Comparing Post-stack AVO Inversion to Prestack Inversion for Estimating Rock Properties

Inversion of seismic data to rock properties is not a new method, however there are a wide variety of methodologies available one can use to achieve those estimates. The number of potential AVO equations one has access to now exceeds what many would consider useful. The problem then becomes, which of the several methods should be applied, given a specific exploration or development goal? While it is likely that each example must be reviewed upon its own merits, below is a comparison of two such methods for estimating rock properties from seismic data. Specifically a comparison of the workflow proposed by Goodway et al. (1997) to the method proposed by Hampson et al. (2005) will be discussed in the context of identifying reservoir quality sands within Mannville-age fluvial channels (Larson & Anderson, 2006). It will be shown that given the same input, while both geologically “accurate” (as much as the geophysical method can be), the prestack inversion does produce a result which is of more value to an interpreter.