Seismic Data Interpretation using Digital Image Processing

ABDULLATIF A. AL-SHUHAIL is an Associate Professor of Geophysics at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM). He got his BS from KFUPM in Geophysics in 1988, his MS and PhD in Geophysics from Texas A&M University at College Station in 1993 and 1998, respectively. Since then he has been teaching and advising at KFUPM. He founded and directed the Near Surface Seismic Investigation Consortium at KFUPM in 2006-2008. He has authored and co-authored several papers in the field of petroleum seismic exploration. He is an active member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers, and the Dhahran Geoscience Society. His interests include near-surface effects on petroleum seismic data, seismic investigation of fractured reservoirs, and ground penetrating radar. SALEH A. AL-DOSSARY works in the Exploration Application Services Department in Saudi Aramco Oil Company, developing new seismic processing, attributes and pre-stack depth-migration algorithms. In 1991, Saleh received his B.S. degree in Computer Science with a minor in Geophysics from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM. He received his M.S. degree in 1997 from Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, and in 2004 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Houston, TX, both in Geophysics. Saleh holds five patents, and is an applicant for five additional patents in seismic edge preserving and detection technology. He is the author and coauthor of several articles published by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG). Saleh received the Distinguished Employee Award in Saudi Aramco's Exploration Application Services Department in 1999, the Outstanding Student Award from the University of Houston in 2003 and the Saudi Aramco Excellence Award in 2015. WAIL A. MOUSA is an Associate Professor with the Electrical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). He received the B.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering and mathematical sciences and M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from KFUPM, in 2000, 2001, and 2003, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electronics and electrical engineering from the University of Leeds in 2006. Between 2003 and 2009, he worked as a Research Scientist on applied signal processing for geology and geophysics at the Schlumberger. His research interests include digital signal processing and its application in geophysics, with particular emphasis on Seismic Data Processing. Additional interests include design and implementation of digital filters including wavefield extrapolation filters, image segmentation, pattern recognition, and classification and their applications related to geophysical and geological data.

• Foreword xiPreface xv1 Introduction 11.1 Image Processing of Exploration Seismic Data 11.2 Exploration Seismic Data: From Acquisition to Interpretation 11.2.1 Seismic Data Acquisition 21.2.2 Seismic Data Processing 21.2.3 Seismic Data Interpretation 21.3 The Seismic Convolution Model 31.4 Summary 62 Seismic Data Interpretation 72.1 Introduction 72.2 Structural Features 112.2.1 Faults 112.2.2 Folds 182.2.3 Diapirs 212.3 Stratigraphic Features 222.3.1 Channels 242.3.2 Reefs 262.3.3 Truncation 272.4 Seismic Interpretation Tools 272.4.1 Seismic Sequence Stratigraphy 292.4.2 Seismic Facies Analysis 332.4.3 Direct Hydrocarbon Indicators 352.4.4 Tying Seismic and Well Data 352.4.5 Seismic Modeling 352.4.6 Time-to-Depth Conversion 412.4.7 Seismic Attributes 442.5 Pitfalls in Seismic Interpretation 442.6 Summary 482.7 Problems and Computer Assignments 493 Seismic Image Enhancement in the Spatial Domain 593.1 Introduction 593.1.1 The Mean (Running-Average) Filter 603.2 The Median Filter 633.3 The Edge-Preserving Smoothing Algorithm 663.3.1 Two-Dimensional Structure-Preserving Smoothing 673.4 Wavelet-Based Smoothing 703.4.1 Method 703.4.2 Sharpening Filter 713.5 Summary 723.6 Problems and Computer Assignments 734 Seismic Image Enhancement in the Spectral Domain 774.1 Introduction 774.2 The Fourier Transform 774.3 Filtering in the Spectral Domain 804.4 Spectral Attributes 834.5 Summary 854.6 Problems and Computer Assignments 855 Seismic Attributes 875.1 Introduction 875.2 Detection of Interesting Regions from Time or Depth Three-Dimensional Slices using Seismic Attributes 875.3 Two-Dimensional Numerical Gradient Edge-Detector Operators 895.4 Application to Real Seismic Data 915.5 Two-Dimensional Second-Order Derivative Operator 965.5.1 The Coherence Attribute 965.5.2 The Dip Attribute 1005.6 The Curvature Attribute 1015.7 Curvature of the Surface 1035.7.1 Curve, Velocity, and Curvature 1035.7.2 Surface, Tangent Plane, and Norm 1045.8 Shape Operator, Normal Curvature, and Principal Curvature 1055.8.1 Normal Curvature 1055.8.2 Shape Operator 1055.8.3 The Principal Curvatures 1065.8.4 Calculation of the Principal Curvatures 1065.8.5 Summary of Calculation of Principal Curvature for a Surface 1075.9 The Randomness Attribute 1085.10 Technique for Two-Dimensional Images 1095.10.1 Problem Statement and Preliminaries 1095.10.2 Review of Fast Noise Variance Estimation Algorithm 1105.10.3 Design Mask by Constrained Optimization 1115.11 The Spectral Decomposition Attribute 1135.12 Summary 1155.13 Problems and Computer Assignments 1166 Color Display of Seismic Images 1236.1 Introduction 1236.2 Color Models and Useful Color Bars 1246.2.1 The RGB Model 1256.2.2 The CMY Model 1256.2.3 The HSI Model 1266.2.4 Useful Color Bars 1276.3 Overlay and Mixed Displays of Seismic Attribute Images 1276.4 Summary 1306.5 Problems and Computer Assignments 1307 Seismic Image Segmentation 1337.1 Introduction 1337.2 Basic Seismic Image Segmentation 1347.3 Advanced Seismic Image Segmentation 1367.3.1 Color-Based Segmentation 1367.3.1.1 The Imposed Constraints for the POCS Color Segmentation Method 1377.3.2 Graph-Based Segmentation 1397.4 Automatic Fault Extraction 1407.5 Summary 143Glossary 145References 151Index 157