Objective Objectives and problems to be solved:SIMBA gathers European expertise in a broad range of geophysical disciplines for a radically new, more fundamental approach to the problem of subsurface description. Our objective is to change industry practice for problems of hydrocarbon reservoir characterization, subsurface pollution and natural risk prevention. To achieve this, experts from the industry, service companies and academia together will focus on the problem of Earth heterogeneities, enhancing existing state-of-the art techniques and developing new techniques to increase the resolution and accuracy of geophysical data and their interpretation. The key to our success will be the ability to integrate geology, seismic modelling and processing, and potential and electromagnetic methods into a new global methodology - this will be our main challenge.Description of work:Instead of using computer- and labour-intensive methods on imperfect seismic data as is currently done, our approach is to take a fundamental look at the problem of subsurface heterogeneities and develop new software for taking them into account.We will better understand1. Their geological basis,2. Their expression on seismic and non-seismic data,3. Ways that can be used to assess and exploit all the information from all the data.We expect to demonstrate significant benefits from our approach, which emphasizes integration between geology, seismic and non-seismic geophysics. The work plan is organized in two phases comprising six work packages. This reflects a progression from background work in the four main disciplines in the first phase, to reach a data acquisition, integration and demonstration stage on a major case study in the second phase. The first phase comprises four Work Packages corresponding to the four different areas of scientific investigation: geology, seismic modelling, gravity/magnetics/electromagnetics and seismic processing. Initially based on independent theoretical advances in a wide range of disciplines, this phase will gradually allow the partners to merge their techniques and unify their effort to obtain a clear problem-solving methodology. The geological knowledge derived on heterogeneous media will produce new reference models, which will be used to study the effects on the seismic response and to research and develop new tools for properly handling this response. We will also use these models to evaluate the benefit of non-seismic data and how it can be integrated with the seismic information. The end of this first phase will be an essential milestone: we will define a global methodology based on the results obtained, to best integrate all data types and optimise processing. In the second phase, we will demonstrate the methodology by applying it to a case study of interest to the industry. We will select the demonstration area for the case study (early in the project). We will acquire new magneto-telluric data over the study area as needed, generate 3D seismic datasets and study the optimal acquisition geometries and their impact on data quality. Processing and integration of all data will then be performed to derive an improved description of the subsurface in the demonstration area. Expected results and exploitation plans: In the end, we will have validated the new tools and obtained the necessary data for implementing the global methodology on a large-scale case study of interest to the oil & gas industry. Cost reduction and changes in reserves will be measured on the demonstration case. Our results will be largely disseminated. Fields of science natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryhydrocarbonsnatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollutionnatural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsgeometrynatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeophysicsnatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeology Programme(s) FP5-EESD - Programme for research, technological development and demonstration on "Energy, environment and sustainable development, 1998-2002" Topic(s) 1.1.4.-6. - Key action Economic and Efficient Energy for a Competitive Europe Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator ELF EXPLORATION UK PLC EU contribution No data Address Buckingham Gate 30 SW1E 6NN LONDON United Kingdom See on map Total cost No data Participants (8) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all ARK GEOPHYSICS LIMITED United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address Mill Court, Featherstone Road, Wolverton Mill MK12 5EU MILTON KEYNES See on map Total cost No data CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE France EU contribution No data Address Place Nicolas Copernic 29280 PLOUZANE See on map Total cost No data INSTITUT FRANCAIS DU PETROLE France EU contribution No data Address Avenue de Bois Préau 1-4 92852 RUEIL MALMAISON See on map Total cost No data NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN Ireland EU contribution No data Address Belfield 14 DUBLIN See on map Total cost No data NORSK HYDRO ASA Norway EU contribution No data Address 90,Sandsliveien 90 5020 BERGEN See on map Total cost No data THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address Madingley Road CB3 0EZ CAMBRIDGE See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITE DE BRETAGNE OCCIDENTALE France EU contribution No data Address 6,Avenue le Gorgeu 6 UMR 6538 29285 Brest See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM United Kingdom EU contribution No data Address South Road, Science Laboratory DH1 3LE DURHAM See on map Total cost No data
