Single Loop Litho-Petro-Elastic Modelling and Inversion: An Example of Prospect Characterization in the Norwegian Sea

Summary A single-loop litho-petro-elastic seismic characterization workflow is described. The foundation of the approach lies on deterministic and stochastic rock physics modelling. Solving jointly for lithofacies and elastic properties overcomes the traditional limitation of conventional seismic inversion workflows, represented by the difficulty of building accurate 3D prior models. With the litho-petro-elastic AVA inversion, the low-frequency model is not explicitly defined, but compaction trends are used instead to derive the missing low frequencies in a data-driven fashion. The workflow also extends to the estimation of petrophysical properties, once again inferred by stochastic perturbation of the rock model and maximization of the a posteriori probability of the petrophysical outputs given the measured seismic attributes.