Conditioning sedimentary models to layer thickness data - An application of ensemble kalman filter

Geological models consistent with the physics of sediment transport and deposition are increasingly in vogue for the evaluation and development of water, oil and gas reservoirs. Flow-based sedimentary models that consider depositional and physical principles for the distribution of sediments in space can be used to help generate geologically realistic models. However, these models have an important limitation, in that, it is impossible to assimilate reservoir specific information in these models. In order to overcome this limitation, an approach utilizing the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) technique is presented on this paper. The EnFK technique allows the conditioning of sedimentary models to petrophysical and poro-elastic acoustic measurements from seismic and well-logs. This approach has been tested with a 1-Dimensional sedimentary deposit model under quasi-steady state turbidity flow conditions and the results look promising.