f Two-component prestack linearized elastic inversion for reservoir characterization

Prestack linearized elastic inversion is an advanced approach for reservoir characterization compared to conventional AVO methods. The elastic parameters estimated at the reservoir level are a potential source of information on lithological, petrophysical and fluid variations. This paper develops a two-component prestack linearized elastic inversion which allows to determine a 2D elastic target zone embedded in an almost laterally invariant elastic medium. The interest of accounting for the two components in the inversion process is investigated on simple examples (scattering point, isolated reflector), then on a realistic synthetic example built from a North sea field. The elastic parameters obtained by inversion of the realistic case are interpreted in terms of reservoir properties in order to evaluate the contribution of the proposed method to reservoir characterization.