SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY CORRELATING GEOLOGIC TOPS

• Main Authors: WITTE, DEAN, C, GRANT, CHRIS
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 24.02.2016
• Subjects: DETECTING MASSES OR OBJECTS; GEOPHYSICS; GRAVITATIONAL MEASUREMENTS; MEASURING; PHYSICS; TESTING

A system and method are provided for automatically correlating geologic tops. The system receives well logs from different well bores and one or more user seed picks identifying a well top to be correlated. Each of the seed picks is added to a priority queue ordered by each pick's confidence. User selected picks are assigned the highest level of confidence. The system performs correlation by selecting a window of well log data about a user's manual pick, selected from the top of the priority queue, and then finding the best optimal match with a corresponding window in a neighboring wellbore. That new pick is then estimated in the target well using a correlation function. A quality value and a confidence value may then be calculated for each pick using some correlation function, for example dynamic time warping, and added to the priority queue according to the confidence value. The system may be configured so that picks that fall below a preset quality or confidence value may be discarded and not added to the queue. The system may then move on to the next pick in the priority queue.