Imaging CSEM data in the presence of electrical anisotropy

IMAGING CSEM DATA IN THE PRESENCE OF ELECTRICAL ANISOTROPY Gregory A. Newman * , Michael Commer * and James J. Carazzone + Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley California ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston Texas Email: ganewman@lbl.gov ABSTRACT Formation anisotropy should be incorporated into the analysis of controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) data because failure to do so can produce serious artifacts in the resulting resistivity images for certain data configurations of interest. This finding is demonstrated in model and case studies. Sensitivity to horizontal resistivity will be strongest in the broadside electric field data where detectors are offset from the tow line. Sensitivity to the vertical resistivity is strongest for over flight data where the transmitting antenna passes directly over the detecting antenna. Consequently, consistent treatment of both over flight and broadside electric field measurements requires an anisotropic modeling assumption. To produce a consistent resistivity model for such data we develop and employ a 3D CSEM imaging algorithm that treats transverse anisotropy. The algorithm is based upon non-linear conjugate gradients and full wave equation modeling. It exploits parallel computing systems to effectively treat 3D imaging problems and CSEM data volumes of industrial size. Here we use it to demonstrate the anisotropic imaging process on model and field data sets from the North Sea and offshore Brazil. We also verify that isotropic imaging of over flight data alone produces an image generally consistent with the vertical resistivity. However, superior data fits are obtained when the same over flight data are analyzed assuming an anisotropic resistivity model.