oa A High Resolution VSP in the Oil Sands for Improved Reservoir Characterization

This is a case study that looks at the application of a high resolution multi-component VSP acquired in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region of Canada. The 2D Walkaway VSP was the first to be acquired using a new type of downhole array capable of over 2,000 channels of 3-component data per borehole. The HDVSP™ array is based on the VectorSeis® MEMS sensors, which are deployed at either 1 or 2-metre intervals from the surface to the bottom of the well. For this case study, 141 3C sensors were deployed in the well at 2m intervals. The Athabasca oil sands region is an area with complex reservoirs, complex fluid distributions and unconventional rock property behavior. High quality shallow multi-component seismic data contributes to the conditions required for unprecedented detail in reservoir characterization, enabling accurate predictions of both lithology and fluids. The incorporation of converted-wave data shows how an under-utilized dimension of seismic data can increase the quality of the solution. The VSP data was used to improve the seismic reservoir characterization by enabling high-quality calibration and integration of the converted shear (PS) data with the conventional P-wave (PP) data obtained from the multi-component 3D surface seismic.