This reference is for an abstract only. A full paper was not submitted for this conference.
The US Onshore Wamsutter Field Development Team executed two seismic field trials in 2006: a borehole seismic field trial and a cableless surface seismic field trial. The borehole seismic field trial consists of a 4-well crosswell tomography program, and acquisition of a massive 3D VSP with 8000 ft of 3C receiver tool deployed in the wellbore and 6000 surface vibroseis source points. The surface seismic field trial is the world's first deployment of the FireFly cableless seismic acquisition system, with 8300 3C digital sensors deployed, and 7200 explosive source points. These field trials were designed to increase seismic resolution, improve imaging and identification of higher porosity zones, and increase fault and fracture detection, with the ultimate goal of optimizing field performance. The data that was previously available for interpretation had a dominant frequency of 25 Hz, which allowed us to image reservoir thicknesses of greater than 50 feet. The producing reservoirs have much lower average thicknesses, which have been targeted with the new higher resolution crosswell, 3D VSP and dense surface seismic data. Rock properties understanding of the Wamsutter reservoirs has been fundamental to well-to-seismic calibration and interpretation and analysis of the seismic datasets. Seismic forward modelling has been undertaken to calibrate the seismic responses, as part of a larger integrated effort to understand porosity and lithology responses and fracture anisotropy. Field acquisition presented many challenges which were safely and successfully overcome. The crosswell data has resolved reservoir thicknesses of less than 20 feet. Frequencies from the 3D VSP are better than historically recovered in surface seismic data. This integrated borehole/surface seismic approach has allowed us to better understand the seismic responses and calibrate rock properties to different levels of seismic resolution. The Wamsutter Seismic Field Trials is a true success story worth sharing globally.
