Joint flow-seismic inversion for characterizing fractured reservoirs: theoretical approach and numerical modeling

Abstract

Traditionally, seismic interpretation is performed without any account of the flow behavior. Here, we present a methodology to characterize fractured geologic media by integrating flow and seismic data. The key element of the proposed approach is the identification of the intimate relation between acoustic and flow responses of a fractured reservoir through the fracture compliance. By means of synthetic models, we show that: (1) owing to the strong (but highly uncertain) dependence of fracture permeability on fracture compliance, the modeled flow response in a fractured reservoir is highly sensitive to the geophysical interpretation; and (2) by incorporating flow data (well pressures and production curves) into the inversion workflow, we can simultaneously reduce the error in the seismic interpretation and improve predictions of the reservoir flow dynamics.