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The “FaultWorld”
Approach: A Semi-Automatic 
Fault
Interpretation Workflow
Terken, Jos M. J.,
Jean-Claude Jauffred, Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij B.V, Assen,
Fault mapping is often the most labor-intensive part of any
seismic interpretation, especially when the tectonic setting is complex. This
paper describes the FaultWorld workflow developed by Shell in-house are
described that can significantly reduce this effort by semiautomatic fault
extraction in an appropriately filtered 3D seismic dataset. The approach is
used for both exploration and development studies, as it allows fast analysis
of fault density and trends around reservoir horizons and in overburden sequences
as well as detailed fault surfaces generation.
The workflow includes appropriate structural oriented filtering
of the seismic volume, with proper edge preservation to sharpen
discontinuities, followed by generation of the adequate fault highlighting
volume. These highlighted discontinuities are then collapsed into a
stopper-voxel volume on which azimuth and dip volumes are computed.
These volumes
are analyzed in FaultWorld, which provides a quick 3D view of the fault pattern
that can be broadcasted to 123DI, Shells’ in-house TIS package, for analysis of
the tectonic setting and history. The raw fault surfaces can be merged before
export to a reservoir modeling package, e.g. PETREL, where they can form the
basis of a 3D static reservoir model. Examples of the application of this
semi-automated fault
extraction workflow in different structural settings in
the