modeling and structural dynamic behavior characterization.Most current analyses of wavenumber identification methods are based on the deterministic hypothesis.To this end,an inverse method is proposed for identifying wave propagation characteristics of twodimensional structures under stochastic conditions,such as wavenumber space,dispersion curves,and band gaps.The proposed method is developed based on an algebraic identification scheme in the polar coordinate system framework,thus named Algebraic K-Space Identification(AKSI)technique.Additionally,a model order estimation strategy and a wavenumber filter are proposed to ensure that AKSI is successfully applied.The main benefit of AKSI is that it is a reliable and fast method under four stochastic conditions:(A)High level of signal noise;(B)Small perturbation caused by uncertainties in measurement points’coordinates;(C)Non-periodic sampling;(D)Unknown structural periodicity.To validate the proposed method,we numerically benchmark AKSI and three other inverse methods to extract dispersion curves on three plates under stochastic conditions.One experiment is then performed on an isotropic steel plate.These investigations demonstrate that AKSI is a good in-situ k-space estimator under stochastic conditions.

Detailed reservoir inversion addressing geological problems in reservoir development

In the Ken 71 development block, fluvial facies of the Neogene Guantao Formation and delta facies of the Paleogene Dongying Formation are the main pay beds. It is a multiple oil and water system which is complicated by faults. Characteristics of the block include a dense well network, thin reservoirs, complicated horizontal relationships, and small velocity difference between reservoir and non-reservoir. Therefore, it is difficult to conduct detailed reservoir description for subsequent development project adjustment. We demonstrate a stochastic seismic inversion which aims at detailed reservoir description. It is a technology which utilizes multiple wells, seismic data, and geological calibration and integrates with 3D structural interpretation results to build a 3D multi-fault detailed and constrained geological model. On this basis, we adopted stochastic seismic inversion to conduct a multi-stratum parameters inversion such as impedance and lithology. As a result, thin interbedded strata in the block were well resolved and the results demonstrated the importance of detailed reservoir inversion for oilfield development.

A Quadratic precision generalized nonlinear global optimization migration velocity inversion method

An important research topic for prospecting seismology is to provide a fast accurate velocity model from pre-stack depth migration. Aiming at such a problem, we propose a quadratic precision generalized nonlinear global optimization migration velocity inversion. First we discard the assumption that there is a linear relationship between residual depth and residual velocity and propose a velocity model correction equation with quadratic precision which enables the velocity model from each iteration to approach the real model as quickly as possible. Second, we use a generalized nonlinear inversion to get the global optimal velocity perturbation model to all traces. This method can expedite the convergence speed and also can decrease the probability of falling into a local minimum during inversion. The synthetic data and Mamlousi data examples show that our method has a higher precision and needs only a few iterations and consequently enhances the practicability and accuracy of migration velocity analysis （MVA） in complex areas.

Fluid discrimination incorporating amplitude variation with angle inversion and squirt flow of the fluid

Pre-stack seismic inversion is an important method for fluid identification and reservoir characterization in exploration geophysics. In this study, an effective fluid factor is initially established based on Biot poroelastic theory, and a pre-stack seismic inversion method based on Bayesian framework is used to implement the fluid identification. Compared with conventional elastic parameters, fluid factors are more sensitive to oil and gas. However, the coupling effect between rock porosity and fluid content is not considered in conventional fluid factors, which may lead to fuzzy fluid identification results. In addition,existing fluid factors do not adequately consider the physical mechanisms of fluid content, such as squirt flow between cracks and pores. Therefore, we propose a squirt fluid factor(SFF) that minimizes the fluid and pore mixing effects and takes into account the squirt flow. On this basis, a novel P-wave reflection coefficient equation is derived, and the squirt fluid factor is estimated by amplitude variation with offset(AVO) inversion method. The new reflection coefficient equation has sufficient accuracy and can be utilized to estimate the parameters. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method in fluid identification are verified by the synthetic and field examples.