A novel warped-space concept for interactive 3D-geometry-inversion to improve seismic imaging

M.R. Alvers, H.J. Götze, L. Barrio-Alvers, C. Plonka, S. Schmidt and B. Lahmeyer present a technique whereby triangulated facets and voxel-cubes are treated in parallel, allowing integrated models for seismic, magnetic and EM data. It is a commonly accepted truth in the oil industry that ‘the easy oil has been found’. Finding the remaining hydrocarbons requires better technologies. Examples are exploration projects below salt and basalt, which are difficult to image with seismic. The main exploration method is still seismic but it has become more important to integrate seismic with other methods in order to improve imaging. In areas of strong lateral velocity and density changes, gravity modelling can help to improve velocity models used for seismic imaging. Efforts of joint interpretation of e.g., seismic, gravity and EM methods lead to more and more realistic and therefore more complex models.