Incorporating Ambiguity and Uncertainty into Subsurface Model Building

A geological model of a subsurface reservoir is unavoidably less complicated than the geological reality at depth. Two significant factors that contribute to this simplification are ambiguity of the seismic expression of faults and uncertainty caused by the presence of structural heterogeneities that are below the limit of seismic resolution. This is particularly important since fault systems are segmented, and fault architecture will vary with displacement. The fault ranking methodology described in this contribution is a useful way to help quantify interpretation uncertainty, and to identify which faults might need to be revised or might require mutiple realistic interpretations. The scaling relationships described in this work provide a means to estimate a realistic range of the dimensions of fault zone architectural elements, and therefore a way to calculate a realistic range of values for fault properties such as transmissibility.