# US 2017/0285194 A1 · 2D Multiline Seismic Reflection Tomography With Seismic-Tie Constraint

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- Number: US 2017/0285194 A1
- Document ID: US20170285194A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 15/450,854
- Filed: 2017-03-06
- Published: 2017-10-05
- Earliest claimed: 2016-03-30
- Assignees: ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
- Inventors: Jaewoo Park; Carey M. Marcinkovich; Rongrong Lu
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20170285194A1

## CPC

- G01V 1/303: {for determining velocity profiles or travel times}
- G01V 1/282: {Application of seismic models, synthetic seismograms}
- G01V 2210/512: Pre-stack
- G01V 2210/614: Synthetically generated data
- G01V 2210/6222: Velocity; travel time
- G01V 2210/679: Reverse-time modeling or coalescence modelling, i.e. starting from receivers
- G01V: GEOPHYSICS; GRAVITATIONAL MEASUREMENTS; DETECTING MASSES OR OBJECTS; TAGS (means for indicating the location of accidentally buried, e.g. snow-buried, persons A63B29/02)

## Abstract

A method, including: generating updated velocity models, each corresponding to one of a plurality of initial velocity models of intersecting 2D seismic survey lines, wherein updates to the plurality of initial velocity models are computed by imposing a seismic-tie regularization constraint on an inversion process that inverts for the updates to the plurality of initial velocity models, and the seismic-tie regularization constraint causes the updated velocity models to have consistent values for depth of seismic reflectivity at intersecting spatial locations.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method comprising:
generating updated velocity models, each corresponding to one of a plurality of initial velocity models of intersecting 2D seismic survey lines, wherein updates to the plurality of initial velocity models are computed by imposing a seismic-tie regularization constraint on an inversion process that inverts for the updates to the plurality of initial velocity models, and the seismic-tie regularization constraint causes the updated velocity models to have consistent values for depth of seismic reflectivity at intersecting spatial locations.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein a system of equations for the 2D seismic survey lines are merged diagonally, instead of vertically, to cause the updated velocity models to have consistent values for depth of seismic reflectivity at intersecting spatial locations.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, wherein the system of equations that are merged diagonally include null matrices on an diagonal opposite to a diagonal for the system of equations for the 2D seismic survey lines.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein the system of equations that are merged diagonally include a trade-off parameter to adjust regularization of the seismic-tie regularization constraint.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the inversion process determines the updates to the plurality of initial velocity models from residual depth error measurements from common image gathers, raytracing based on the initial velocity models, and the seismic-tie regularization constraint.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
from each of the plurality of initial velocity models, generating a 2D seismic reflectivity image from a 2D pre-stack depth migration;
determining, for each 2D seismic reflectivity image, how much a selected reflector's depth shifts up or down along offset with respect to particular reference depth; and
generating the updates to the plurality of initial velocity models with the seismic-tie regularization constraint and the reflector's depth shifts.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, wherein the particular reference depth is a nearest offset trace.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the inversion process determines a velocity update using a numerical solver, and the method further includes splitting the velocity update determined by the inversion process into a separate update for each of the plurality of initial velocity models.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of intersecting 2D seismic survey lines each has a different seismic-tie regularization constraint.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising updating at least one of the initial velocity models by adjusting a trade-off parameter included in the seismic-tie regularization constraint.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein as the trade-off parameter increases, greater weight is placed on the seismic-tie constraint.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising using the updated velocity models to generate a subsurface image of the Earth.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising drilling a well at a location determined at least in part from the updated velocity models and extracting hydrocarbons from the well.