Building initial model for seismic inversion based on semi-supervised learning

Seismic inversion is an important tool for reservoir characterization. The inversion results are significantly impacted by a reliable initial model. Conventional well interpolation methods are not able to meet the needs of seismic inversion for lateral heterogeneous reservoirs. Inspired by the sequence modelling network and seismic inversion in the Laplace–Fourier domain, we propose an initial model-building method using semi-supervised learning strategy. The proposed method considers spatial information to ensure the horizontal continuity of the initial model. Based on the fact that the low-frequency components of seismic signals in the Laplace–Fourier domain are easier to obtain, we use the forward model in the Laplace–Fourier domain to replace the time-domain forward model. The proposed workflow was validated using the Marmousi II model. Although the training was carried out on a small number of low-frequency impedance traces, the proposed workflow was able to build low-frequency model for the entire Marmousi II model with a correlation of 98%. Field data examples demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. For lateral heterogeneous reservoirs, the proposed method performs better than the well interpolation method. By utilizing the model obtained by the proposed method as the initial low-frequency model of the conventional inversion method, it is possible to estimate better inversion results. The results of different combinations of training sets demonstrate the stability of the proposed method. This method may still be a viable choice if there is lateral heterogeneity underground but not much well-logging label data.