Modeling The Earth For Oil Exploration

This volume presents an overview of the results of a European Union integrated program in which approximately two hundred earth scientists participated, drawn from all fields related to exploration.Two classes of modeling were addressed - geological modeling - the relationship between the conditions of sedimentation and the resulting reservoir conditions; and wave-propagation modeling - the investigation of wave-propagation through media of various degrees of complexity. Wave-propagation modeling was carried out either mathematically or physically with the most modern tools. An important aspect of the project was the inversion of seismic data, that is the determination of the parameters of the medium from observations. This problem is closely related to modeling since it is based on the inversion of the mathematical steps and often uses modeling for verification and updating.The geological data presents novel concepts with a coverage that is both broad in area and in discipline. The geophysical investigations are at the leading edge of current research. Although detailed results have been published separately by investigators, this volume is the only source of reference which summarises the results; but incorporating sufficient detail to enable the reader to follow the scientific reasoning.