Rapid inversion of electromagnetic reconnaissance survey data

US8538699B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• EXXONMOBIL UPSTREAM RESEARCH COMPANY · US

Inventors

• Charlie Jing · Houston, US
• Dennis E. Willen · Houston, US
• James J. Carazzone · Houston, US
• Dmitriy A. Pavlov · Diemelstraße, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 30, 2007
• Grant date: Sep 17, 2013
• Expiry date: Oct 23, 2028

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01V3/12
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Method for rapid inversion of data from a controlled-source electromagnetic survey of a subterranean region. Selected (51) common-receiver or common-source gathers of the data are reformed into composite gathers (52) by summing their data. Each composite gather is forward modeled (in the inversion process) with multiple active source locations (53). Computer time is reduced in proportion to the ratio of the total number of composite gathers to the total number of original common-receiver or common-source gathers. The data may be phase encoded to prevent data cancellation. Methods for mitigating loss of far offset information by data overlap in the summing process are disclosed.