Characterization of a steamed oil reservoir using cross-well seismology

Cross-well seismic tomography is developing into an important tool for reservoir management, and within the last few years there have been some notable advances in out understanding its imaging capability. Tomography has evolved from its roots in medicine to encompass a broad range of geophysical applications (which include earthquake hypocenter location, mining, and nuclear waste disposal) in addition to oil field operations. The fundamental technical requirements for the latter have been demonstrated. High-frequency seismic waves capable of traveling long interwell distances can be generated without damaging the borehole, and mathematical inversion techniques can give reliable images as long as problems associated with nonuniform and incomplete sampling are handled correctly.