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Chapter 27
Conclusions
This book on interpretation covers several fundamental geophysical
principles and is intended to serve as an introduction to the topic. It is cer-
tainly not the final word on the subject.
We hope the reader realizes, by this point, that interpretation is an inte-
grative process. Effective interpretation will use all available data and will
produce a map or model that is consistent with all observations. Tools such
as cooperative inversion or geostatistics indicate that interpretation is en-
hanced by the use of several reliable data sets. This is definitely true of res-
ervoir characterization, which requires data of different wavelengths to pro-
vide a complete picture of the reservoir volume.
Much has changed in geophysical interpretation in past decades. Al-
though reflection seismology remains the workhorse of geophysical explora-
tion, 3D seismic surveys are now the standard reservoir characterization tool
and are used routinely. The seismic-interpretive workstation has allowed vast
amounts of 3D data to be analyzed effectively in a tractable manner. Visual-
ization tools have seen great advances in the last decade. One of the greatest
advances in fault detection has come about through development of coheren-
cy technologies.
Pitfalls in seismic interpretation will always be with us. However, many
of the pitfalls of the last decade have been obviated by use of modern explo-
ration methods.
One of the most common pitfalls in past years has arisen from misin-
terpretation of seismic time-section anomalies as depth anomalies. This can
be avoided by effective use of depth migration. However, this solution as-
sumes that we have obtained accurate velocity estimates — the velocity-
estimation problem continues to be important.
The pitfall of “out-of-plane” reflections can be solved by use of 3D seis-
mic exploration. Modern multiple-suppression methods should help to elim-
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