Improved Seismic Inversion and Facies Using Regional Rock Physics Trends: Case Study from Central North Sea

Seismic inversion is routinely used in the delineation of drillable leads and prospects. However, the algorithms and techniques that are most widely used today suffer from a number of shortcomings. In this paper we demonstrate how we can use per-facies compaction trends, derived from a regional rock physics study in Central North Sea, to perform joint inversion of seismic data from the Brenda and Forties fields. No wells from the Brenda or Forties field were used in deriving the per-facies compaction trends. The joint inversion results provide reliable estimates of seismic facies and corresponding absolute rock properties without the requirement for direct well calibration and model building.