Introduction To

OpendTect & OpendTect Pro

dGB Earth Sciences - OpendTect version 6.6

Training Manual
(January 2021)

dGB Beheer B.V.

Nijverheidstraat 11-2 12946 Dairy Ashford Rd. Ste 220

7511 JM Enschede Sugar Land, TX 77478
The Netherlands USA
Tel: +31 53 4315155 Tel. +1 281 240 3939
Fax:+31 53 4315104 Fax. +1 281 240 3944
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: https://dgbes.com

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Table of Contents
Introduction ToOpendTect & OpendTect Pro 1
Table of Contents 2
About this manual 5
Licenses 8
About F3 Demo dataset 9
Support Options 11
User Mailing List 11
Support 11
Social Media 11
Documentation 11
1 Part I: Free Software 14
1.1 About OpendTect 14
1.2 Set up a Survey & Load Data 16
1.2.1 Survey Definition 17
1.2.2 SEG-Y Scan Setup & Load 18
1.2.2a Survey Setup & Load SEG-Y 19
1.2.2b Load SEG-Y 27
1.2.3 Import Horizon 31
1.2.3a Horizon 32
1.2.4 Import Well Data 34
1.2.4a Well Data 35
1.2.5 Multi-Well Import 41
1.3 Basic Interaction 42
1.3.1 Tree, Scene & Elements 44
1.3.1a Display An Inline 45
1.3.1b Pre-load Data 46
1.3.2 View, Position and Interpretation Mode 47
1.3.2a Position, Zoom, Pan, Rotate 48
1.3.3 Random lines 52
1.3.3a Random Line 54
1.3.3b Random Line Through Wells 56
1.3.4 Save & Restore Session 57
1.4 Seismic Interpretation 58
1.4.1 Well-to-Seismic Tie 59
1.4.1a Well Tie 60
1.4.2 Horizon Tracking 66
1.4.2a 3D Auto-track 68
1.4.2b Tracking In 2D Viewer 77
1.4.3 Fault Interpretation 82
1.4.3a Fault Planes 83
1.4.3b Fault Sticks 86
1.4.4 Velocity Gridding & Time-Depth Conversion 91
1.4.4a Stacking Velocities 92
1.4.4b Grid Stacking Velocities 94

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 1.4.4c TD Conversion On-the-fly 98
1.4.4d TD Volume Conversion In Batch 101
1.4.4e TD Horizon Conversion In Batch 104
1.4.4f Setup Survey For Depth Converted Data 106
1.4.4g Import TD Converted Volumes And Horizons 108
1.5 Attribute Analysis & Cross-plots 112
1.5.1 Bright Spot Detection and Visualization 116
1.5.1a Bright Spot 117
1.5.2 Spectral Decomposition 128
1.5.2a Spectral Decomposition 129
1.5.3 Cross-plots 135
1.5.3a Attributes - Attributes 137
1.5.3b Attributes - Wells 146
1.5.3c Bayesian Inversion 149
2 Part II: Commercial Software 157
2.1 OpendTect Pro 158
2.1.1 PetrelDirect 159
2.1.1a From Petrel 160
2.1.1b Inline From Petrel 162
2.1.2 Basemap 163
2.1.2a Basemap 164
2.1.3 PDF3D 166
2.1.3a PDF3D 167
2.1.4 Thalweg tracker 168
2.1.4a Thalweg Tracker 169
2.1.5 Raytracer 173
2.2 Commercial Plug-ins 174
2.2.1 dGB Plug-ins 175
2.2.2 ARK CLS & Earthworks Plug-ins 178
2.3 Attributes & Filters 180
2.3.1 Dip-Steering 181
2.3.1a Steering Cube 185
2.3.1b Dip & Azimuth 188
2.3.1c Dip-steered Similarity 190
2.3.1d Dip-steered Median Filter 194
2.3.1e Mathematics 197
2.3.1f Dip-steered Diffusion Filter 199
2.3.1g Dip-steered Fault Enhancement Filter 203
2.3.1h Unconformity Tracker 209
2.3.2 Attributes for Faults & Fractures 212
2.3.2a Thinned Fault Likelihood 213
2.3.2b Volume Curvature And Others 215
2.3.2c Bodies 220
2.3.2d Planes 224
2.3.3 Ridge Enhancement Filter (REF) 228
2.3.3a Ridge Enhancement Filter 229
2.3.4 Frequency Enhancement (Spectral Blueing) 232
2.3.4a Spectral Blueing 233

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 2.3.5 Flat-Spot Detection 239
2.3.5a Optical Stacking 241
2.3.5b Seismic Feature Enhancement 244
2.3.5c Fluid Contact Finder 248
2.3.6 Seismic Object Detection Using Neural Networks 252
2.3.6a Waveform Segmentation - Quick UVQ 255
2.3.6b Waveform Segmentation - Standard UVQ 258
2.3.6c ChimneyCube 264
2.4 HorizonCube and Sequence Stratigraphy 271
2.4.1 HorizonCube 274
2.4.1a Data-driven HorizonCube 283
2.4.1b 3D Bodies From HorizonCube 298
2.4.1c Truncate HorizonCube 303
2.4.1d Horizons From HorizonCube 306
2.4.2 Sequence Stratigraphic Interpretation System (SSIS) 308
2.4.2a Stratal Terminations 312
2.4.2b Stacking Patterns 314
2.4.2c Wheeler Scene 317
2.4.2d Systems Tracts 322
2.4.2e Statistical (Thickness) Curves 329
2.4.2f Stratigraphic Surfaces 332
2.4.2g Stratigraphic Attributes 338
2.4.2h Stratal Slicing 342
2.4.3 Well Correlation Panel 347
2.4.3a Well Correlation Panel 349
2.5 Seismic Predictions 354
2.5.1 Relative Impedance Inversion (SCI) 355
2.5.1a Coloured Inversion 356
2.5.2 Absolute Impedance Inversion (DI & MPSI) 362
2.5.2a Extracting Horizontal Variograms 364
2.5.2b Extracting Vertical Variograms 367
2.5.3 Porosity Prediction using Neural Networks 369
2.5.3a Neural Network Prediction 371
Appendix - GMT Software 380

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About this manual
This training manual is prepared for geo-scientists who want to learn how to use
OpendTect seismic interpretation software. The OpendTect suite of software
tools consists of two parts: a free (open source) part and a commercial (closed
source) part that is protected by license managing software. The free part con-
sists of a base system called OpendTect that can be optionally extended with
free plugins. The commercial software consists of a software layer on top of
OpendTect called OpendTect Pro that offers extra functionality for professional
seismic interpreters.

OpendTect Pro can be further extended with a range of commercial plug-ins for
special work flows. This manual teaches both parts. Theory and background of
some of the more advanced work flows are given but the focus is on hands-on
exercises that are executed on “F3 Demo”, a 3D seismic data set from offshore
the Netherlands. Manual and data set are released free-of-charge for self-train-
ing. The same material is used by dGB Earth Sciences, the company behind
OpendTect, in commercial training classes.

To follow the free exercises in Part 1 of this manual you need to install
OpendTect and download F3 Demo. To follow the commercial exercises in Part
2 you need to install OpendTect Pro and all of the commercial plug-ins. For
details, please follow the instructions for F3 Demo Training on the website.

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OpendTect is supported on Linux (64 bits), Mac OS X and Windows 8.1 & 10 (64
bits). The latest version of OpendTect + plug-ins can be downloaded from the
Download page. The full instructions for installation can be found via the Install
page.

OpendTect itself runs without license keys but the commercial plug-ins are pro-
tected by FlexNet license managing software. Entitlement is stored in FlexNet
license keys that are checked whenever you run one of the commercial plug-ins.
A warning message is given in case you are not entitled to run the software (e.g.
when a colleague grabbed the last license before you). F3 Demo is a special
data set. No license checks are made if you work on this data set. In other words
all exercises in this manual can be performed without license keys.

The training manual consists of two parts:

Part I – Free Software

l OpendTect
l Set up a survey & data loading

l Basic interaction

l Attribute analysis & cross-plots

l Well to Seismic Tie

l Interpretation of horizons & faults

l Time-Depth conversion

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Part II – Commercial Software*

l OpendTect Pro
l Set up a survey and get data from Petrel

l Basemap interaction

l Grab and share 3D pdf images

l Seismic facies tracking (Thalweg tracker)

l AVO attributes & Angle stacks

l Attributes & filters

l Structurally oriented filters & attributes (Dip-Steering)

l Frequency enhancement (Spectral Bluing)

l Flat spot enhancement (Fluid Contact Finder)

l Object detection (Neural Networks)

l HorizonCube & sequence stratigraphy

l Global Interpretation (HorizonCube, Well Correlation Panel)

l Sequence stratigraphic interpretation (SSIS)

l Seismic Predictions
l Band-limited inversion (Colored Inversion)

l Full-bandwidth inversion (Deterministic Inversion)

l Stochastic inversion (MPSI)**

*Not all commercial extensions are introduced in this manual. For training of Syn-
thRock (stochastic pseudo-well modeling & HitCube inversion) and Velocity
Model Building (pre-stack NMO & RMO picking) please contact dGB. For XField
(potential field – gravity & EM - modeling) please contact the developers ARK
CLS.

**Multi-Point-Stochastic-Inversion is introduced in this manual. For a more com-

plete (commercial) training class please contact dGB.

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Licenses
The OpendTect suite of software products is released under a triple licensing
policy:

l GNU / GPL license – grants access to the free (open source) part only.
l OpendTect Pro license – grants access to both parts free (open source)
and commercial (closed source).
l Academic license – grants access to both parts to Universities for edu-
cation and R&D only.

Under the GNU / GPL license, OpendTect is completely free-of-charge, includ-

ing for commercial use.

The OpendTect Pro license gives access to OpendTect Pro and the (closed
source) plug-ins. Licenses can either be bought (permanent license) or rented
on a monthly or annual basis. The closed source parts of OpendTect are pro-
tected by FlexNet license keys.

Under the academic license agreement Universities can obtain free licenses for
OpendTect Pro and the commercial plug-ins for R&D and educational purposes.

For more information please visit the website at the Download page.

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About F3 Demo dataset

Google maps showing the location of the

F3 Demo dataset (brown-filled rectangle)

F3 is a block in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. The block is covered by 3D
seismic that was acquired to explore for oil and gas in the Upper-Jurassic –
Lower Cretaceous strata, which are found below the interval selected for this
demo set. The upper 1200ms of the demo set consists of reflectors belonging to
the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene. The large-scale sigmoidal bedding is
readily apparent, and consists of the deposits of a large fluviodeltaic system that
drained large parts of the Baltic Sea region (Sørensen et al, 1997; Overeem et
al, 2001).

The deltaic package consists of sand and shale, with an overall high porosity
(20-33%). Some carbonate-cemented streaks are present. A number of inter-
esting features can be observed in this package. The most striking feature is the
large-scale sigmoidal bedding, with text-book quality downlap, toplap, onlap,
and truncation structures. Bright spots are also clearly visible, and are caused by
biogenic gas pockets. They are not uncommon in this part of the North Sea.
Several seismic facies can be distinguished: transparent, chaotic, linear,
shingles. Well logs show the transparent facies to consist of a rather uniform
lithology, which can be either sand or shale. The chaotic facies likely represents
slumped deposits. The shingles at the base of the clinoforms have been shown
to consist of sandy turbidites.

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The original F3 dataset is rather noisy, to remove the noise, a dip- steered
median filter with a radius of two traces was applied to the data. The median
filtered data (exercise 2.3.1 Dip-Steering) was subsequently inverted to acoustic
impedance using the industry standard Strata software. A number of horizons
were mapped on a loose grid to study the sigmoidal shaped structures. Continu-
ous horizons were created from these coarse grid interpretations by interpolation
with an inverse distance interpolation algorithm. Within the survey, four vertical
wells are present. All wells had sonic and gamma ray logs. Only two wells (F2-1
and F3-2) had density logs. These logs were used to train a neural network that
was then applied to the other two wells (F3-4 and F6-1) to predict density from
sonic and gamma-ray logs. Porosity in all cases was calculated from density
using the formula: Porosity = (2.65 – Density) / (2.65 – 1.05).

The F3 Block is available, along with other datasets, via the Open Seismic
Repository on the TerraNubis website.

References

Overeem, I, G. J. Weltje, C. Bishop-Kay, and S. B. Kroonenberg (2001) The Late

Cenozoic Eridanos delta system in the Southern North Sea basin: a climate sig-
nal in sediment supply? Basin Research, 13, 293-312.

Sørensen, J.C., Gregersen, U, Breiner, M and Michelsen, O. (1997) High fre-

quency sequence stratigraphy of upper Cenozoic deposits. Mar. Petrol. Geol.,
14, 99-123.

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Support Options
There are several ways of getting help with OpendTect’s interactions and work-
flows.

User Mailing List

There is an active User Community. The users mailing list is for sharing inform-
ation relevant to OpendTect users. Anyone on this list can send e- mails to all
OpendTect users e.g. to pose or answer questions, suggest workflows,
announce innovations etc. Please do not use this mailing list for support ques-
tions.

Support

For support questions please contact OpendTect’s support team at: sup-
[email protected]

Social Media

There are OpendTect user groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Documentation
All user-documentations can be accessed online as either HTML or PDF, or via
Help menu in the UI.

Via the software

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The help menu

The Help Button in each window will automatically pop-up the most appropriate
(sub-)chapter of the user manual.

User Documentation

The user documentation is structured in the same way as OpendTect itself.

There are separate documents for OpendTect and the plug-ins.

Plugins Documentation

A documentation for all commercial plugins in OpendTect.

How-to Manual

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This document describes various workflows in OpendTect + plug- ins. We
describe the purpose, what software is needed (OpendTect only, or OpendTect
+ one or more plug-ins), and how to do it.

Tutorial videos

At videos.opendtect.org the user can find different demo, training workflow and
webinar videos like: Survey Setup & Load SEG-Y, Horizon tracking, Machine
Learning webinars, Fault planes, SSIS interpretation, Dip steered median filter,
Chimney Cube etc…

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 1 Part I: Free Software
1.1 About OpendTect
What is supported?

OpendTect version 6.6 supports all tools you expect to find in a seismic inter-
pretation system. Key features include:

l 2D, 3D Post-stack & Pre-stack seismic data

l 2D & 3D viewers
l Volume rendering & RGB(A) blending
l Seismic attributes & cross-plots
l Spectral decomposition
l Movie-style parameter testing
l Distributed computing
l Rock-physics library
l Horizon trackers
l Faults
l Well-tie
l Depth Conversion
l Geobodies and … a lot more …

As stated before all functionality listed above is available free-of-charge when

OpendTect is run under the open source GNU/GPL license. This system can be
extended with other free software systems and several open source plugins.
dGB developed links to Madagascar and GMT (see below). Several open

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Free 3rd Party Plugins.

Madagascar

The Madagascar link integrates OpendTect with Madagascar, an open source

seismic processing package that is widely used in R&D circles.

Generic Mapping Tool (GMT)

GMT is an open source collection of tools for manipulating Geographic and

Cartesian data sets and producing encapsulated postscript (eps.) file illus-
trations ranging from simple x- y plots via contour maps to artificially
illuminated surfaces and 3-D perspectives views.

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1.2 Set up a Survey & Load Data
In this Chapter you will learn how to set up a new survey (a project) and how to
load seismic data, horizons and well data using industry-standard file formats
such as SEGY, LAS and ASCII.

In many oil companies setting up surveys and loading data is done by spe-
cialists. OpendTect Pro users who want to use OpendTect in combination with
Petrel* can simply copy the Petrel project information to setup the OpendTect
survey (Exercise 2.1.1a). They can then either work directly on the Petrel data
store, or they can copy data from Petrel into OpendTect and back to Petrel when
they are finished. The first option saves disk space but ties the Petrel license.
The second option saves money as it allows you to work with many OpendTect
interpreters on a project without tying the Petrel license. In addition to the
PetrelDirect link in OpendTect Pro there are also several commercial plug-ins
that support easy project setup and data IO to and from SeisWork-
s/OpenWorks**, GeoFrame-IESX*** data stores.

Since not everybody needs (or wants) to know how to do this it is possible to
skip this entire Chapter. F3 Demo is already set up for OpendTect, hence there
is no need to start from scratch. Simply go to the next Chapter to start your train-
ing.

The raw data for our new survey are located in a folder called Raw_Data in the
F3 Demo directory.

* Is a mark of Schlumberger.
** Registered Trademark of Landmark Graphics Corporation.
*** Registered Trademark of Schlumberger.

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1.2.1 Survey Definition
What you should know about OpendTect surveys

l A survey is defined by a 3D grid of Inline, Cross-line numbers and Z

sample rate in time, or depth.
l Inline, Cross-line numbers are linked to X,Y rectangular coordinates via a
single linear transformation.
l Surveys can be set-up for 3D seismic only, for 2D seismic only and for 2D
and 3D seismic data.
l The Z dimension (time or depth) as defined in the survey setup determines
the primary display axis in OpendTect. Data in the other dimension can be
visualized in new (3D visualization) scenes in which the data is trans-
formed on-the-fly using a given velocity field.
l 3D seismic must fall inside the defined survey boundaries.
l It is possible to load 3D seismic data sets with varying orientations and
sample rates inside one survey. All data sets are mapped onto the defined
grid.
l 2D seismic lines can stick outside the defined survey boundaries. The grid
dimensions as defined in the survey setup are used in gridding operations,
e.g. when creating a 3D horizon from a 2D horizon.

Surveys can be set up in different ways

1. Manually: You enter the required information such as the specification of

the 3D grid and the inline, cross-line to X, Y co-ordinate transformation by
hand. The latter is specified:
a. Either in the form of two linear functions.
b. Or, as three points (usually the corner points of the survey outline).
Two of the points must lie on the same inline. OpendTect derives the
linear transformation functions from the specified points.
2. SEGY Scan: SEGY data usually contains inline, cross-line and X,Y co-
ordinate information in the trace headers. As not all SEGY data adheres to
the standard (SEGY Revision1) OpendTect supports tools to help you ana-
lyze and where needed correct SEGY files.
3. Copy from another survey..
4. Set up for 2D only: For 2D seismic surveys OpendTect only requires X, Y
co-ordinates to be correct. You can set it up with a fake inline, cross-line
grid.
5. Using Commercial Tools: There are commercial links to SeisWork-
s/OpenWorks, GeoFrame-IESX and Petrel.

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1.2.2 SEG-Y Scan Setup & Load
What you should know about SEG-Y

l SEG-Y is the industry standard seismic data format that was defined ori-
ginally as a tape format.
l It consists of a EBCIDIC Header with general information like data format,
trace length and sample rate, followed by a binary Header (descriptive
data typed in by the seismic processor – not very trustworthy) and seismic
traces. Each trace consists of two parts: a trace header followed by trace
data.
l Not all SEG-Y files (especially older files) adhere to the standard defin-
ition, which is called SEG-Y – Rev. 1 (Revision 1).
l Before loading SEG-Y data you must verify that the information OpendTect
needs (inline, cross-line and X,Y co-ordinates) is stored in the trace head-
ers where OpendTect expect these.
l If not, you specify where the information is located. If the information is not
present at all you can create the information using OpendTect’s trace
header manipulation tools.
l If you run into problems, please check this page from the user doc with pos-
sible solutions: UserDoc.

What you should know about SEG-Y in OpendTect

l OpendTect can work directly on SEG-Y data files.

l The advantage is that there is no data duplication.
l To use this option OpendTect must scan the SEG-Y file to construct a table
with inline, cross-line information from the trace headers.

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1.2.2a Survey Setup & Load SEG-Y
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.2.2b Load SEG-Y
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.2.3 Import Horizon
What you should know about OpendTect horizons

l There are two kinds:

l 2D horizons (from 2D seismic)

l 3D horizons (from 3D seismic)

l Each kind has two types:

l Geometric grids

l Attribute grids

l Attribute grids are stored as “Surface Data” with the geometric grid to
which they belong.

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1.2.3a Horizon
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.2.4 Import Well Data
What you should know about well data:

l Wells are defined by a well name and a well track.

l Optionally the following information can be added:
l Time-Depth Curves.

l Markers.

l Logs.

l Time-Depth curves can be modified (stretched and squeezed) in the Well-

tie module (synthetic-to-seismic matching module).
l New logs can be created in the Well manager using OpendTect’s Rock-
physics library and math & logic manipulations.

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1.2.4a Well Data
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.2.5 Multi-Well Import
Different options are available to import multiple wells in OpendTect

l Import > Wells > Bulk...

l Well Track: if the track information of more than one well is in the

same file, use this option. The name of the wells need to be in a
column.
l LAS: allows for the simultaneous loading of several LAS files.

l Markers: as for well track.

l Time/Depth Model: as for well track.

l Import > Wells > Simple Multi-Well... allows for the import of multiple well
tracks following the same principle as for Bulk Well track. In this case, after
reading the file, the well tracks are listed in a table that can be QC-ed and
edited prior to actual import.

Important notice: when you have finished with this Chapter do NOT continue in
the survey you have just created but return to the original F3 Demo data set as
this data set is much richer.

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1.3 Basic Interaction
This Chapter deals with basic interactions. You will learn how to display seismic
data on in-lines and cross-lines, how to move lines in the 3D scene, how to
zoom in and rotate a scene and how to create random lines.

What you should know about the user interface

l OpendTect supports multiple 3D scenes.

l Each scene has its own Z-axis (time, depth, flattened on a single horizon,
Wheeler-transformed).
l There are three interaction modes for 3D scenes, each has its own cursor:
1. Position mode for positioning & moving display elements (arrow
cursor)
2. View mode for zoom, rotate and pan (hand cursor)
3. Interpretation mode for picking and editing data points (cross
cursor).
l Each Scene has its own tree from which data objects are added to the
scene and from where they can be manipulated.
l The tree does NOT show the entire data base of all stored data in the
survey as in some other software systems. The tree shows which ele-
ments have been loaded or processed on-the fly. These elements reside
in memory and are available for visualization and further manip-
ulations.
l Most display elements (lines, horizons, slices) have multiple layers for com-
paring and co-rendering information.
l Data for display can be loaded from stored files, or processed on-the-fly.
l If you have the memory: use it! Pre-load seismic data to speed up visu-
alization and on-the-fly processing.
l Display elements can be manipulated in the 3D scene (right-click menu) or
from the tree (right-click menu).
l Seismic sections displayed in the 3D scene also be displayed in separate
2D (flat) viewers.
l If you have an OpendTect Pro license: use the basemapto interact with
the system.
l Functionality can be accessed via Menus, Icons and short-keys.

Short-keys and Mouse-controls

OpendTect supports a range of short-keys to speed up various interactions.

Mouse controls and a number of short-keys can be modified from the Utilities
menu, option Settings --> Keyboard shortcuts. The default settings of the most
important short-keys and mouse-controls are given in the table below. This table
is also available from the menu Help with the option "Keyboard shortcuts.

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1.3.1 Tree, Scene & Elements
Each 3D scene has a tree and each tree controls a set of display elements: In-
lines, Cross-lines, Horizons, Wells etc. Via the tree a user controls what is dis-
played in the 3D scene. (OpendTect Pro users can also do this via the
basemap.) Display elements can be toggled on and off and display parameters
can be changed from the tree menu, which is opened by right-clicking on the ele-
ment.

Section elements such as In-line, Cross-line can be filled up to 8 layers deep

with data for co-rendering. The layers can be moved up and down in the tree.
For co-rendering the user can change the layer's transparency and / or change
the opacity curve of the chosen color bar.

Display elements can be filled with stored data and data that is calculated on-
the-fly. The latter option is used to test attributes and to evaluate their para-
meters before (optionally) computing an attribute volume in batch mode. This
way of working improves efficiency.

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1.3.1a Display An Inline
Required licenses: OpendTect.

Visualization and processing goes faster when you load the relevant data set(s)
into memory. If you do not have sufficient memory to load an entire volume load
only the part you intend to work on. Another way to reduce memory consumption
is to re-scale data to 8-bit during pre-load.

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1.3.1b Pre-load Data
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.3.2 View, Position and Interpretation Mode
OpendTect distinguishes three possible modes of operation for the 3D scene:

l Position Mode for (re-)positioning, moving and resizing display elements.

The cursor in this mode is an arrow.
l View Mode for rotating, panning and zooming. The cursor in this mode
cursor is a hand.
l Interpretation Mode for picking and editing data points. The cursor in this
mode is a cross.

Use or icons to toggle between Position and View modes.

Use or icon to toggle between Interpretation and View modes.

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1.3.2a Position, Zoom, Pan, Rotate
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.3.3 Random lines
What you need to know about random lines

l Random lines can me moved (left-click + drag) and rotated (Ctrl left-click
+ drag) through a volume.
l For movie-style inspection of the data it is recommended to load the data
into memory (pre-load exercise 1.3.1b)
l Random lines can be created in different ways:
l Easiest: Add default data to get a line positioned in the center of the

volume and start moving rotating

l Drawn on time-slices or horizons (OpendTect Pro users can do this

in the basemap).
l Through wells: A random line can be created by connecting the

selected wells. By right clicking on the random line in the tree, and
selecting Create from wells, a dialog box appears with a list of wells
that can be selected in order to set up the random line path. This
option is useful for the Well Correlation Panel.
l From Existing: This option allows the generation of a random line

from an existing random line. There is an option available to gen-

erate a random line at some distance away from an existing random
geometry and store it in a new random line geometry.
l From Polygons: allows creating a random line definition from pre-

viously created polygons.

l From Table: allows creating a random line in defining its nodes in a

table. Each node is defined by its x/y coordinates and Inline/Cross-

line information.

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l Random lines can be optionally saved in the data base.

- 53 -
1.3.3a Random Line
Required licenses: OpendTect.

- 54 -
- 55 -
1.3.3b Random Line Through Wells
Required licenses: OpendTect.

- 56 -
1.3.4 Save & Restore Session
Use Survey > Session > Save…/Restore…/Auto load… to restart your inter-
pretation at a later moment. The graphic scene(s), elements in the tree(s), cur-
rent attribute set and neural network are all saved and restored.

When clicking Auto load, choose Enable and then Use one for this survey.
Select one session amongst the available ones. The session will restore itself
automatically the next time you start OpendTect.

Elements that contain attributes that were calculated on the fly can only be
restored if the attribute definition is still valid at the time of saving the session. If
not, you will get a warning message stating that the attribute cannot be restored.

Attribute calculations take time. A Session restore will go much faster if you
retrieve the data from disk instead of recalculating it on the fly. So, before you
save a session think whether you can retrieve the data from disk (e.g. a horizon
attribute can be saved as Horizon data with the parent horizon. The same dis-
play can thus be restored much faster if you save the attribute first and then
select it from Horizon data before saving the session).

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1.4 Seismic Interpretation
In this Chapter you will learn basic interpretation tasks such as tying wells, track-
ing horizons and interpreting faults.

- 58 -
1.4.1 Well-to-Seismic Tie
Tying a seismic volume to well data is a major task in interpretation projects. It is
typically done at the start of a project to determine which seismic events cor-
respond to which geologic markers.

We will assume that all data (inputs for the tie) have been prepared already. The
inputs are:

l 3D seismic Volume
l An initial wavelet (if there is none, you can create either synthetic or
stochastic wavelets, in OpendTect)
l Well data (either sonic and density logs, or an impedance log, and geo-
logic markers)
l (Seismic horizons are optional)

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1.4.1a Well Tie
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.4.2 Horizon Tracking
What you should know about horizon tracking in OpendTect

There are several horizon trackers in OpendTect to support a variety of work

flows using 2D and 3D viewers. The following trackers exist:

l 3D auto-tracker. This interactive tracker is the primary tool for tracking hori-
zons in OpendTect. It operates in the 3D scene and tracks amplitude dif-
ferences along maxima, minima or zero-crossings. Optionally, the tracker
also tracks using similarity or correlations and using seismic dip (only if
you have a Dip-Steering license). The tracker supports two methods: com-
paring with (picked) seed traces and comparing with parents (neighbors).
The seed trace option is used in a work flow in which the user con-
tinuously points additional seeds and QC's the tracked results. First areas
with the largest confidence are tracked before the constraints are relaxed
and the exercise is repeated. Typically multiple passes are made through
the entire data set. Any remaining holes are filled in later stage using a grid-
ding algorithm (e.g. OpendTect dip- steered gridder, see below). The
advantage of this work flow is that the horizon is QC-ed while you are inter-
preting and that you save time on editing. In cases where the event is easy
to track the parent method in which positions are compared against neigh-
bors is preferred. The tracker extends the horizon further out from the start-
ing positions but the risk of loop-skipping increases.
l 2D auto-tracker. This interactive tracker is similar to the 3D tracker. The
main difference is that it operates only along seismic sections. The lines
are either displayed in the 3D scene, or in a flat (2D) viewer. Use this
tracker to interpret 2D seismic data and/or to interpret 3D seismic lines in a
grid, e.g. to interpret every 10th inline and crossline.
l 2D line drawing. This option is used to manually pick horizons in areas
where auto-tracking is not feasible.

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l 3D dip-steered tracker. This tracker requires a dip-steering license. It cre-
ates a single horizon from multiple picked seed positions by inverting the
dip field (given in the form of a Steering Cube). This tracker can be used
e.g. to create a quick geologic model with minimal input from the inter-
preter.
l 3D dip-steered gridding. This tool requires a dip-steering license. This
gridder interpolates holes in a horizon using a inverse-distance solution
that honors the dip field (given in the form of a Steering Cube). The gridder
is typically used to fill in holes left by the 3D auto-tracker and to fill in areas
that were not interpreted (2D auto-tracker).
l Thalweg Tracker. This tracker requires an OpendTect Pro license. It
tracks bodies and horizons either by adding one single position at the time
(following the Thalweg: the path of least resistance) or by adding positions
to the edges (margin tracking). It is used for seismic facies tracking, e.g. for
mapping channels, see exercise 2.1.4 in Part 2.

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1.4.2a 3D Auto-track
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.4.2b Tracking In 2D Viewer

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1.4.3 Fault Interpretation
What you should know about faults in OpendTect

l We distinguish between fault sticks and fault planes.

l Fault planes can be mapped directly from line to line (only advisable for
large faults that can be recognized easily).
l Alternatively, faults sticks are picked and stored in a fault stick set from
which fault planes are created by manually grouping the sticks.
l In the current version (5.0) you can pick horizontal and vertical fault sticks
but you cannot combine sticks from different orientations.

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1.4.3a Fault Planes
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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- 85 -
1.4.3b Fault Sticks
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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- 89 -
- 90 -
1.4.4 Velocity Gridding & Time-Depth Con-
version
What you should know about Velocity Gridding and TD conversion

l Time-Depth conversion is performed on-the-fly by transforming the Z-axis

of the scene using a given velocity field.
l Velocities are given in the form of:
l Velocity volume.

l The TD curve of the specified well.

l A user-defined linear velocity function.

l 3D velocity volumes can be created in the Volume Builder.

What you will learn in this Chapter

l How to load a stacking velocity function.

l How to grid stacking velocities and create a 3D velocity volume.
l How to display the volume on the fly and batch processing.
l How to batch-process cubes for depth survey.
l How to batch-process horizons for a depth survey.
l How to set-up a new depth survey.

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1.4.4a Stacking Velocities
Required licenses: OpendTect.

- 92 -
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1.4.4b Grid Stacking Velocities
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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- 96 -
- 97 -
1.4.4c TD Conversion On-the-fly
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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- 100 -
1.4.4d TD Volume Conversion In Batch
Required licenses: OpendTect.

- 101 -
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- 103 -
1.4.4e TD Horizon Conversion In Batch

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1.4.4f Setup Survey For Depth Converted Data

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- 107 -
1.4.4g Import TD Converted Volumes And Hori-
zons

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- 111 -
1.5 Attribute Analysis & Cross-plots
What are seismic attributes?

Seismic attributes are all the measured, computed or implied quantities obtained
from the seismic data. The two main reasons for using seismic attributes:

1. Visualization (qualitative)
l To remove extraneous information in the hope of revealing trends or

patterns not visible in the original data.

2. Data integration (quantitative)
l To obtain information carriers from different sources that can be integ-

rated by statistical methods.

What you should know about Attributes in OpendTect

1. Attributes can be computed from post-stack 2D and 3D data and from pre-
stack data.
2. Attribute definition and computation are two separate steps:
l Step 1: Define how to compute the (2D or 3D) attribute in the cor-
responding “Attribute Set” window (input > algorithm > parameters >
output).
l Step 2: Compute the algorithm either on-the-fly on the display ele-

ment of choice (inline, crossline, Z-slice, horizon, sub-volume, point-

sets, fault plane, 3D geobody), or in batch mode to create an attribute
volume (via the Processing menu).
3. Attributes can be chained (output attribute 1 is input to attribute 2).
4. You can create your own attributes using chaining, mathematics and
logical manipulations.
5. Attribute parameters can be tested in a movie-style manner.
6. Attribute time gates (vertical window) and step outs (lateral step in multi-
trace attributes) are specified relative to any evaluation point (x, y, z) where
the attribute is to be computed (Step 2, see above).
7. A time-gate of 30ms that is defined as [-10, 20] means the software will
extract data from a time-gate between 10ms above the evaluation point to
20ms below the evaluation point. The extracted data is resampled to
sample rate defined in the survey.
8. Filters are a just another group of attributes, hence are treated as attrib-
utes.

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What attributes are supported?

Since it is possible to create one’s own attributes using chaining, math & logic
the number of attributes supported in OpendTect is without limit. To put order in
the attribute maze, dGB supports an Attribute Table on their website. The table
maps attributes versus application domains and is ordered in attribute classes.

Please note that will find both free and commercial attributes described in the
table. OS (Open Source) labels attributes offered in the free functionality.

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The application domains (organized in columns) are:

l Structural
l Stratigraphic
l Siliciclastic
l Carbonates
l Fluids
l Noise
l Others

The attribute classes (rows) are:

l Amplitude based
l Frequency based
l Multi-trace based
l Impedance based
l Dip & azimuth based
l Processing & Filters
l Meta-attributes
l HorizonCube & SSIS
l Pre-stack attributes

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The following list shows which attributes are useful for a specific task.

l Noise reduction:Dip Steered Median Filter, Frequency Filter, Gap Decon-

volution
l Frequency enhancement (spectral balancing):Seismic Spectral Blue-
ing
l Fault detection:Similarity, Fault Enhancement Filter, Ridge Enhancement
Filter, Curvature, Dip, Variance, Fault Extraction
l Fracture prediction:Curvature, Azimuthal AVO, Fracture, Inversion to
Anisotropic Parameters
l Layer thickness estimation:Spectral Decomposition, Instantaneous
Attributes
l Porosity estimation:Deterministic Inversion, NN Rock Properties Pre-
diction
l Net-pay:Seismic Coloured Inversion, Stratal Amplitude, Net-pay
l HC presence detection:AVO Attributes, Frequency Attenuation, Energy
((far-near) x far), Sweetness, Fluid Contact Finder, Seismic Feature
Enhancement
l HC saturation estimation:Gas Chimneys, Three Term Inversion?
l Oil vs. Gas prediction:Gas Chimneys, Three Term Inversion, NN Clas-
sification, Spectral Decomposition
l Predicting Clastic Lithofacies (sand-silt-shale):
l Simple:Energy ((far-near) x far), Frequency, Phase

l Advanced:Waveform Segmentation, Volumetric Segmentation,

Fingerprint, Deterministic Inversion, NN Rock Properties Prediction

l Predicting Carbonate Lithofacies:Waveform Segmentation, Volumetric
Segmentation, Fingerprint, Deterministic Inversion, NN Classification
l Mapping seismic geomorphology: Lithology (see above): Similarity
(indicates erosional incision), Dip Attributes, Spectral Decomposition

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1.5.1 Bright Spot Detection and Visualization
What you should know about bright spot detection OpendTect

Bright spots are seismic anomalies that are often related to hydrocarbons. How
the seismic response varies as a result of a change in fluid-content depends on
the geologic setting and rock-physics / fluid properties. Forward modeling helps
to increase the understanding of the seismic behavior as a function of changes
in rock and fluid properties. such understanding is important for selecting the
optimal attributes and tools for qualitative and quantitative analysis of bright
spots.

OpendTect offers a range of pre- and post-stack analysis tools to investigate

bright spots, especially in the domain of commercial plugins. Examples are seis-
mic inversion plugins and hydrocarbon anomaly enhancement techniques such
as Fluid Contact Finder and Seismic Feature Enhancement.

Seismic attribute analysis is a simple and effective tool to enhance bright spots
and to study their areal extent in 3 dimensions. In the exercise a gas-related
bright spot is visualized in 3D using volume rendering of the energy attribute.
The volume rendered object can be saved as a 3D object for further study, e.g.
to compute the body's volume.

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1.5.1a Bright Spot
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.5.2 Spectral Decomposition
What you should know about spectral decomposition

Spectral decomposition is used to study seismic data at a sub-seismic resolution

or to study attenuation effects caused by hydrocarbons. The method produces a
continuous time-frequency spectrum of a seismic trace. It can be done either by
using Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) or by using Continuous Wavelet Trans-
formation (CWT). The details on both methods have been extensively described
in literature. In general, the technique separates the time series into its amplitude
and frequency components. The FFT involves explicit use of windows, which
can be a disadvantage in some cases. The CWT uses a mother wavelet which
is extended and compressed for computing the time-frequency spectra. It is equi-
valent to a temporal narrow band filtering. Depending upon the purpose, one of
the algorithms can be selected.

l FFT is used to delineate the stratigraphic/structural information along an

interpreted horizon.
l CWT is preferably used to delineate hydrocarbon attenuations and thick-
ness changes along an interpreted horizon.

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1.5.2a Spectral Decomposition
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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- 134 -
1.5.3 Cross-plots
What you should know about cross-plots in OpendTect

The cross- plot tool in OpendTect creates 2D cross- plots for analyzing rela-
tionships between seismic data and well data. Two types of cross-plots are typ-
ically analyzed: seismic attributes vs. seismic attributes and seismic attributes
vs. well logs. The data points are extracted in a given volume or in a region of
interest e.g. by drawing a polygon. The extracted data is displayed in a spread-
sheet. The spreadsheet is then used to manipulate and plot the data.

The cross-plotting tool has several functionalities. These include the following:

l Scattered plots
l Density plots (useful when larger number of data points are selected)
l Regression fit
l Multi-data selection
l Interactive on-the-fly Geo-body extraction
l Creating Probability Density Functions for rock property predictions
l Vertical variograms analysis
l Extracting pointsets for Neural Network prediction
l ASCII file output
l Quick cross-plot snapshots

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1.5.3a Attributes - Attributes
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.5.3b Attributes - Wells
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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1.5.3c Bayesian Inversion

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- 156 -
 2 Part II:
Commercial Software
Under a commercial, or academic license agreement OpendTect, the open
source seismic interpretation platform, can be extended with a range of closed
source extensions. These extensions are protected by FlexNet license keys. All
extensions, also the ones developed by other vendors are licensed through
dGB.

For purchase/maintenance fees please contact dGB via [email protected].

As stated before the exercises in this manual can be executed without license
keys as OpendTect does not check license keys when the survey you work on is
F3 Demo.

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2.1 OpendTect Pro
What you should know about OpendTect Pro

OpendTect Pro is a commercial layer (closed source, FlexNet license key pro-
tected) that extends the free OpendTect software with extra functionality. All com-
mercial plugins require an OpendTect Pro license to run.

Among others OpendTect Pro offers:

l PetrelDirect, a two-way seamless connection to Petrel;

l An interactive basemap with mapping functionality;
l PDF3D plugin for sharing 3D images (see below);
l A Thalweg tracker for tracking seismic facies;
l An accurate ray-tracer for AVO attributes and Angle Stacks.

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2.1.1 PetrelDirect
What you should know about PetrelDirect

PetrelDirect is a two-way data connectivity solution that enables OpendTect to

work directly on a Petrel data store. Data can either be linked (no data duplic-
ation) or copied. The advantage of copying data is that usage of the Petrel
license is restricted to a minimum. Apart from linking / copying data PetrelDirect
can also be used to set up an OpendTect survey.

The following features are supported with full two-way access:

l 3D seismic volumes
l 3D horizons and horizon attributes
l 2D seismic lines
l Fault stick sets
l Wavelets

One-way access: Petrel > OpendTect is supported for:

l Wells: tracks, logs, markers (time/depth curves and/or checkshot data is

automatically transferred with the track if present)
l 3D Seismic pre-stack data.

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2.1.1a From Petrel
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro.

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- 161 -
2.1.1b Inline From Petrel
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro.

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2.1.2 Basemap
What you should know about the basemap

The basemap utility in OpendTect Pro is a new module for interacting with the
data while presenting a clear overview of the interpretation exercise at hand.
From the basemap the user populates a 3D scene with data elements (inlines,
cross-lines, random lines, 2D seismic lines, Z-slices, horizons, wells, etc.) and /
or pops up 2D viewers. The module also features options for gridding / con-
touring and for creating final maps. As the module is brand new in version 6.0
some functionality will evolve as the product matures over time.

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2.1.2a Basemap
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro.

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2.1.3 PDF3D
What you should know about PDF3D

The PDF3D plug-in supports the capture of a 3D scene in OpendTect and to

save the captured information in PDF format. The 3D PDF file can then be
viewed, rotated, zoomed, and manipulated in Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader soft-
ware that is installed on most computers. PDF3D thus greatly improves com-
munication of complex seismic interpretations. The PDF3D plug- in to
OpendTect allows volume sections, horizons, wells and interpretation features
to be embedded within a secure technical report.

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2.1.3a PDF3D
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro.

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2.1.4 Thalweg tracker
What you should know about the Thalweg tracker

A Thalweg is a geologic term to describe the path of a river as it flows through a

valley (Thalweg is a German word; Thal means valley and Weg is path). A Thal-
weg tracker operates in a similar way: it follows the path of least resistance. It
does this by adding only the best matching position per iteration. The tracker can
be used to track 3D bodies and / or horizons and is typically used for detailed
seismic facies mapping e.g. for tracking channels.

The Thalweg tracker tracks samples in an input seismic cube based on certain
user-specified constraints. Initially the user points a single seed position. The
seed is considered to be a cube of unit size and the next sample to be tracked is
chosen from all available samples along the ’faces’ of the seeds. In the first iter-
ation, all six neighboring samples along the six faces of the initial seed act as
candidates for tracking. Only the best matching position is added. In the next iter-
ation, all samples neighboring the two currently accepted positions now act as
candidates and again only the best matching position is added. This process
continues until it is no longer possible to add candidates that meet the tracking
constraints.

A Thalweg tracker adds only one position per iteration. If you choose to accept
more than one position per iteration, the Thalweg tracker becomes a margin
tracker. Thalweg and margin trackers are typically used sequentially. For
example in the exercise hereafter we first use the Thalweg tracker to track a
channel. Once the channel is found we change the settings to track the channel
margins.

The output of a Thalweg tracker is a Point Set that is typically converted into a
"snapped" horizon. All tracking attributes can be saved with the horizon tracked
in this way. The tracking attributes can also be used for further analysis in the
Crossplot tool.

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2.1.4a Thalweg Tracker
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro.

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2.1.5 Raytracer
What you should know about the Raytracer

OpendTect Pro's ray-tracer is a 1D ray-tracer that computes the angle of incid-

ence at various interfaces in an elastic, horizontally-layered earth model. The
ray-tracer is used among others by the SynthRock plug-in to compute pre-stack
synthetics (P, S, and multiples). OpendTect Pro users do not need a SynthRock
license to make good use of the ray-tracer. Ray-tracing is used in the conversion
from offsets to angles e.g. when computing mute functions, angle stacks and
AVA attributes.

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2.2 Commercial Plug-ins
OpendTect supports free and commercial plug-ins. The latter are only available
under the OpendTect Pro license. Commercial plug- ins are used for specialized
and advanced tasks. dGB and 3rd party vendors ARKCLS, Estimages, The
Visual Wavefield Project, Geo 5 and LTrace provide commercial plug-ins for
OpendTect.

Unless you are working on the F3 Demo training data set commercial plug-in
require FlexNet license- keys. You may wish to contact [email protected] to
request an evaluation license.

Users can create their own commercial OpendTect Pro system by picking and
choosing the plug-ins they need. Logical sets of plug-ins have been combined
into packages for typical G&G tasks. These packages are licensed at discounted
prices. The following packages are available:

l Geophysics: Attributes & Filters This package contains OpendTect Pro

and the following plug-ins: Dip Steering, Neural Networks, Faults
& Fractures, Fluid Contact Finder, Seismic Spectral Blueing, Seismic
Feature Enhancement, and Workstation Access.
l Geology: Sequence Stratigraphy. This package Contains OpendTect
Pro and the following plug-ins: Dip Steering, HorizonCube, SSIS, Well Cor-
relation Panel, Seismic Spectral Blueing, Neural Networks and Work-
station Access.
l Geophysics: Inversion & Rock Properties. This package contains
OpendTect Pro and the following plug-ins: Dip Steering, HorizonCube,
Deterministic Inversion, Stochastic Inversion, Seismic Coloured Inversion,
Seismic Spectral Blueing, Seismic Net Pay, SynthRock, Neural Networks,
and Workstation Access.
l Geoscience.This package contains OpendTect Pro and the following
plug-ins: Dip Steering, HorizonCube, SSIS, Well Correlation Panel, Neural
Networks, Faults & Fractures, Fluid Contact Finder, SynthRock.

This manual follows a similar sub-division for training the commercial parts of
the software:

l Attributes & Filters.

l HorizonCube & Sequence Stratigraphy.
l Seismic Predictions.

Before starting the training exercises let’s first give short descriptions of the com-
mercial plug-ins per software vendor.

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2.2.1 dGB Plug-ins
As well as creating the open- source OpendTect software itself, dGB Earth
Sciences also develops closed-source plug-ins for OpendTect. See: dGB web-
site.

The dip-steering plug-in allows the user to create a (dip-)

SteeringCube which contains local dip and azimuth inform-
ation of seismic events at every sample location. The cube
Dip-Steering is essential for structure-oriented filtering (aka dip-steered fil-
tering ), and improves resolution of numerous multi- trace
attributes (e.g. Similarity) by honoring and following dipping
reflectors. It also features unique attributes like Curvature
and Dip. Finally, a SteeringCube is an essential input to the
HorizonCube

HorizonCubes impact all levels of seismic interpretation.

They are used for:
HorizonCube
l Detailed geologic model building,
l Low frequency model building for seismic inversions
l Well correlation
l Sequence stratigraphic interpretation system (SSIS).

A HorizonCube consists of a dense set of correlated 3D

stratigraphic surfaces. Each horizon represents a (relative)
geologic time line. Horizons are created either in a model-
driven way (stratal / proportional slicing, parallel to upper /
lower), or in a data-driven way via a unique dip-steered
multi-horizon auto-tracker.

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 Well Correlation The Well Correlation Panel plug-in is used for picking well
Panel markers and correlating markers guided by seismic evid-
ence. In combination with the HorizonCube, the interpreter
can use the slider for detailed seismic-steered correlations.

The Neural Network plug-in supports Supervised and Unsu-

pervised Neural Networks. The main application of Unsu-
pervised NN is clustering of attributes and/or waveforms for
Neural Networks seismic facies analysis. The Supervised approach is used
for more advanced seismic facies analysis, to create object
"probability" cubes such as TheChimneyCube® and
TheFaultCube® and is used for inversion to rock properties
(e.g.: porosity, Vshale, Sw etc.).

Faults & Fractures The Faults & Fractures plug-in supports special attributes,
filters and tools for analyzing faults and fractures. Included
are among others: Thinned Fault Likelihood, Smoothed
Seismic, Un-faulting, automatic fault-plane extraction, frac-
ture density and fracture proximity. In combination with dip-
steering also: dip-steered attributes and filters (SOF), and
curvature attributes.

Sequence Strati- The SSIS plug- in ( Sequence Stratigraphic Interpretation

graphic Inter- System) is an add-on to the HorizonCube. SSIS supports
pretation System full sequence stratigraphic analysis, including automated
(SSIS) wheeler transforms, systems tracts interpretation and
annotations.

FCF is a seismic hydrocarbon detection technique where

Fluid Contact the seismic traces are stacked with respect to the depth of a
Finder mapped surface (common contour binning). The objective is
to detect subtle hydrocarbon related seismic anomalies and
to pin-point gas-water, gas-oil, oil-water contacts.

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 The VMB plug-in is used to pick up RMO velocities from
pre- stack Common Image Gathers. RMO velocities are
used to update the 3D velocity model in PSDM workflows.
Velocity Model VMB supports picking on semblance gathers and picking of
Building pre-stack events for input to the PSDM- Tomography plug-
in. Two VMB modules are supported: Vertical update and
Horizon update. Models are constructed from combinations
of gridded/smoothed RMO velocities, interval velocities and
3D body velocities (e.g. Salt body velocity).

The SynthRock plug-in is a forward pseudo-well modeling

SynthRock and probabilistic inversion package supporting wedge mod-
els, stochastic models, pre- and post-stack synthetic seis-
mograms and cross-matching (HitCube) inversion.

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2.2.2 ARK CLS & Earthworks Plug-ins
ARK CLS make the following commercial plug-ins for OpendTect. See: ARK
CLS website.

Workstation
Access
The Workstation Access plug- in is used for direct data
access to and from OpenWorks/SeisWorks and GeoFrame-
IESX.

Seismic Spectral
Blueing
The Seismic Spectral Blueing plug-in is a technique that
uses well log data (sonic and density) to shape the seismic
spectrum in order to optimize the resolution without boost-
ing noise to an unacceptable level.

Seismic Colored
Inversion
Seismic Colored Inversion enables rapid band-limited inver-
sion of seismic data. SCI is rapid, easy to use, inexpensive,
robust and does not require expert users.

MPSI Determin- Deterministic inversion (by Earthworks and ARK CLS)

istic Inversion includes a 3D model builder for constructing a priory imped-
ance models using well log and seismic horizon data; a 2D
error grid generation module for providing spatial inversion
constraints and a model-based deterministic inversion mod-
ule. Even better deterministic inversion results can be
obtained if the low frequency model is built in OpendTect’s
volume builder using HorizonCube input.

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MPSI Stochastic Stochastic inversion includes the MPSI (Multi- Point
Inversion Stochastic Inversion) ultra- fast stochastic inversion module
for generating multiple geo-statistical realizations and the
utilities for processing the multiple realizations to represent
the inversion uncertainty for lithology, porosity, saturation or
other attributes as probability cubes. This plug-in group also
requires the purchase of the deterministic inversion plug-in
group.

Seismic Net Pay

The Net Pay plug-in is an add-on to Seismic Coloured Inver-

sion to compute net pay and net-to-gross from thin and not
so thin reservoirs. Net Pay is based on BP technology.

Seismic Feature
Enhancement
The Seismic Feature Enhancement plug-in is a flat-spot util-
ity that enhances the signal of consistent flat events and
reduces the "noise" of the channel reflections.

Frequency Shap-
ing Frequency Shaping is an innovative technique that integ-
rates well data into your seismic analysis. Two operators
are simultaneously derived using acoustic impedance logs
and reflectivity, once applied to the seismic data they effect-
ively broaden the amplitude spectrum of the seismic data at
both ends, low and high.

Spotlight Spotlight adds quantitative interpretation capabilities to the

standard SCI workflow by rapidly combining up to 4 dif-
ferent coloured seismic datasets into a single cube that
resembles the behaviour of a given elastic attribute. The
relationship between the input data and the desired output
is established from prior well log analysis.

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2.3 Attributes & Filters
OpendTect’s attribute engine can be extended with various plug-ins that allow
computation of advanced attributes and filters. As OpendTect’s user interface is
built dynamically, information about plug-ins (and certain attribute options in the
user interface) is only visible if the plug-in is installed and a valid license key is
available. (As stated before this is no issue when working on F3 Demo).

In this Chapter you will learn how to:

l Remove random noise (Dip-Steering).

l Sharpen edges (Faults & Fractures, Dip-Steering).
l Visualize faults (Faults & Fractures, Dip-Steering).
l Extract fault bodies (Faults & Fractures)
l Extract Fault planes (Faults & Fractures)
l Enhance the vertical resolution (Spectral Blueing).
l Enhance amplitude anomalies (Optical Stacking (free), Fluid Contact
l Finder, Seismic Feature Enhancement).
l Visualize seismic patterns (Neural Networks).
l Create a Chimney Cube (Neural Networks).

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2.3.1 Dip-Steering
What you should know about Dip-Steering

The dip-steering plug-in allows you to create and use a (Dip-) SteeringCube. A
SteeringCube contains at every sample position the dip in the inline- and cross-
line directions of the seismic events. These dips can be displayed as overlays
on seismic sections. Please note that you should display the cross-line dip on
an inline and the inline dip on a cross-line (right-click menu in the tree). In 2D,
the SteeringCube contains the apparent dip in the line direction.

The SteeringCube is used for:

l Structurally-oriented filtering (e.g. dip-steered median filter)

l Improving multi-trace attributes by extracting attribute input along reflectors
(e.g. dip-steered similarity)
l Calculating some unique attributes (e.g. 3D-curvature, and variance of the
dip).
l Dip-Steered auto-tracking of single horizons or multi-horizons as is done
by the algorithm that creates HorizonCube.

From a SteeringCube several valuable attributes can be computed. Most of

these attributes, which require SteeringCube are grouped under type Dip inside
OpendTect’s attribute set.

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For example, OpendTect supports computation of a whole family of volume
curvature attributes. These attributes are useful in the interpretations of frac-
tures, geo-morphological features and drainage patterns. Other attributes that
can be computed from a SteeringCube are:

l The polar dip or true dip: the dip is measured from the horizontal and the
range of the dip is always positive and given in usec/m or mm/m.
l The Azimuth of the dip direction is measured in degrees ranging from -
180° to +180°. Positive azimuth is defined from the inline in the direction of
increasing crossline numbers. Azimuth = 0 indicates that the dip is dipping
in the direction of increasing cross-line numbers. Azimuth = 90 indicates
that the dip is dipping in the direction of increasing in-line numbers.

Detailed vs Background SteeringCube

In this training, you will be creating several SteeringCubes. The differences

between these cubes are in the algorithms used to calculate them and the use of
filtering. SteeringCubes called 'Detailed' are unfiltered or gently filtered, while
those named 'Background' are heavily filtered. Detailed SteeringCubes contain
details such as dip associated faults or sedimentary structures. Background
SteeringCubes contain only the structural dip.

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 Examples of (left to right): Original Seismic (Full stack), Detailed Steering and
Background Steering

These Steering Cubes have distinct applications:

Detailed SteeringCube

l Dip & Azimuth attributes

l Curvature attributes
l Guide multi trace attributes (Similarity)

Background SteeringCube

l Dip Steered Median Filter

l Diffusion and Fault Enhancement Filter
l Ridge Enhancement Filter

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In OpendTect there are two different algorithms available for creating Steer-
ingCubes (e.g. BG Fast Steering and FFT). Coming few exercises will be car-
ried out using the BG Fast Steering algorithm (based on the phase of seismic
signal). More information about the SteeringCube can be found in the dGB Plug-
ins Documentation: UserDoc.

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2.3.1a Steering Cube
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Dip Steering.

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- 187 -
2.3.1b Dip & Azimuth
OpendTect Pro, Dip-steering

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2.3.1c Dip-steered Similarity
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Dip-steering.

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2.3.1d Dip-steered Median Filter
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Dip-steering.

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2.3.1e Mathematics
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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2.3.1f Dip-steered Diffusion Filter
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Dip-steering.

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2.3.1g Dip-steered Fault Enhancement Filter
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Dip-steering.

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2.3.1h Unconformity Tracker
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Dip-Steering.

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2.3.2 Attributes for Faults & Fractures
What you should know about Faults & Fractures in OpendTect

The Faults & Fractures plug-supports a collection of attributes, filters and tools
for visualizing, manipulating and analyzing faults and fractures. Some of the
tools in this plug-in can be found elsewhere in the system, e.g. in the attribute
engine, others are only available through this plug-in. In combination with dip-
steering the plug-in offers additional dip-steered and dip-derived attributes and
dip-steered filters (Structurally Oriented Filters) such as fault enhancement filter
and dip-steered median filter.

Important fault attributes are:

l Thinned Fault Likelihood (developed by the Colorado School of Mines)

l Dip-steered similarity (best applied after fault enhancement filtering)
l Polar dip (directly computed from a (dip-)SteeringCube)

Special fracture attributes are:

l Curvature attributes (points up flexure of reflectors without fault throw)

l Fracture proximity (measures the distance to the nearest fault / fracture)
l Fracture density (measures the number of faults / fractures within a user-
defined radius)

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2.3.2a Thinned Fault Likelihood
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Faults & Fractures.

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2.3.2b Volume Curvature And Others
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Dip-steering.

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2.3.2c Bodies
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Faults & Fractures.

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- 223 -
2.3.2d Planes
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Faults & Fractures.

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2.3.3 Ridge Enhancement Filter (REF)
What you should know about the Ridge Enhancement Filter

The Ridge Enhancement Filter is a post- processing filter for fault attribute
volumes, such as Similarity. It sharpens the attribute response such that faults
are more clearly visible.

The ‘ Ridge Enhancement Filter’ is delivered with the software as part of the
default attribute set.

The set calculates similarity attributes at 9 locations surrounding the evaluation

point. Then it compares the differences between similarity values in 4 horizontal
directions. The direction perpendicular to a fault usually exhibits the largest dif-
ference and is therefore output as the Ridge-enhancement attribute. The effect is
a sharper outline of the faults.

The default attribute set is based on Similarity. With only minor modifications,
this attribute can also increase resolution of other attributes like curvature, or
volumes as fault probability volumes.

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2.3.3a Ridge Enhancement Filter
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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- 231 -
2.3.4 Frequency Enhancement (Spectral Blue-
ing)
What you should know about Seismic Spectral Blueing

Seismic Spectral Blueing (SSB, by ARK CLS) is a technique that uses well data
to shape the seismic spectrum, to optimize the resolution without boosting noise
to an unacceptable level.

The workflow is as follows: an Operator is designed for SSB using both the seis-
mic and well data. This operator aims to shape the seismic amplitude spectrum
such that it becomes similar to that of the well reflectivity spectrum. Once the
operator has been derived, it is converted to the time domain and simply applied
to the seismic volume using a convolution algorithm. As the SSB technique uses
both seismic and well data, one of the main prerequisites of this workflow is to
have good quality well-to-seismic ties.

Typically, the aim is to design an operator at the zone of interest (target). It is

therefore best to identify a time gate for this interval before proceeding ahead
with the SSB workflow. Ideally one should use a good interpreted horizon in the
target zone to guide the seismic traces and well data (log traces). In this manner,
the various gated log traces should have sample values over a similar geology.
However, for this training exercise, in our case we will just use a window interval
instead.

Here is the workflow for how to create and apply these techniques in
OpendTect:

1. Seismic: Amplitude-Frequency plot

2. Smoothing of seismic mean
3. Well: Amplitude-Frequency plot
4. Global trend of well plot
5. Design operator
6. Apply Operator
7. Quality Check

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2.3.4a Spectral Blueing
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Seismic Spectral Blueing.

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2.3.5 Flat-Spot Detection
Various methods have been developed to detect locally horizontal seismic
events, which do not follow the stratigraphy of the geological layers. These
events are potentially Direct Hydrocarbon Indicators, since fluid contacts will
most often be perpendicular to the pressure gradient, regardless of the structural
dip. Multiples will most often also not follow the local stratigraphy, and are a
false positive for these detection methods, since they will also be enhanced
should they be horizontal seismic events.

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Optical Stacking

What you should know about Optical Stacking

Optical stacking is released as a free (open source) attribute in OpendTect. His-

torically optical stacking was the first stacking method to enhance hydrocarbon
anomalies that emerged in seismic interpretation software systems. Optical
stacking stacks seismic traces that are on either side of a 2D profile. The 2D pro-
file should ideally be oriented such that depth contour lines are crossed per-
pendicular to the line direction. The traces in the stacking direction can be
expected to have similar fluid effects (same hydrocarbon columns) hence subtle
hydrocarbon effects are enhanced.

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2.3.5a Optical Stacking
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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2.3.5b Seismic Feature Enhancement
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Spectral Feature Enhancement.

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2.3.5c Fluid Contact Finder
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Fluid Contact Finder.

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- 250 -
- 251 -
2.3.6 Seismic Object Detection Using Neural
Networks
What you should know about Neural Networks in OpendTect

Neural Networks in OpendTect are used for:

1. Visualizing seismic patterns along horizons and in 3D. This is a qualitative

approach using an unsupervised Neural Network (aka clustering or seg-
mentation).
2. Visualizing seismic objects such as chimneys, faults, salt domes, anom-
alies, etc. This is a two-class classification approach using a supervised
Neural Network (aka object detection).
3. Predicting rock properties such as porosity, fluid content, etc. This is a
quantitative approach using a supervised neural network.
4. Predicting lithology classes. This is a multi-class classification approach
using a supervised neural network.

This chapter deals with visualizing patterns and objects. How Neural Networks
can be used e.g. to predict porosity from inverted acoustic impedance and poros-
ity well logs is described in the chapter on rock property predictions.

What you should know about supervised Networks in OpendTect

The supervised network is a fully-connected Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) with

one hidden layer (i.e one layer between the input node and the output neurons).
The learning algorithm used is back-propagation with momentum and weight
decay. Momentum is used as a filtering of the step directions in the gradient
decent algorithm, which has a positive effect on training speed. Weight decay is
a method to avoid over-fitting when training. Weights are multiplied by a weight
decay factor to reduce the weight values, which results in smoother functions
with improved generalization properties. The program sets the number of nodes
in the hidden layer. In practice, supervised training, the user is teaching the net-
work to distinguish between two or more pointsets.

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What you should know about unsupervised Networks in OpendTect

The unsupervised Neural Network is the Unsupervised-Vector-Quantizer (UVQ).

This Neural Network is first trained on a representative set of input vectors (attrib-
utes extracted at different locations) to find the cluster centers. Each cluster
centre is then represented by a vector. Before the network is saved, the software
sorts the cluster center vectors on similarity. This has the advantage that in the
application phase colours are distributed smoothly over the cluster centers res-
ulting in smoother images which are easier to interpret. In the application phase,
each seismic input vector is compared to all cluster center vectors yielding two
possible outputs: Segment (or Class) and Match. Segment is the index of the
winning cluster center. Match is a measure of confidence between 0 (no con-
fidence) and 1 (input vector and winning cluster vector are identical).

The unsupervised segmentation approach reveals areas with similar seismic

responses and is used extensively as an easy-to-use and quick interpretation
tool. Clustering can be achieved using waveform and also using multi-trace
attributes such as similarity and curvature in the hope of picking up fracture-
density patterns.

More quantitative analysis of UVQ results is possible with the aid of (stochastic-
ally) modeled pseudo-wells (e.g. de Groot, 1999).

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Waveform segmentation

Unsupervised segmentation of data can be done in two modes: horizon-based

and volume-based. The exercise in this section follows the horizon based (or
2D) approach, which is also called waveform segmentation because the input to
the network is a waveform (= time-gate) extracted along the horizon. A 3D- seg-
mentation scheme is very similar. However, be aware that, in 3D, only attributes
not directly related to the phase at the sample location should be used. If phase
sensitive attributes like amplitude are used, the results will look very much like
the original seismic data.

For waveform segmentation to be successful you need a good reference horizon

to work from and preferably a layer-cake setting. Furthermore, it should be real-
ized that due to convolutional effects the results are influenced by variations in
the over- and underburden. Variations on the waveform segmentation theme are
possible. For example clustering waveforms from near-, mid- and far- stacks
incorporates AVO effects.

OpendTect supports two ways to create a horizon-based unsupervised seg-

mentation: The Standard Neural Network method and the so-called “Quick UVQ”
method.

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2.3.6a Waveform Segmentation - Quick UVQ
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Neural Networks.

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- 256 -
- 257 -
2.3.6b Waveform Segmentation - Standard UVQ
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Neural Networks.

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- 260 -
- 261 -
- 262 -
- 263 -
2.3.6c ChimneyCube
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Dip-steering, Neural Networks.

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- 268 -
- 269 -
- 270 -
2.4 HorizonCube and
Sequence Stratigraphy
The HorizonCube is a step-change technology that opens the door to drastic
improvements in understanding the geological meaning contained in seismic
data: 3D sequence stratigraphy, seismic geomorphology with data driven stratal
slicing, improved geologic models, wells correlation, low frequency modeling for
better seismic inversion etc.

Today, seismic interpreters can look forward to the following benefits:

Low Frequency Model Building & More Accurate, Robust Geological

Models

In standard inversion workflows, the low- frequency model is considered the

weakest link. Highly accurate low frequency models can be created by utilizing
all the horizons of the HorizonCube, allowing a detailed initial model to be built.

In a similar fashion rock properties can be modeled. Instead of using only a few
horizons all horizons of the HorizonCube are used, resulting in greatly improved
rock property models.

Rock Property Predictions

The highly accurate low frequency models can be used to create geologically
correct Acoustic Impedance (AI) and Elastic Impedance (EI) cubes using
OpendTect’s Deterministic and Stochastic Inversion plug-ins. To complete the
workflow, the Neural Networks plug-in is used to predict rock properties from the
Acoustic Impedance volume, avoiding the use of oversimplified linear models
which cannot accurately describe most rock property relations.

These advanced tools bring a high degree of precision to traditional seismic

workflows, resulting in better seismic predictions and more accurate input into
the reservoir management decision-making process.

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Sequence Stratigraphy (SSIS plug-in)

The SSIS plug-in works on top of the HorizonCube plug-in. Users can inter-
actively reconstruct the depositional history in geological time using the Hori-
zonCube slider, flatten seismic data in the Wheeler domain, and make full
system tracts interpretations with automatic stratigraphic surfaces identification
and base-level reconstruction.

Well Correlation (WCP plug-in)

The Well Correlation Panel plug-in is an interactive tool for correlating well data
and for picking well log markers in a consistent manner. The tool supports dis-
playing and manipulating multiple wells with logs, markers, and stratigraphic
columns, plus the connecting seismic data (2D lines, or Random lines from 3D
volumes) with interpreted horizons, faults, HorizonCube and interpreted systems
tracts.

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HorizonCube Applications

In this Chapter you will learn how to:

l Create data-driven and model-driven HorizonCubes.

l Truncate HorizonCubes.
l Extract horizons from a HorizonCube.
l Track single horizons from a Steering Cube.
l Correlate between wells.
l Wheeler transform data (= flattening).
l Interpret systems tracts.

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2.4.1 HorizonCube
What you should know about HorizonCubes

l HorizonCubes consist of a dense set of (dip-steer) auto-tracked, or

modeled horizons.
l HorizonCubes exists for both 3D and 2D seismic data sets.
l Horizons are first order approximations of geologic time lines.
l Horizons can never cross each other.
l There are two types of HorizonCubes: Continuous and Truncated.
l In continuous HorizonCubes all horizons exist everywhere; when horizons
converge the density of the horizons increases. This tends to happen
along unconformities and condensed sections.
l In truncated HorizonCubes horizons stop when they get too close together.
l Using HorizonCube density it is possible to convert continuous Hori-
zonCubes to truncated HorizonCubes.
l Flattening on horizons in a HorizonCube is called a Wheeler transform.
l Depositional trends and systems tracts are easier to interpret in a Wheeler-
transformed, truncated HorizonCube. Model building (interpolating well
logs guided by horizons) is easier in a continuous HorizonCube.
l HorizonCube sliders are used in OpendTect to:
l Analyze the depositional history.

l Identify and extract horizons from the dense set of horizons.

l Extract 3D bodies from iso-pach thicknesses or attribute responses.

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Details

In standard seismic interpretation workflows, a coarse 3D structural or sequence

stratigraphic model of the sub- surface is constructed from a limited set of
mapped horizons. The number is limited because mapping horizons with con-
ventional auto-trackers, based on tracking amplitudes and similarities, is a time
consuming practice. In particular, mapping unconformities - primary targets in
sequence stratigraphic interpretations - is cumbersome with conventional track-
ers, as amplitudes tend to change laterally along such surfaces. HorizonCube
maximizes the amount of information that can be extracted from seismic data by
significantly increasing the number of mapped horizons (figures below).

Seismic section to illustrate the difference between two trackers: conventional

vs. dip-steered: (A) Conventionally tracked event based on seismic amplitude
and waveform similarity, (B) the same event has been tracked using the dip-azi-
muth volume (SteeringCube).

A HorizonCube consists of a dense set of auto-tracked seismic horizons. The

auto-tracker tracks the pre-computed dip-azimuth field that is supplied in the
form of a (dip-) SteeringCube. The steering data generally determines the quality
of the resulting HorizonCube.

The auto-tracker used to track in a dip-field works for both 2D and 3D seismic
data. Tracking in a dip field has several advantages: Firstly, the dip field is con-
tinuous. Even if amplitudes vary laterally, the dip continues. Second, the dip field
can be smoothed before applying the tracker, which enables the controlling of

- 275 -
the detail that needs to be captured. The auto-tracker is applied to a target inter-
val and generates hundreds of horizons that are separated on average by a
sampling rate. The result is called a HorizonCube. The comparison between
conventional amplitude based tracking and dip- steered tracking with Steer-
ingCube is presented in the figure above.

The following exercises are showing an application in 3D. The workflows are
very similar in 2D.

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HorizonCube Types

Two types of HorizonCubes are created in OpendTect:

l Continuous HorizonCube: Contains events (or horizons) that do not ter-

minate. All events are continuous throughout the entire volume. They may
come very close together (at unconformities and condensed sections) but
they can never cross each other.
l Truncated HorizonCube: Contains events that terminate against other
events.

Both cubes have their own applications for visualization and also for model cre-
ation. The advantages are also briefly explained in the following pictures.

Two types of HorizonCube based on their geometrical configuration.

Continuous HorizonCube Truncated HorizonCube

Applications: Applications:

l Low Frequency Models l SSIS

l Geologic Modeling l Wheeler Transformation
l Attribute Visualizations in l Attribute Visualizations in
3D 3D

HorizonCube Modes

A HorizonCube can be created with two different modes:

l Data driven: The data-driven mode creates a HorizonCube that is guided

by the SteeringCube, in turn computed from the seismic data. Thus it will
follow the geometries of seismic reflections. It is the preferred mode to
build accurate sub-surface models and interpret the seismic data within a
geologic framework. There are two data-driven modes: tracking and multi-
horizon inversion. In the tracking mode, a 3D auto-tracker tracks in a dip
field. In the multi-horizon inversion, we follow the principle of unconformity
tracker (2.3.1). In both cases the start (seed) position is fixed.

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 l Model driven: The model driven mode is a way of slicing the seismic data
relative to the framework (input) horizons. There are three model driven
sub-modes:

Three different model-driven modes to create a HorizonCube.

HorizonCube Tools

The following tools are available in OpendTect for performing different manip-
ulations on the HorizonCube:

l Add more iterations: To fill “gaps” in the HorizonCube.

l Convert to SteeringCube: Convert the HorizonCube into a dip-azimuth
volume (SteeringCube).
l Edit: Use either error-based or linear-based methods to edit events in a
HorizonCube.
l Extract Horizons: Extract horizons from the HorizonCube (stored as hori-
zon data).
l Get Continuous HorizonCube: Converts a truncated HorizonCube into a
continuous HorizonCube.
l Grid HorizonCube: Use various algorithms to fill unwanted holes in extrac-
ted horizons.
l Merge HorizonCube: Merges multiple HorizonCubes either vertically or
laterally. The vertical merge is useful for bigger surveys. For instance, if
you have three packages, you may run package 1 on machine 1, package
2 on machine 2, and so forth. Then you can merge the Hori-
zonCubesvertically to get a single output. This will speed-up the pro-
cessing time when compared to running a single HorizonCube with three
packages.
l Add or Recalculate 2D Line (2D HorizonCube): Modify the Hori-
zonCube by adding more 2D lines or add further horizons and faults.
l Modify or Recalculate 3D Package (3D HorizonCube): Modify a Hori-
zonCube by adding more horizons/faults.
l Truncate HorizonCube: Operation to remove parts of the HorizonCube
based on the event’s density (number of events within a defined time gate).

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HorizonCube Inputs

The following section explains the required inputs to process a HorizonCube.

Requirements include a pre-computed SteeringCube and framework horizons,
whilst fault (planes or sticks) are optional.

Pre-Computed SteeringCube

SteeringCube is a dip-azimuth volume and can be considered as the heart of the

HorizonCube.

A good-quality SteeringCube will usually result in an equally good-quality Hori-

zonCube. However, our experience suggests that in order to create a good Hori-
zonCube, one is required to pre-compute possibly 2-3 different SteeringCubes
and evaluate them by varying the HorizonCube parameters. The best Hori-
zonCube is then picked by quality controlling the results. Understanding the
SteeringCube is thus paramount towards a successful HorizonCube.

The simplest way to understand the SteeringCube is to first know the seismic
data that you are dealing with. Visualize the seismic data by scrolling the
inlines/crosslines or in a volume. Focus on an interval of interest and check the
areas of good and bad quality. Get an overview of whether the data quality is
poor, fair or good. If it is poor, you can expect a poor SteeringCube and thus in
turn a poor HorizonCube output. Another way of looking at the SteeringCube is
to look at the geologic complexities. If the data is too complex geologically e.g.
contains flower structures, you might not be successful.

In all cases, we suggest various workflows to improve the seismic data. There
are three major workflows that have been tested around the globe and are found
always a useful step to create a SteeringCube:

1. Smooth the seismic data by applying a mild post-stack dip-steered

median filter (2.3.1e Dip steered median filter). Such a filter improves the
quality of seismic at a sub-volume scale e.g. area of 3 by 3 traces.
2. Improve the vertical resolution of the seismic by sharpening the wavelet.
We normally use the Seismic Spectral Blueing (a method to enhance the
vertical resolution) operation to do this. (2.3.4 Seismic Spectral Blueing).
3. Apply a band pass filter on the seismic data to discard the high fre-
quency noise. It is often a valuable step if you are dealing with a high fre-
quency noise and you want to create a HorizonCube which follows the
major seismic events only.

Computationally, creating a SteeringCube is a slow process if dealing with a

dataset of several GB’s. Therefore, it is advisable to pre-process the Steer-
ingCube before you do anything else. You can run such processing by splitting
the jobs on multiple machines.

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To read more about the best settings and parameters for computing a Steer-
ingCube, please go to the exercises section of this chapter.

Which SteeringCube algorithm is suitable for HorizonCube processing?

In our experience, the FFT (Fast Fourier Transformation) algorithm of dip estim-
ation is preferred for horizon tracking or HorizonCube processing with a draw-
back of slowness. We recommend using the BG (phase-based) algorithm for
data conditioning and attribute analysis. This implies for both 2D as well as 3D
seismic cases.

What are the best parameters to start experimenting with various 3D Steer-
ingCubes for HorizonCube?

Case 1: Assuming that the zone has a main frequency ranging between 25-
40Hz.

To create the initial detailed SteeringCube, the following parameters are good to
start with:

l Calculation [inl, xl, z] = [2,2,5]

l Filtering [inl, xl, z] = No filtering if the input data is already smoothed
through dip- steered median filtering (DSFM).

You can then progressively filter this output and process the corresponding Hori-
zonCubes e.g.: (using as input the SteeringCube [inl, xl, z] = [2,2,5])

l Create several filtering results [1,1,3], [1,1,5], [1,1,7],… (if the data is not
noisier).
l Or create several filtering results [2,2,3], [2,2,5], [2,2,7], … (if the data is
noisier).

Case 2: Assuming that the zone has a lower main frequency e.g. 20Hz or below.

To create the initial detailed SteeringCube, the following parameters are good to
start with:

l Calculation [inl, xl, z] = [2,2,7]

l Filtering [inl, xl, z] = No filtering if the input data is already smoothed
through dip- steered median filtering (DSFM).

You can then progressively filter this output and process the corresponding Hori-
zonCubes e.g.: (Input SteeringCube [inl, xl, z] = [2,2,7])

l Create several filtering results [1,1,3], [1,1,5], [1,1,7],… (if the data is not
noisier).

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 l Or create several filtering results [2,2,3], [2,2,5], [2,2,7], … (if the data is
noisier).

What are the best parameters to start experimenting with various 2D Steer-
ingCubes for HorizonCube?

The settings for the 2D are much similar to 3D seismic datasets. The only dif-
ference is that the calculation and filtering step-outs are Traces and Z- samples.
Therefore you can use the same suggestions as before.

Framework Horizons

Framework horizons (2D/3D) are the conventionally mapped horizons (3D grid-
s/2D horizons) that serve as a geologic constraint to form a vertical boundary for
a HorizonCube. Note that at least two framework horizons are needed to form a
package/sequence. The HorizonCube is always computed between two or more
framework horizons. So, if three framework horizons are provided, you will get a
HorizonCube with two packages only.

The data-driven HorizonCube is dependent on provided framework horizons. It

uses them as a relative thickness boundary that cannot be crossed by an auto-
mated HorizonCube event. Nevertheless, the automated events may be con-
verged at the framework events. In some cases, such convergences could
highlight key geologic features: pinch-outs, terminations, levees etc.

Notes and Tips

l A horizon with holes will result in a HorizonCube with holes. Thus, it is sug-
gested to fill the holes by gridding horizons with undefined areas.
l Two horizons might have different geometries (boundary ranges). In such
case the lower boundary would be used as an outer boundary of the Hori-
zonCube.
l Two horizons are also used to define an automated start position (a seed
position) to track events. Tracking can in that case be started from the
depositional centre which is the position with the thickest isopach value.

Framework horizons should be free of holes and should not cross. Optionally,
they may stop at the faults. This is the Data Preparation done via the Hori-
zonCube Control Center.

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Does HorizonCube follow the framework horizons while tracking in a package?

The framework horizons are used to calculate the starting points for various iter-
ations. However, the tracked horizons do not follow the framework horizons
while tracking. It follows the dips within the frameworks. The tracker only makes
convergence of the tracked events with the framework if the dips are making
such a case.

Can both framework horizons have different geometries?

We do not recommend using such horizons. You may end up with unexpected
results such as HorizonCube stopping at a bigger hole, no HorizonCube, or you
may not be able to process a HorizonCube because the start position lies in a
hole. We recommend using the horizons that have common spatial geo-
metries/extension, grid spacing, no holes. OpendTect has several tools to per-
form such actions.

I have two horizons crossing each other. I want to use them a frameworks for
HorizonCube. Can I solve the crossings in such horizons?

Yes! See the data-preparation tools available in the HorizonCube control center.

Fault Planes & Sticks

Fault Planes (3D) or faultsticksets (2D) are optional inputs that can be used
when creating a HorizonCube. Faults serve as structural boundaries along
which the throw is automatically computed using the input framework horizons
and a given fault plane/stick. In OpendTect, there is an additional data pre-
paration step to make the framework horizons “water-tight” with the faults. There
is no limitation on number of faults or sticks. One can still process a Hori-
zonCube for the intervals where the faults are absent.

The 3D HorizonCube Creator dialog will require Faults whereas the

2D HorizonCube Creator dialog will require FaultSticksets as an
input.

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2.4.1a Data-driven HorizonCube
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Dip-steering, HorizonCube.

A – Tracking based data-driven HorizonCube

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B – A Global Inversion based data-driven HorizonCube

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2.4.1b 3D Bodies From HorizonCube
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, HorizonCube.

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2.4.1c Truncate HorizonCube
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, HorizonCube.

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2.4.1d Horizons From HorizonCube
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, HorizonCube.

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2.4.2 Sequence Stratigraphic Interpretation
System (SSIS)
What you should know about SSIS

l SSIS is a commercial plugin by dGB that operates on a HorizonCube.

l SSIS supports Wheeler transformations and Systems Tracts Interpretation.

Details

In essence, sequence stratigraphy is used to provide a chronostratigraphic

framework for correlation and mapping and for stratigraphic prediction (Emery
and Myers, 1996). Although sequence stratigraphy has proven to be a powerful
instrument, and despite major advances in concepts since its introduction in the
nineteen- seventies, sequence stratigraphy has not lived up to its potential
because of the lack of supporting software tools. OpendTect’s SSIS plugin came
to the market with the aim of filling this gap.

Wheeler diagrams and wheeler transforms can be powerful tools to aid in

sequence stratigraphic interpretations. Non-depositional or erosional hiatuses
are visible, the lateral extent of stratigraphic units can be determined at a glance,
and a clear understanding of the lateral shift in deposition over time can be
established. The Wheeler transform is constructed, by flattening each horizon,
thus enabling the user to study seismic data, and its derivatives (attributes or
neural network outputs) in the Wheeler domain in three dimensions. Previously,
Wheeler diagrams were constructed by hand, making this a time consuming pro-
cess. This is unfortunate because the Wheeler diagram, or Wheeler transform as
its seismic counterpart is called, is a very valuable tool to gain insight and to
extract additional information.

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The Sequence Stratigraphic Interpretation System (SSIS) plug-in to OpendTect
allows interpreters to automatically create a Wheeler transform in which they can
study the depositional history of the area through flattened horizons, showing the
stacking patterns including depositional hiatuses and condensed sections.
Using this added feature, interpreters can make more informed decisions about
seismic facies and lithofacies predictions, thus helping to identifying potential
stratigraphic traps.

SSIS will only be of use if you have already calculated your HorizonCube. If you
created a continuous HorizonCube, you will need to truncate this to see depos-
itional variations in the Wheeler scene. Both creating a HorizonCube and trun-
cating an existing one are covered in the previous section of this training
manual.

Lap-out patterns & stratal terminations

While it is not a requirement as part of the workflow to perform this step each
time, but it is considered as a good practice. Annotating the stratal terminations
in your data before making your interpretations can lead the observations
towards proper interpretation.

Annotations are graphical interpretation tools that are available in OpendTect

during the whole workflow. They can be a great help at the start of an inter-
pretation when tracking bounding surfaces, or when making an initial inter-
pretation.

The annotations comprise of three basic tools: Arrows, images and scale bar.
The arrows are intended to indicate lap-out patterns or stratal terminations, but
can be used to highlight any feature. Seismic data can be animated with pictures
to make communication easier and more direct with colleagues who are working
on the same project. The scale bar allows you to very easily add scale inform-
ation.

The types of stratal terminations are truncation, toplap, onlap, downlap, and
offlap. They provide diagnostic features for the recognition of the various sur-
faces and systems tracts. “Stratal terminations also allow inferring the type of
shoreline shifts, and implicitly the base level changes at the shoreline. For
example, coastal onlap indicates transgression, offlap is diagnostic for forced
regressions, and downlap may form in relation to normal or forced regressions.”
(Catuneanu, 2002):

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 Types of stratal terminations

Stratal Termination Shoreline shift Base level

Truncation Fluvial FR Fall

Truncation Marine FR, T Fall, Rise

Toplap R Standstill

Apparent toplap NR, FR Rise, Fall

Offlap FR Fall

Onlap, fluvial NR, T Rise

Onlap, coastal T Rise

Onlap, marine T Rise

Downlap NR, FR Fall, Rise

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Selecting unconformities

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2.4.2a Stratal Terminations
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, SSIS.

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2.4.2b Stacking Patterns
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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2.4.2c Wheeler Scene
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, SSIS.

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2.4.2d Systems Tracts
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, SSIS.

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2.4.2e Statistical (Thickness) Curves
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, SSIS.

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2.4.2f Stratigraphic Surfaces
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, SSIS.

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2.4.2g Stratigraphic Attributes
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, HorizonCube.

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2.4.2h Stratal Slicing
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, SSIS.

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2.4.3 Well Correlation Panel
What you should know about Well Correlation Panel

l The Well Correlation Panel is a commercial plugin by dGB.

l It is used to pick and QC well log markers.
l It can be used to create conventional well correlation panels without seis-
mic backdrop.
l Typically, however, a random line is created through the wells and the seis-
mic is used as a backdrop to guide the interpretation.
l A HorizonCube, either 3D, or a dedicated 2D version created along the ran-
dom track, can optionally be added to help correlate markers from well to
well.

Details

A part of sequence stratigraphic interpretation (next chapter) is to integrate the

seismic information with the well data. This is done in the Well Correlation Panel
(WCP). The panel is an important tool for creating consistent geologic frame-
works. It integrates stratigraphy, well logs, markers, mapped regional horizons,
seismic and horizons from the HorizonCube in one view. It enables the user to
arrive at interpretations that are consistent between the different scales of
(regional) geological concepts, seismic data and well logs.

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Its primary functionality is to pick (and/or QC) well log markers that are defined
within the (regional) geological or stratigraphic framework in a consistent man-
ner using seismic correlations to guide the picking. Typically, the user starts with
a random seismic transect connecting the wells in a 3D volume. A well cor-
relation panel is constructed along this random track and the Well Correlation
Panel is launched.

However, if the user wants to use a HorizonCube to guide the correlations it can
be beneficial to convert the random line into a 2D seismic section and to con-
tinue with 2D mapped horizons and 2D HorizonCube. In that case 3D regional
horizons are converted to 2D horizons (tree option under 2D Horizon) and a Hori-
zonCube is created along the 2D section. When this is done, the Well Cor-
relation Panel is launched. Here the user points and QC’s markers.

To use all supported functionality the user should build a stratigraphic frame-
work that links (regional) well markers to seismic horizons. Both time and depth
domain are supported in the WCP module. OpendTect’s synthetic-to-seismic
matching module is fully integrated and is used to align all wells optimally before
picking/editing markers. WCP supports various display modes including but not
limited to: wells only; wells plus seismic; equidistant; connecting markers; filling
stratigraphy. Unique is the capability to display the dense set of horizons from
the HorizonCube and use of the HorizonCube slider to guide detailed cor-
relations.

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2.4.3a Well Correlation Panel
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Well Correlation Panel, HorizonCube.

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2.5 Seismic Predictions
This chapter deals with Quantitative Interpretation possibilities in OpendTect
using commercial plug-ins developed by dGB, ARK CLS & EarthWorks. These
plug-ins cover a wide range of seismic inversion and forward modeling methods.

In this chapter you will learn how to:

l Perform relative (band-limited) acoustic impedance inversion with Seismic

Coloured Inversion (SCI) plug-in.
l Perform model-driven absolute acoustic impedance inversion with
Deterministic Inversion (DI) plug-in.
l Perform stochastic inversion with Multi-Point Stochastic Inversion (MPSI)
plug-in.
l Predict porosity from inverted acoustic impedance and porosity well logs
using Neural Networks plug-in.

The inversion plug-ins (SCI, DI, MPSI) can be used to invert to (Extended)
Elastic Impedance volumes using the same work flows described in this
Chapter. For more extensive training in inversion, please contact dGB at
[email protected].

Training of SynthRock, dGB’s plug- in for simulation of pseudo- wells and

HitCube inversion (matching stochastic pseudo-well synthetics against meas-
ured seismic responses) is not included in this manual. A separate training
manual exists. For more information, please contact dGB at [email protected].

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2.5.1 Relative Impedance Inversion (SCI)
What you should know about Seismic Coloured Inversion (SCI)

l SCI is a plug-in by ARK CLS.

l It enables rapid band-limited inversion to Acoustic or (Extended) Elastic
Impedance.
l The SCI operator matches the seismic amplitude spectrum to the well log
spectrum.
l Default trends can be used in the absence of well logs.
l The workflow is very similar to Seismic Spectral Blueing (see section
2.3.4).

The workflow is as follows: an operator is designed for SCI using the seismic
and well data. Once the operator has been derived, it is converted to the time
domain and simply applied to the seismic volume using a convolution algorithm.

Our aim is to design an operator at the zone of interest (target). It is therefore

desirable to time gate the selected traces prior to generating well log spectra.
Ideally you should use a good interpreted horizon in the target zone to guide the
well data (log traces). In this manner, the various gated log traces should have
sample values over a similar geology. However, in our case we will just use a
window interval instead.

Here is the workflow on how to create and apply these techniques in

OpendTect:

1. Seismic: Amplitude-Frequency plot

2. Smoothing of seismic mean
3. Well: Amplitude-Frequency plot
4. Global trend of well plot
5. Design operator
6. Apply Operator
7. Quality Check

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2.5.1a Coloured Inversion
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Seismic Coloured Inversion.

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2.5.2 Absolute Impedance Inversion (DI &
MPSI)
What you should know about DI and MPSI

The Deterministic Inversion (DI) plug-in inverts the seismic data using an a priori
impedance model. The output is an estimate of the mean impedance at each
sample location. The prior model is created first using stochastic parameters
(variograms) extracted from the data. Then a 2D error grid volume is constructed
to get spatially variable constraints. Finally the model, error grid, seismic volume
and wavelet are used to create the mean impedance volume.

The MPSI (Multi-Point Stochastic Inversion) module starts after the deterministic
inversion. Many realizations of the impedance inversion are computed starting
from the mean impedance volume (from DI) using the stochastic model para-
meters input in the a priori model building step, and a user-defined NScore trans-
form. Several utilities can then be used to convert the realizations into
geobodies, or probability volumes.

Variogram Analysis

What you should know about variograms

Variogram modeling is free (open source) in OpendTect. It is included in the com-

mercial part of this training manual because variogram parameters are neces-
sary inputs for deterministic and stochastic inversion described hereafter.

A variogram describes the spatial continuity of a variable. The inversion model

in the upcoming exercises will be constructed in three zones or layers bounded
by two horizons. These horizons are represented in the wells by the FS8 and
FS4 markers.

Both horizontal and vertical variograms will be computed for the packages
above FS8, between FS8 and FS4, and below FS4.

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Horizontal semi-variograms

Horizontal variograms are computed from grids (attributes) stored on horizons.

The attribute used for this analysis is the inversion target, impedance maps.
Nevertheless one should not forget that stationarity is a basic assumption in vari-
ogram analysis. Stationarity implies that the variograms analysis should be per-
formed on trendless data. An average impedance map extracted from a
broadband mean impedance volume is very unlikely to show no trends, thus it
represents an improper intput. The closest maps that can be produced, and that
does not contain trend(s) are attribute maps extracted from relative impedance
volumes.

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2.5.2a Extracting Horizontal Variograms
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Deterministic Inversion.

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2.5.2b Extracting Vertical Variograms
Required licenses: OpendTect.

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2.5.3 Porosity Prediction using Neural Net-
works
What you should know about Neural Networks for Rock Property Pre-
diction

l This is a supervised approach using a Multi-Layer-Perceptron neural net-

work.
l The network will find the optimal (non-linear) mapping between seismic
attributes (usually impedance logs) and target well log attributes (porosity,
gamma-ray, Vshale, Sw …).
l The network is trained on data points extracted along the well tracks.
l Part of the extracted points are used as test set to determine the optimal
point to stop training and avoid over fitting.
l The trained network is applied to (inverted) seismic data.
l The input data (inverted seismic) needs to be scaled to match the scaling
of the input data set that was used in training (logs).

Details

In the exercise that follows, we will convert seismic information to porosity using
a neural network inversion workflow.

As in the chimney cube exercise (see Chapter Seismic Object Detection using
Neural Networks), we will use a supervised neural network to establish the (pos-
sibly non-linear) relationship between seismic response and porosity. The main
difference from the previous exercise is that we will now use well information to
construct the training (and test) sets.

The input consists of acoustic impedance values from the AI volume and the ref-
erence time, i.e. the two-way time at the extraction point. The reference time is
included to capture a possible porosity trend with depth (time).

Theoretically we only need the AI value at the evaluation point as input to the
neural network but this assumes that the inversion process has completely
removed the wavelet and that there is perfect alignment of AI and log responses
along the entire well track. To compensate for potential inaccuracies we will
extract more than just the AI value at the evaluation point. Instead we will extract
AI in a 24ms time window that slides along the well tracks. The corresponding
porosity values from the depth-to-time converted and resampled logs serve as
target values for the neural network.

Porosity prediction is a relatively easy process. The workflow is schematically

shown below:

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 Log property prediction workflow

This workflow can be used to create log property cubes such as a Porosity Cube
and a Vshale Cube.

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2.5.3a Neural Network Prediction
Required licenses: OpendTect Pro, Neural Networks.

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Appendix - GMT Software
Generic Mapping Tools (GMT)

GMT is an open source collection of tools for manipulating geographic and

Cartesian data sets and producing Encapsulated Postscript (eps) file illus-
trations ranging from simple x-y plots via contour maps to artificially illuminated
surfaces and 3-D perspectives views.

In this appendix, we will shortly explain the GMT plug-in and we will create dif-
ferent maps in OpendTect:

To launch GMT tools, go to Processing menu > GMT Mapping Tool. The first
time you launch the GMT mapping tools, a warning message will pop-up: a map-
ping tool package needs to be installed in order to run it. This can be down-
loaded from the GMT website.

If OpendTect fails to create a map with GMT, check whether the environment
variable GMTROOT is set to the directory in which GMT was installed and
whether the PATH variable includes the GMT bin directory. (Per default:
GMTROOT c:\programs\GMT4 and PATH …c:\programs\GMT4\bin…). Envir-
onment variables in Windows 7 can be set from Computer > System Properties
> Advanced System Settings.

After successful installation of GMT package, the GMT user interface will be star-
ted:

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When creating postscript maps, the several tabs allow to specify the respective
settings:

l Basemap: used to set the scale of map and other map settings. You do not
need to add it in the map overlays. This is the first and mandatory step into
the creation of maps
l Locations: used to post pickset data (e.g. proposed well locations) in the
map overlay
l Polyline: used to add polygons (e.g. lease boundaries) in the map overlay
l Contours: used to make a horizon contour map
l Coastline: used to draw coastal lines
l Wells: used to post wells in the map
l 2D Lines: used to post the OpendTect 2D-Line(s) in the map
l Random Lines: used to post the Random Line(s) in the map
l Clipping: used to set up polygonal clip path
l Advanced: used to customize the GMT commands

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A typical example of a time Contour Map with well locations

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