ENHANCEMENT OF THE GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE SCOTIAN BASIN BY THE APPLICATION OF SPECTRAL INVERSION, OFFSHORE NOVA SCOTIA

Reflections from the top and bottom of beds thinner than λ/4 cannot be distinguished from one another due to the limit of seismic resolution. It would be advantageous for geoscientists to image thin beds below resolution, especially those which are of reservoir quality. Frequency information obtained from spectral decomposition is related to the temporal thickness of layers. Spectral inversion uses a priori geological information and spectral decomposition to view thin beds below seismic resolution. Spectral inversion is applied to a 3D dataset from the Scotian Basin, on the shelf of Nova Scotia. Two wells, Petro-Can Shell Penobscot L-30 and Shell Petro-Can Penobscot B-41, were drilled in this study area. The L-30 well encountered hydrocarbons within five thin sand beds sealed by intraformational shales. Hydrocarbons were not encountered in the B-41 well, 3.25 km away. Several of these beds, identified on gamma ray logs, were found in both wells and were not visible on the original 3D seismic data. Vertical resolution in this area was improved from 60 m to 21 m. The accuracy of these bed thicknesses was increased using the spectral inversion volume. Some thin beds were able to be mapped which were not previously seen at all on seismic, as well as some small-throw faulting between the wells, improving the imaging of geological features in this area.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Geophysics

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Sayers, Jordan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Castagna, John P.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Chesnokov, Evgeni M.
• Elias, Brian

• Seismic attributes
• Geophysics

Statement dc:rights

• The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10657/458

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/458