Gravity modeling as guidance for salt interpretation: a case study from the Western Gulf of Mexico

Irina Filina
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The study integrates the gravity, seismic and well datasets in the Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The major objective of the gravity model was to guide salt interpretation during proprietary seismic reprocessing. The gravity model was built on seismic horizons; the density distribution was derived from seismic velocity volume via modified Gardner equation. The modification implied a depth-dependence of the Gardner coefficient that was derived from the well data and the public domain datasets. The gravity model was updated iteratively with seismic re-processing phases. The project resulted in the more robust salt model, which led to the significant improvements in the subsalt image.

Presentation (PowerPoint File)

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