Patent ID: 11971513
Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  E | IPC E  G

Claim 6:
7. A system, comprising:
a seismic acquisition system, comprising:
a seismic source, configured to emit a radiated seismic wave, and
a plurality of seismic receivers, configured to detect and record an observed seismic dataset generated by the radiated seismic wave; and

a seismic data processor configured to:
receive, from the seismic acquisition system, an observed seismic dataset for a subterranean region of interest,
obtain a seismic velocity model for the subterranean region of interest,
determine a simulated seismic dataset based, at least in part, on the seismic velocity model and on a source and receiver geometry of the observed seismic dataset,
form a plurality of time-windowed trace pairs, wherein a first member of each pair is drawn from the simulated seismic dataset and a second member of each pair is drawn from the observed seismic dataset,
form an objective function based, at least in part, on a penalty function and a cross- correlation between the first member and the second member of each of the plurality of time-windowed trace pairs,
find an extremum of the objective function,
determine a seismic velocity increment based, at least in part, on the extremum,
form an updated seismic velocity model by combining the seismic velocity increment and the seismic velocity model,
form a seismic image of the subterranean region of interest based, at least in part, on the updated seismic velocity model,
identify a portion of the subterranean region of interest with a likelihood of containing oil and gas based, at least in part, on the seismic image of the subterranean region of interest, and
using the updated seismic velocity model, plan

a well path through the subterranean region of interest based, at least in part, on the identified portion of the subterranean region of interest; and
a drilling system, configured to drill a well guided by the planned well path.