Oil How does seismic find oil?
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Oil
How does seismic find oil?
How is seismic used to find oil and gas underground?
The reflection seismic method is used at the Earths surface to image rock structures and estimate rock types that might form underground oil and gas reservoirs.
The reflection seismic method is based on measuring the time that it takes for sound waves to travel from a seismic source (for example a man-made explosion) through the earth to a rock layer that reflects the sound back to a recording device.
It is similar, in principle, to medical imaging methods that image the inside of a human body, such as NMR and Ultrasound scanning,
Seismic data does not directly identify the age of or type of rock. For this, it is necessary to match the seismic reflections with data from drilled wells and knowledge of rocks that can be seen at the surface. The process of labeling seismic reflections with specific rocks is "Interpretation". The process was once performed using colored pencils to draw lines on paper plots of the seismic. Today it is usually done on a computer screen or 3D visualization system. There are some good examples of seismic interpretation at this Schlumberger Information Solutions web page.
See also (Multilingual)
"The Making of Oil" on this site
See also (English, German, Spanish, French, Arabic)
Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) students pages
See also (English):
SEG "Virtual Museum" - Geophysical Prospecting: How to find oil!
Society of Petroleum Engineers
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