The art of seismic interpretation carries many challenges, especially in complex geological settings where structural variations are observed. Interpretive methodologies and workflows require analyzing and integrating all the available geological and geophysical information to evaluate potential prospects. The emergence of improved interpretation techniques has taken interpreters from working on sheets of paper to full volume-based rock property and fracture predictions on workstations and the cloud. 

Over the years, data analysis, visualization techniques and reservoir characterization methods have evolved. In parallel, continuous improvements in seismic acquisition, seismic processing and GPU/CPU performance have helped accelerate exploration and production efforts. This bodes well for the industry as it increases confidence in decision-making, but two key questions remain:

1. Do current seismic interpretation software solutions keep up with customer requests, demands for shorter project timelines and meet their sustainability goals today rather than tomorrow?
2. How many platforms are needed to interactively, efficiently and most importantly, accurately employ multi-disciplinary workflows?

AspenTech provides the answer to both in a single solution – Aspen SeisEarth™. An integrated solution suite providing fast, multi-survey structural and stratigraphic interpretation and visualization, Aspen SeisEarth is differentiated by comprehensive functionality, unmatched performance capabilities, effective scalability and interoperability coupled with an advanced centralized database. This system was designed to allow geoscientists of all levels to conduct their interpretation activities, whether as a single user or as a team of geoscientists and to deliver key benefits including building subsurface certainty, reducing exploration risks, leveraging powerful CPUs/GPUs for high-speed graphics and providing expert support across sustainable energy environments.

Last month, AspenTech introduced new performance and sustainability capabilities available in aspenONE^®, the company’s portfolio of asset optimization solutions. Included in this release were enhancements to the company’s Subsurface Science and Engineering (SSE) portfolio comprising products and solutions for the upstream energy industry. With over 40 years of technology leadership in geology, geophysics, petrophysics, modeling and engineering, AspenTech’s SSE solutions are equipped to streamline software access, increase customer productivity, strengthen subsurface workflows, improve computation performance, support energy transitions and provide advanced options in connectivity.

What does this latest release mean for companies and the industry’s ever-changing landscape? Together with other Aspen Epos™ supported products, Aspen SeisEarth is directly aiding the acceleration of our customers’ digital journeys. More specifically, the newest feature in Aspen SeisEarth, Neural Network Inversion (NNI), enables geoscientists and interpreters to leverage AspenTech’s machine learning capabilities to reduce project timelines and shorten time to decision. This workflow, designed for all interpreters, transforms seismic data and its attributes into predicted log property volumes. NNI’s step-by-step user guided workflow trains the input data and finds a relationship between the seismic data and well logs and subsequently applies this to the seismic data to create a volume of log properties for interpreters and quantitative experts to interrogate. NNI comes equipped with built-in quality control to ensure the best parameters and seismic attributes are selected without overfitting the data.

Additionally, users can now generate rock property volumes more efficiently with Aspen SeisEarth’s Crossplot Coloring feature, enhanced with the ability to apply a rock physics model. Combined with NNI and advanced 3D visualization, volume interpretation and other analytic capabilities, Aspen SeisEarth  provides the geoscientist with a powerful solution for subsurface geological characterization. Utilizing this workflow adds value in exploration projects by providing better delineation and assists in de-risking the presence of a reservoir, seal and other aspects of a petroleum system in the subsurface.   

A notable feature in the latest version of Aspen SeisEarth is 3D Propagator, a modern workflow for horizon extraction available in 3D, section and map views. This automated horizon extractor is now implemented as a workflow for interpreters with augmented capabilities including workflow tracking and in-built editing and is adeptly repeatable for audits at any step.

To request an Aspen SeisEarth™ demonstration featuring Neural Network Inversion, please click here. To learn about all enhancements and new capabilities recently introduced by AspenTech, visit our aspenONE^® V14 release page. For more on upgrading your existing software, visit our aspenONE^® Upgrade Acceleration Program.