Time-lapse Seismic Waveform Modelling - Anisotropic Ray Tracing Using Hydro-mechanical Simulation Models

An integrated reservoir-geomechanical simulation, rock physics relations and 4D seismic forward modelling method is presented in this paper. With synthetic time-variant elastic earth models built on output from reservoir geomechanical modelling and stress-sensitive rock physics models, the simulated time-lapse seismic attributes can be linked with dynamic fluid-flow and rock deformation not only in a reservoir level but also the overburden and underburden rocks by applying various seismic forward simulation approaches. The method can be applied to quantitatively analyse the sensitivity of reservoir rock properties changes to 4D seismic wavefield for time-lapse reservoir characterization.