EMERGE 1

Guide to Emerge

Introduction to Emerge

Emerge is a process whose purpose is to merge well log and seismic data. The general objective
is to predict a well log property using attributes of the seismic data. That property may be any
measured log type such as velocity or porosity, or it may even be a derived lithologic attribute,
such as volume of shale. The seismic attributes may be calculated internally, or they may be
provided as external attributes. The analysis proceeds in several stages:

(1) Examine the log and seismic data at well locations to determine which set of
attributes is appropriate.
(2) Derive a relationship using multi-linear regression or Neural Networks.
(3) Apply the derived relationship to a 3D SEG-Y volume to create a volume of the
desired log property.

This guide section takes you through the complete Emerge analysis for three separate examples:

Part 1: Predicting sonic logs from seismic attributes using multi-linear regression
Part 2: Predicting porosity logs from seismic attributes using Neural Networks
Part 3: Predicting sonic logs from other logs

Each example is independent and may be performed without doing the others.

Each example uses logs which have already been loaded into a Geoview database. If you are
unfamiliar with loading logs into Geoview , please refer to the AVO Modeling Guide.

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Part 1: Estimating P-wave Velocity from Seismic Attributes

We are now ready to do the first Emerge example. In this example, we will estimate P-wave or
sonic log velocity from seismic attributes.

The data set consists of the following:

 A SEG-Y file, seismic.sgy, which is a 3D post-stack data set.

 A SEG-Y file, inversion.sgy, which is the 3D result of performing inversion on the input
seismic data.
 12 wells that tie the two SEG-Y files. Each of these wells contains a sonic log and a
check-shot file.

The objective of this analysis is to predict new sonic logs for the entire 3D survey, using the
seismic data and the inversion result.

Starting Geoview

Geoview is the starting program for all the applications in the Hampson-Russell suite, including
Emerge Analysis. To start this tutorial, first start the Geoview program.

When you launch Geoview, the first window that you see contains a list of projects previously
opened in Geoview . For example, the figure below shows a single previous project, which could
be opened now. Your list will be blank if this is the first time you are running Geoview .

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For this tutorial, we will start a new project. Before doing that, it will be helpful to set all the
data paths to point to the location where you have stored the tutorial data. To do that, click the
Settings tab:

Now you can see a series of default locations for the Data Directory, Project Directory, and
Database Directory. We would like to change all of these to point to the directory where the
tutorial data is stored.

To change all of the directories to the same location, select the Settings tab and click on the
option Set all default directories to. Then click the button to the right:

In the File Selection Dialog, select the folder which contains the tutorial data and click Ok:

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After setting all three paths, the Geoview window will now show the selected directories (note
that yours may be different):

When you have finished setting all the paths, click Apply to store these paths:

Now select the Projects tab and click the New Project button:

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A dialog appears to set the project name. We will call it Emerge Guide, as shown below. Enter
the project name and click OK on that dialog:

Now a dialog appears, asking for the name of the database to use for this project:

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The database stores all the wells used in this project. By default, Geoview creates a new
database, with the same name as the project and located in the same directory. For example, this
project is called Emerge Guide.prj, so the default database would be called Emerge Guide.wdb.
That would be desirable if we were starting a new project, intending to read in well logs from
external files. For this tutorial, to save time, we have already created a database, which has the
wells already loaded.

To use that database, click Specify database:

On the pop-up menu which appears, select Open. Then, select the database guide.wdb, as
shown, and click OK:

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Now the previous dialog shows the selected database and the new project name. Click OK to
accept this:

The Geoview Start Window now looks like this:

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Displaying the wells

One part of the Geoview window (called the Project Manager) shows all the project data so far.
The tabs along the left side select the type of project data. Right now, the Well tab is selected
and we can see the 12 wells from the external data base. Click the arrow sign near one of the
wells (01-17 is shown as an example), to see a list of curves in that well:

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To see more details about the wells, click the Data Explorer tab to the right:

The Geoview window now changes as shown:

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Click the arrow next to any of the wells (for example, well 01-17) to get more information about
the curves in that well:

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Click the Show Map button on the right of the workspace. A base map is now displayed
showing the location of the wells:

By clicking the Single Well Display button, it will display the curves for the selected well:

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Finally, to see the most complete view of the log curves within a well, double-click the icon for
that well within the Project Data window. In this case, we will choose well 01-08:

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This creates a new tab within the main Geoview window, called the Wells tab, which displays
the selected well curves:

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Loading the Seismic Data

We have now loaded the wells which will be used in the Emerge process. The next step is to
load the seismic volumes.

On the far left side of the Geoview window, click the Seismic tab:

The window to the right of this tab shows all seismic data loaded so far. This is empty. Go to
the bottom of the window and click the Import Seismic button:

On the pull-down menu, select From SEG-Y File:

On the dialog that appears, we see two seismic files in the Emerge data directory. We will load
them both. Click the Select All button:

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Click Next at the base of the dialog:

On the next page, we are specifying two things. First the files are 3D geometry. Secondly, these
are two separate files, which happen to have the same geometry. Click Next to accept these
defaults:

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On the third page, we specify two things. First we tell the program that one of the files is an
impedance file. If the Amplitude Type is not correct for the imported volume, we can change
the Amplitude Type on the pull down menu.

Next, we specify what information can be found in the trace headers. In our case, we have both
Inline & Xline numbers and X & Y coordinates in the headers. So we accept the default settings
as shown below:

Click Next to see the SEG-Y Format page:

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By default, this page assumes that the seismic data is a SEG-Y file with all header values filled
in as per the standard SEG-Y convention. If you are not sure that is true, click Header Editor to
see what is in the trace headers.

In this case, we believe the format information is correct for both files we are reading in. To
confirm that, click Apply Format to all files:

Now click Next to move to the next page. The following warning message appears because the
program is about to scan the entire SEG-Y file:

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Click Yes to begin the scanning process. When the scanning has finished, the Geometry Grid
page appears:

Because we have read in the proper header information, the geometry is correct. Click OK.
After building the geometry files, a new window appears, showing how each of the wells is
mapped into this seismic volume:

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In this case, all the wells are mapped to the correct Inline / Xline locations because the X and Y
locations have been properly set within the Geoview database. If this had not been done
previously, you would type in correct values for the Inline and Xline numbers.

Click OK to accept the locations shown on this window.

Now the seismic data appears within the Geoview window:

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We have read in two seismic volumes, but, by default, only one is visible. We will show the
second volume in a split-screen mode. First, turn on the second display panel by clicking this
button on the lower right:

The Geoview window should look like this:

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We would like to plot the inversion volume in the second, empty, window. To do that, select the
inversion volume from the Project Data list:

Then, holding the left mouse button down, drag and drop this name into the empty window on
the right.

The Geoview window now shows the two volumes we have loaded:

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Starting the Emerge process

We have now loaded all the data necessary to do the Emerge process. This analysis takes place
in two stages. In the first, training, stage, Emerge analyzes the target log and seismic data at the
well locations to derive a statistical relationship between them. In the second, application, stage,
Emerge applies the derived relationship to the entire volume to create log values throughout that
volume.

To start the Emerge training, click on the Processes tab. This shows a list of all processes
available in Geoview :

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Click the arrow sign next to the Emerge name to show the Emerge processes:

Finally, double-click Emerge Training. This causes the training dialog to appear:

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This dialog contains all the information needed to set up the training process. There are a series
of tabs:

Right now, we are specifying the Target log, which is the type of log we wish to predict. In this
first tutorial exercise, we wish to predict P-wave velocity throughout the seismic volume, so
select that from the pull-down menu:

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Also, we are specifying that, although the log is measured in depth, the analysis ( Processing
Domain) will be done in Time. This is because the seismic data is measured in time. We need
to specify the sample rate correctly (Processing Sample Rate), so that Emerge can do the
depth-to-time conversion properly. Note that the check-shot corrected sonic log will be used for
this conversion.

The next part of the page specifies which wells to use in the analysis:

The left column lists all the wells in the database which contain a P-wave velocity log. Click
Select All to use all the available wells.

When you have made the changes to this page, it should look like this:

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Click Next to see the Volumes tab:

We wish to use both of the imported seismic volumes, so click Select All.

To understand why there are two files, it is necessary to understand how Emerge uses seismic
attributes.

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The object of Emerge is to find a set of attributes of the seismic data which can be used to
predict the target logs. Those attributes are volume attributes, such as Instantaneous Amplitude,
which can be calculated from the input seismic data on a sample-by-sample basis. There are
other types of attributes, called horizon-based attributes, which measure average properties of the
seismic over some interval. The horizon-based attributes cannot be used in Emerge.

There is an infinite variety of possible volume attributes. Emerge contains a list of about 20
attributes which can be calculated internally from the seismic trace. However, many very
important volume attributes cannot be calculated internally. One example is a seismic inversion
result. This is an attribute of the seismic data, because it has been derived mathematically from
the seismic trace. But it is too complex to be calculated within Emerge itself. A second type of
attribute, which cannot be calculated internally, is one that is derived using a proprietary process.

To accommodate the possibility of external attributes, Emerge divides all possible attributes into
two categories: Internal Attributes and External Attributes. Internal Attributes are those that
Emerge calculates internally, as required. We will see a list of those attributes shortly. External
Attributes are other attributes that have been calculated externally for any reason. External
Attributes must be supplied as a separate seismic file. There is no limit to the number of
External Attributes supplied, as long as there is a separate seismic file for each External
Attribute. Once an External Attribute has been loaded, Emerge treats both sets of attributes
identically. In our guide project, we have one External Attribute, which is an inversion result.
That result is contained in the SEGY file inversion.sgy.

The lower part of the Emerge Training dialog shows the selected seismic volumes and allows us
to specify whether that volume is of the type Seismic or External Attribute. Click Next:

The third page of the dialog now appears:

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This page tells the program how to extract the trace at each well location which is used in the
training process. The default is to extract a single trace that follows the trajectory of each of the
wells, whether vertical or deviated. Alternatively, you could modify the Capture Option to
“Distance”, which will average all traces within a specified distance from each well. In this
guide, we will use the Neighborhood radius value of 1, as shown. This means that the
composite trace will be the average of those traces within 1 inline or xline of the well location.
This is an average of 9 traces. Click Next:

The fourth page of the dialog now appears:

This page specifies the analysis window for training in terms of the tops that have already been
entered into the Geoview database. Select Top instead of Log Start and Log End:

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In this project, we have entered four tops: viking, mann, ch_top, and miss. As shown below,
select the viking as the start of the analysis window and the miss as the end of the analysis
window. Note that the analysis window can be changed later if desired.

Click OK.

The Emerge Session window appears:

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The Emerge main window shows the analysis data for a single well: the target log in red, the
single seismic trace in black, and the external attribute in blue. Yellow horizontal bars also
indicate the analysis window. Note that the window may be different from well to well. To
display a different well or multiple wells, you can select from the dropdown menu:

To examine (and possibly change) the analysis window, click Parameters on the upper right of
the window or the Change Analysis Window in the tool bar:

A dialog appears that allows you to set the analysis windows for each well individually:

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Since we are happy with the analysis windows as shown, click Exit to remove this window.

Now let’s look at some of the internal attributes for a particular well. Click Well Display:

This brings up the following window:

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Fill in the window as shown above. Note that the list of all available internal attributes is shown
on the left, while we have chosen to display one particular attribute on the right. Note also that,
by default, we are applying these internal attributes to the volume called Seismic.

Click OK to get this plot:

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To see how well an attribute correlates with the target log, click Crossplot:

This will bring up the Emerge Crossplot dialogue:

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Note that this window will create a cross plot between the target log and any other internal or
external attribute. We can use a single well or any combination of wells. In addition, we can
apply one of a series of non-linear transforms to the target and/or to the attribute. Fill in the
window as shown above, using all wells, and click OK.

The cross plot appears:

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The cross plot has used all points within the analysis windows from all wells. The vertical axis
is the target sonic log value, and the horizontal axis is the selected attribute, Inversion. A
regression curve has been fit through the points and the normalized correlation value of 0.47 has
been printed at the top of the display. The normalized correlation is a measure of how useful this
attribute is in predicting the target log.

Performing Single-Attribute Analysis

Now let’s calculate the correlation coefficients for all the attributes and rank their values. Click
Single Attribute List to get this window:

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The upper left box shows all the wells in the Emerge project. The upper right box shows the
wells to be used in performing this analysis. The default is to use all the wells. The middle left
box shows all the attributes (internal and external) in the project. The middle right box shows
the attributes to be used in this analysis. Ensure that all the attributes will be used by clicking
Select all, as shown above. Note that we have also selected to test whether any non-linear
transforms applied to either the target log or to the external attributes would enhance the
correlation.

When the window has been filled in as shown above, click OK and the resulting table will be
displayed:

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This table shows the target (or corresponding transformed target) and the attribute (or
transformed attribute), along with the correlation value and the statistical error associated with
that target-attribute pair. The pair with the best correlation (and lowest error) is listed at the top,
followed by pairs with decreasing correlation (and increasing error).

We note that the minimum error results from taking the inverse of the external attribute
Inversion, as shown by the top line. Sometimes this can be improved by applying residual time-
shifts between the target logs and the seismic data, in addition to the check shot corrections. One
way to check this is to go to the Input tab and select Log Operations>Shift/Un-shift Logs to
get this window:

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This window allows you to enter time-shifts to be applied to each of the target logs. Of course,
we don’t know what numbers to enter, and the default is no shifts at all. To estimate these shifts,
click Optimize to get this window:

The Optimize Shifts window allows you to select any one transform – in this case, the single
attribute transform: 1/(Inversion). The program then tries a series of time shifts for each well to
find the set of shifts that will maximize the correlation, subject to a Maximum Shift of 10

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milliseconds. With the window set as shown above, click OK. The Shift Logs window now
shows the suggested shifts:

To accept these shifts, click OK. Click Yes on the warning message window to apply these
shifts.

The Emerge Session Window will be updated to show the shifted logs.

Now recalculate the single attribute transforms by going to the Single Attribute List window and
clicking Create Single Attribute List.

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Using the default values on the Single Attribute List window by clicking Ok, the new list will
look like this:

Note that the minimum error, corresponding to predicting the square root of the target log with
the attribute 1/(Inversion), has now decreased slightly while the correlation has increased.

The Single Attribute List shows the result of cross-plotting each attribute and ranking the result
downward by increasing error. If you select any particular target-attribute row by clicking on it
[say, Sqrt(P-wave) against 1/(Inversion)] and click the Cross Plot button at the bottom of the
table, the corresponding cross plot will be displayed.

If you select any particular row by clicking on it (1/(inversion), for example) and click the Apply
button at the bottom of the table, the Application Plot will appear on the left of the single
attribute list:

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This display shows the target log for each well along with the “predicted” log using the selected
attribute and the derived regression curve. To get a closer look at the result, click Rubber band
Zoom button at the top of this window, and use the mouse to select a rectangle around the
analysis window for the first three wells.

The resulting plot will look something like this:

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The plot shows the target logs in black with the “predicted” logs in red. The Average Error
reported at the top of the plot is the root-mean-square difference between the target log values
and the predicted values, calculated over the analysis window for all the selected wells. Notice
that applying a regression curve to the 1/(Inversion) produces a result which tracks the general
trend of the target logs, but does not adequately predict the subtle features. This is because the
Inversion has been blocked with a relatively coarse block size. One of the objectives of Emerge
is to improve on this prediction using other attributes of the seismic data.

Performing Multi-Attribute Analysis

To improve the predictive power, we need to use groups of attributes taken simultaneously.
Hopefully, complementary features from several attributes will combine to discriminate subtle
features on the target logs, which none of the individuals could predict by themselves. The
problem for Emerge will be to decide which attributes to use and how to weight their
importance.

To initiate the multi-attribute transform process, click Multi Attribute List to get this window:

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This window contains three pages of parameters used to create the list of multi-attribute
transforms. The first page is used to select which wells will be used in the training. To accept
the default, which is to use all the wells, click Next.

This brings up the second page:

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The first item on the window determines whether we will be creating a list of transforms or a
single transform. Usually, we want to create a list by examining all the available attributes using
the process of step-wise regression, which is described below. Alternatively, you may
sometimes wish to specify in detail the specific properties of a single transform. In that case,
you would select one of the other two options from the first item.

An important parameter is Maximum number of attributes to use. In this part of the analysis,
Emerge searches for groups of attributes that can be combined to predict the target. It does this
by a process called step-wise regression. This means that it first searches for the single attribute
from the list that predicts best by itself. The criterion for evaluating the prediction is the RMS
error. In other words, Emerge tries each attribute, calculates the RMS error, and determines the
single best attribute as the one with the lowest error. Having found the single best attribute,
Emerge searches for the best pair of attributes, assuming that one of the pair is the single
attribute just found. Once again this is done by trial and error, solving the system of equations as
many times as there are other attributes to pair up with the single attribute.

Notice that this does not guarantee that the pair found is actually the best pair, since it is possible
that there is another pair that does not include the single best, but still predicts the target better.

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However, the procedure used by Emerge is much faster than an exhaustive search of all
possibilities, and is usually very good.

Having found the best pair, Emerge goes on to look for the best three, the best four, etc. The
parameter Maximum number of attributes to use tells Emerge when to stop looking. This of
course affects the run time for the analysis.

A second important parameter is the Operator Length. This parameter occurs because Emerge
extends the concept of regression to include convolution. Consider the case of one attribute.
Using simple regression, Emerge assumes that the target samples and the attribute samples are
related by this expression:

T(i) = constant + weight x A(i)

where T(i) is the target value at sample i
and A(i) is the attribute value at sample i

The values of constant and weight are determined by least-squares regression. Actually, since
the target is usually a log property and the attribute is usually a seismic property, we expect that
a single log sample, i, should be related to a group of neighboring seismic samples around the
point I, instead of just one seismic value at i. To accommodate this type of relationship, we can
replace the single weight by an operator with some specified length, say 7. Then the expression
above becomes convolution instead of multiplication:

T = constant + weight * A
where weight is a seven-point operator centered on the target sample.

As before, the weight coefficients are determined by least-squares regression. The parameter
Operator Length determines the length of the convolutional operator. Note that a long operator
will always predict better than a short one, but there is a danger of predicting the noise. Note
also that an Operator Length of 1 is equivalent to conventional regression.

A related parameter, the Operator Lag, specifies how the operator is centered with respect to the
target sample. The default is to set this equal to 0, which implies that the operator is centered
about the application point.

When you have filled in the window as shown above (change Maximum number of attributes
to use to 8, and Operator Length to 7), click Next and then click OK. This analysis will take
several minutes. When it is completed you will see the following table:

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The Multi Attribute table shows the results of the calculation. Each row corresponds to a
particular multi-attribute transform and includes all the attributes above it. For example, the first
row, labeled 1/(Inversion), tells us that the single best attribute to use alone is 1/(Inversion). The
second row, Filter 15/20-25/30, actually refers to a transform using both 1/(Inversion) and Filter
15/20-25/30 simultaneously, and this is the best pair. As we proceed down the list, we get the
best triplet, the best four, etc. The decreasing Error shows that, as expected, the prediction error
decreases with increasing number of attributes.

The error plot window is shown on the left side of the Multi Attribute table:

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The black (lower) curve shows the prediction error on the vertical axis and the number of
attributes on the horizontal axis. Mathematically, this curve should always decrease. It should
always be true that adding more attributes will predict the target data better. This does not
always mean that the added attributes are predicting the true signal in the target log. Eventually,
adding more attributes will simply predict the details or “noise” in the log (or in the attributes
themselves). Adding more attributes is similar to fitting a higher order polynomial to a set of
points. We need a criterion for determining when to stop.

The red (upper) curve is the Validation Error and this can help us to decide when we have added
too many attributes. Each point in the validation error has been calculated by “hiding” each of
the wells and predicting its values using the operator calculated from the other wells. For
example, the last red point, corresponding to 8 attributes, has been calculated this way: the 8
attribute types have been arranged according to the table. First Well 1 has been removed from
the calculation. The weights for the 8 attributes have been calculated using only Wells 2 to 12.
The derived operator was then used to predict the values at Well 1. Since we already know the
exact values, the RMS error for Well 1 has been stored. Then Well 2 was hidden and the entire
process repeated. The last point on the Validation Curve is the average error for all of the wells
calculated this way. It represents the error we could expect if a new well (say, Well 13) was
predicted. For this reason, the Validation Curve is a good measure of the validity of the analysis.

The Validation curve tells us that we should not use more than 6 attributes, since for attributes 7
and 8, there is no improvement in the Validation Error – in fact, they actually make things a little
worse.

To see a cross-plot of one of the multi-attribute operators, highlight the word Amplitude
Weighted Frequency, which selects the sixth attribute, and click the Cross Plot button.

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On the dialog that shows up, we can select a few wells that are of our interest. Here, we want to
cross plot all the wells, so click OK:

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The resulting cross plot appears:

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This cross plot differs from the previous in that it shows the predicted target value plotted against
the actual target value. The actual correlation and error values are printed at the top of the
crossplot. We can see that the result of using 6 attributes and a 7-point convolutional operator
achieves a 71% correlation.

Now, again highlight the word Amplitude Weighted Frequency on the table, which selects the
sixth attribute, and select Apply>Training Result. A plot appears, showing the results of
applying the multi-attribute transform along with the target logs.

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The plot will look like this:

To compare this result with the prediction using the single attribute, go to Single Attribute List,
select the first single attribute, 1/(Inversion), and click Apply. Mathematically, we have
increased the correlation from 51% to 71%.

To see another useful display, select the sixth row on the multi-attribute transform list (with the
name Amplitude Weighted Frequency), and then select Apply>Validation Result:

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This display is like the previous one, but each predicted log has used an operator calculated from
the other wells. For example, the first well, 01-08, used a multi-attribute transform of six
attributes whose weights were calculated using only the other 11 wells. The red curve is the
predicted value for well 01-08 when it was hidden from the process. Similarly all the other log
curves show the calculation when that well is hidden. Effectively, this display shows how well
the process will work on a new well, yet to be drilled.

Applying Attributes to the 3D Volume

Now that we have derived the multi-attribute relationship between the seismic and target logs,
we will apply the result to the entire 3D volume. We no longer require the Emerge Training
window, so close it down by clicking File>Exit on that window:

This dialog appears, which confirms that all the training we have done is saved under the name
Emerge Session_1. Click Yes:

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To apply the derived relationship, go back to the Geoview window. Under the Processes tab,
double-click Emerge Apply:

The dialog which appears allows us to specify the output volume name and the range of data
over which to apply the transform:

By default, the process is applied to the entire volume. We are also specifying that this is a Multi
Attribute Transform form Emerge Session_1:

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The attribute list is where we specify which combination of attributes to use:

During the training, we concluded that the best combination used the first 6 attributes, as
determined by step-wise regression. The last attribute in that list was Amplitude Weighted
Frequency. Click on that name:

Notice that this automatically highlights all the attributes before. This is because, when we
select Amplitude Weighted Frequency, we really mean the combination of this and the
previous five attributes.

To confirm the details of that transform, click the History button:

A window appears, showing all the details of the training process:

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Close this window by clicking the “x” on the upper right, as shown.

The dialog is now ready to apply to the entire volume. There is one optional parameter, which
we will set first. To see that parameter, we need to click the button at the bottom which says
Show Advanced Options:

This brings up a series of extra tabs, which are normally hidden:

Click the Time Window tab. This page will allow us to apply the Emerge transform to a
selected time window around the zone of interest. There are two reasons for doing this. One is

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to save on run-time. The second is that we expect the transform to be most applicable around the
time zone of interest.

If we had imported or picked horizons, we could use them to bracket the application window.
For now, we will just use constant times:

Notice that the program is automatically suggesting an average value to insert outside the
application window. When you have completed this page, click OK to run the process. When
the process completes, the result is shown in the split-screen mode:

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There are many ways we can improve this display. First, let’s look at the result near one of the
wells. The easiest way to do that is to click the Well icon at the top of the display and choose
one of the wells from the pull down menu (say, 08-08)

The display now shows an interesting velocity anomaly near the base of the well log:

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58 EMERGE

The color display shows the derived p-wave velocity field in m/s. It can be improved in various
ways. For example, if you right-click on the display and choose Color Key > Modify Color
Scheme, you can select from a range of color scheme choices:

For this tutorial, we will leave the default color scheme. However, let’s change the numerical
range. To do that, right-click and choose Color Key > Modify Range:

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 EMERGE 59

On the dialog, select the range from 3500 to 4500 m/s, as shown, and click OK:

The Geoview window now looks like this:

December, 2013
60 EMERGE

The final display we will create with this data is a data slice through the time of interest. Double
click on Slice Processing > Create Data Slice from the Processes list:

On the Create data slice menu, we are choosing to create a slice from the volume computed_P-
wave:

Ideally, we should be defining the slice window by a picked horizon, but we don’t have any. So
we will center the data slice at a time of 1065 ms, which is close to the target zone. Around that
time, we will average samples over a 10 ms window, as shown below:

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 EMERGE 61

After completing the menu as shown above, click OK to create the data slice:

The data slice shows a low-velocity channel feature extending horizontally across the survey
through many of the wells in the project.

December, 2013
62 EMERGE

Part 2: Estimating Porosity from Seismic Attributes

In this example, we will estimate porosity from seismic attributes. In addition to the multi-
attribute transforms used in the first part of this guide, we will also introduce the use of Neural
Networks. The analysis data will consist of seven wells with measured porosity logs, along with
the seismic files seismic.sgy and inversion.sgy.

The first thing to do is to create a new project to perform this analysis. On the Geoview
window, select the Start tab and click New Project:

Call this project Emerge Porosity Guide and click OK:

Once again we are using an existing database, which has already been created. Click Specify
database > Open:

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 EMERGE 63

Select the database porosity.wdb and click OK:

Finally click OK on the Specify Database dialog:

December, 2013
64 EMERGE

The Geoview window now shows a list of 7 wells, which are contained within the database.
Double-click the first well, 01-08:

Each of the wells contains 3 curves, a sonic log, a density log, and a density-porosity log:

In this project, we will be using the porosity log as the target.

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 EMERGE 65

Now, we will load the same two seismic volumes, which were used previously. Click on the
Seismic tab and select Import Seismic > From SEG-Y file:

Once again, select the two seismic volumes and click Next:

Since we have already loaded these two files, all the subsequent dialogs are filled in correctly.
Click Next several times and OK to load the two volumes. The Geoview window will now look
like this:

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66 EMERGE

You will also have to click OK on the Well Map Table, as shown below:

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 EMERGE 67

To start the Emerge training, double-click Emerge Training:

Fill in the first page of the Emerge Training dialog as shown below:

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68 EMERGE

Notice that this time we are specifying the den-porosity log as the target. When you have filled
in the dialog as shown, click Next.

On the second page, select both seismic volumes and confirm the Type of Data as shown:

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 EMERGE 69

When you have filled in the dialog as shown above, click Next twice. On the fourth page, define
the analysis window using two tops:

Click Ok. The Emerge Training window now appears:

December, 2013
70 EMERGE

The data is now loaded and ready for analysis. The first step is to examine the single-attribute
transforms. To do this, click Single Attribute List to get this window:

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 EMERGE 71

Note that we will test non-linear transforms applied to both the target (porosity) and the external
attribute (Inversion Result). With the window set as shown above, click OK to get the table:

December, 2013
72 EMERGE

We note that the correlations of about 29% are rather poor. One reason for this may be that there
are residual time-shifts between the target porosity logs and the seismic data, in spite of the
check shot corrections.

One way to check this is to go the Input window and select Log Operations > Shift/Un-shift
Logs. This window now appears:

This window allows you to enter time-shifts to be applied to each of the target logs. Of course,
we don’t know what numbers to enter. To estimate these shifts, click Optimize to get this
window:

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 EMERGE 73

The Optimize Shifts window allows you to select any one transform – in this case, the single
attribute transform: 1/(Inversion). The program then tries a series of time shifts for each well to
find the set of shifts that will maximize the correlation, subject to a Maximum Shift of 10
milliseconds. With the window set as shown above, click OK. The Shift Logs window now
shows the suggested shifts:

To accept these shifts, click OK. Click Yes on the warning message window to apply these
shifts.

December, 2013
74 EMERGE

The EMERGE main window will be updated to show the shifted logs. Now recalculate the
single attribute transforms by going to the Single Attribute List window and click Create
Single Attribute List.

Using the default values, click Ok on the Single Attribute List window. The new table will look
like this:

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 EMERGE 75

Note that the maximum correlation has now increased to about 44%.

Now create the multi-attribute list by clicking Multi Attribute List. When the window appears,
click Next because we wish to use all the wells in this analysis. Fill in the second page of the
window like this and click Next. All the default parameters will be used, so click OK on the third
page to start the analysis:

December, 2013
76 EMERGE

When the analysis is complete, the resulting Multi Attribute List is displayed:

The error plot window is shown on the left of the Multi Attribute table:

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 EMERGE 77

We see that it is best to use six attributes. To see the application, select the sixth row of the
Multi-Attribute List (Integrated Absolute Amplitude) and select Apply > Training Result.
Zoom in as necessary to get this view:

December, 2013
78 EMERGE

Note that we have now achieved a 62% correlation between the predicted logs and the target
logs. In addition, the average RMS error is 0.05, i.e., 5% porosity.

Training Neural Networks

In this part of the example, we will use the Neural Network capabilities of EMERGE to improve
the porosity prediction. In doing this, we hope that the non-linear characteristics of the Neural
Network will increase both the predictive power and the resolution of the derived porosity
volume.

Under the heading of Neural Network, EMERGE contains four algorithms:

1) Probabilistic (PNN)
2) Multi-layer Feed Forward (MLFN)
3) Discriminant Analysis
4) Radial Basis Function (RBF)

Actually, the Discriminant Analysis algorithm is not strictly a Neural Network, but we have
included it in this group because of its classification capabilities. Detailed descriptions of each
of these algorithms can be found in the Neural Network theory of the Help.

To start the Neural Network analysis, click Neural Network. The following window appears:

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 EMERGE 79

We will accept the default, which will cause a new network to be created with the name
Network_1. As with the multi-attribute training, this page allows us to select the subset of wells
to be used in training the Neural Network. The default is to use all the wells. Click Next to get
the next page:

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80 EMERGE

The question at the top of this page asks if we wish to use one of the previously calculated multi-
attribute transforms to structure the Neural Network. Usually, the answer to this is “ Yes”.

This is because the multi-attribute selection process has determined which attributes are best for
predicting the target porosity log. By selecting the sixth attribute (called Integrated Absolute
Amplitude), we are constructing a Neural Network with precisely the same attributes as those
used in that transform. To see the details of that multi-attribute transform, click Transform
History. With the page filled in as shown above, click Next to get this page:

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 EMERGE 81

We will start by creating a Probabilistic Neural Network, as shown above. For this network, we
will not cascade with the trend from the multi-attribute transform. We will do this in a later
example, and the process will be explained then. Finally, by choosing the type of analysis as
Mapping, we are specifying that we wish to predict numerical values for the porosity and not
classification types. Accept the defaults for the PNN training process by clicking OK. This
process will take several minutes, during which the Progress Monitor can be seen:

If you click Stop before the process has completed, you can save the partially trained network.
We recommend, however, that you allow the training to finish.

When the training has been completed, the predicted logs appear:

December, 2013
82 EMERGE

Note that the correlation of 92% is much higher than that achieved with multi-attribute
regression. This is usually the case with Neural Networks because of the non-linear nature of the
operator. Note also that the Neural Network has been applied only within the training windows.
This is done for two reasons:

(1) The application time for the Neural Network can be very long if applied to the entire
window.
(2) The Neural Network is not very good at extrapolating beyond the bounds of the
training data. For this reason, it is expected to be less valid outside the training
windows than the multi-linear regression.

After zooming into the zone of interest, the result looks like this:

December, 2013
 EMERGE 83

Now we would like to see how the network performs in Validation Mode. This means that we
will hide wells and use the trained network to predict their values. To start this, click Validate
Neural Network. The following window appears:

December, 2013
84 EMERGE

Select the network which has already been trained. Since all the wells were used for training,
only the first selection, Cross Validate, is appropriate. This means that each of the training
wells will be “hidden” in turn and predicted using the remaining wells. Click OK to start this
process. When completed, the following plot appears:

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 EMERGE 85

Note that the correlation is now considerably lower (50%). To see how the errors are distributed
over the wells, select Error Plot on this plot. The following plot appears:

December, 2013
86 EMERGE

The validation curve (in red) suggests that the process might possibly be improved by omitting
the first well from this analysis (01-08). If you zoom in closely on that well on the validation
display, the result looks like this:

December, 2013
 EMERGE 87

Looking closely at this display, we can see that the predicted curve has the correct events, but
some of them are slightly shifted in time with respect to the real porosity log. Because of the
very high frequency prediction, the correlation calculation is very sensitive to the precise depth-
to-time calculation, and in fact, this can cause the validation errors to be overly pessimistic for
Neural Network calculations. For this reason, we will leave in the 01-08 well with high
validation errors.

Another possibility for improving the PNN result is to use the trend from the multi-linear
regression calculation. This is sometimes useful because Neural Networks operate best on data
with stationary statistics, i.e., data sets without a significant long period trend. Actually, we
would expect that the porosity logs in this example do not have a significant trend within the
analysis window, so that the network which we have derived is probably already optimal.
However, if we were predicting velocity logs, as in the first example, the trend might be more of
an issue.

To evaluate this option, we will create a new network. Click Train Neural Network. When the
window appears, click Next to accept the default new network name:

On the second page, select the sixth attribute (called Integrated Absolute Amplitude), click Next
to use the same multi-attribute transform as the basis for this network:

December, 2013
88 EMERGE

Finally, on the next page, we come to the parameter which we will change:

December, 2013
 EMERGE 89

Note that we have answered “ Yes” to the question:

Do you wish to cascade with the trend

from the multi-attribute transform?

The effect of this parameter will be explained below. For now, click OK to start training the new
network.

When the training is completed, the following plot appears:

The first thing you can see is that the low-frequency trend from the target logs has actually been
predicted outside the analysis windows. In this mode, the first calculation that the network
performs is the multi-linear regression with the same five attributes. The predicted log from that
calculation is then smoothed with a smoother length given on the Neural Network training
December, 2013
90 EMERGE

window. The PNN Neural Network is then used to predict the residual, which is the high-
frequency component of the logs which is not contained within the smooth trend. The final
predicted log is obtained by adding the trend from the multi-linear regression and the predicted
residual from the Neural Network.

As we can see the correlation is slightly lower than that obtained with the first Neural Network.
To calculate the validation error for this network, click Validate Neural Network.

On the first page of the window, click OK to validate the new network, which has just been
created:

When the validation calculation finishes, the new validation result appears:

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 EMERGE 91

Note that the correlation of 50% is similar to the validation result for the first network.

Now click Neural Network List, we get a list of all networks created so far:

December, 2013
92 EMERGE

As an example of the capabilities of this list, click on the name Network_1 and click the Cross
Plot button.

On the dialog that shows up, we can select a few wells that are of our interest. Here, we want to
cross plot all the wells, so click OK:

The resulting cross plot appears:

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 EMERGE 93

Click the History button to get the detailed history of how this network was created:

December, 2013
94 EMERGE

December, 2013
 EMERGE 95

Applying the Trained Neural Network to the 3D Volume

Now that we have derived the Neural Network relationship between the seismic and target logs,
we will apply the result to the entire 3D volume. We no longer require the Emerge Training
window, so close it down by clicking File>Exit on that window:

This dialog appears, which confirms that all the training we have done is saved under the name
Emerge Session_1. Click Yes:

To apply the derived relationship, go back to the Geoview window. Under the Processes tab,
double-click Emerge Apply:

December, 2013
96 EMERGE

The dialog which appears allows us to specify the output volume name and the range of data
over which to apply the transform:

In this case, we will apply the Neural Network to a single inline to save run-time.

We are also specifying that this is a Neural Network from Emerge Session_1. Note that we are
selecting Network 1 from the list:

The dialog is now ready to apply to the Neural Network operator. There is one optional
parameter, which we will set first. To see that parameter, we need to click the button at the
bottom which says Show Advanced Options:

This brings up a series of extra tabs, which are normally hidden:

Click the Time Window tab. This page will allow us to apply the Emerge transform to a
selected time window around the zone of interest. There are two reasons for doing this. One is
to save on run-time. The second is that we expect the transform to be most applicable around the
time zone of interest.

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 EMERGE 97

If we had imported or picked horizons, we could use them to bracket the application window.
For now, we will just use constant times:

Notice that the program is automatically suggesting an average value to insert outside the
application window. When you have completed this page, click OK to run the process. When
the process completes, the result is shown in the split-screen mode:

December, 2013
98 EMERGE

Part 3: Using Emerge to Predict Logs from Other Logs

The first two exercises of this guide have shown how to use Emerge to predict log data from
seismic attributes. An alternate use of the Emerge program is to predict logs from other logs. In
this example, we will predict sonic logs from a series of other log types in the same wells.

The first thing to do is create a new project to perform this analysis. On the Geoview window,
select the Start tab and click New Project:

December, 2013
 EMERGE 99

Call this project Emerge Logs Guide and click OK:

Once again we are using an existing database, which has already been created. Click Specify
database > Open:

December, 2013
100 EMERGE

Select the database logs.wdb and click OK:

Finally, click OK on the Specify Database dialog:

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 EMERGE 101

The new database has four wells. To see the log curves in the first well, double-click the well
named B_Yates_11 in the Geoview Project Manager list:

The Log Display window will appear:

If you move the scroll bar, you will see eight logs in this well, including a sonic-log (DLT).
Another way of examining the logs within a well is the Table View in the Data Explorer tab.

December, 2013
102 EMERGE

This shows the four wells included in the logs database.

From this list, click the blue arrow on the left of the well B_Yates_11 in the Table View , and this
list appears:

We can see that this well, B_Yates_11, contains nine logs, including the sonic log and its
associated Depth-time table. Examine the other wells, and you will find that one other well,
B_Yates_18D, also contains a sonic log, while two of the wells, B_Yates_13 and B_Yates_15
have no sonic logs. The objective of this part of the guide is to predict sonic logs using the other
log curves.

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 EMERGE 103

Start the Emerge process by double-clicking Emerge Log Predict from the Processes list:

On the Emerge Log Predict dialog, we choose P-wave as the target log. Note that this analysis
is done in depth, not time.

Also, click Select All to choose those wells that have a P-wave log for the analysis:

December, 2013
104 EMERGE

Click Next to see the Log Attributes page. On this page, we specify that the new sonic logs will
be created in those wells which do not already contain them:

Also, we will use all the other available log curves to do the prediction:

Click Next, on this page, notice that the default analysis window is the entire log, which is
normally chosen for log prediction:

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 EMERGE 105

Click OK and the Emerge Training window appears:

December, 2013
106 EMERGE

By selecting the Multiple Wells, you can see each of the four wells and their associated logs.
You will also notice that two of the wells do not contain target logs.

Now click Crossplot. Fill in the window as shown below and click OK:

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 EMERGE 107

The resulting plot looks like this:

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108 EMERGE

Obviously, the P-wave and the Gamma Ray logs show a strong linear relationship with a
correlation of 79%.

Now click Crossplot again. This time select RILD as the attribute:

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 EMERGE 109

The new cross plot looks like this:

Clearly, this relationship is not linear. Instead, once again click Crossplot. On the window,
choose the option to apply the Log transform to both the target (sonic log) and attribute (RILD):

Now the cross plot looks like this:

December, 2013
110 EMERGE

This analysis demonstrates that sometimes it helps to apply a non-linear transform to either the
target or the attribute or both. Fortunately, Emerge can help determine which transform to
apply.

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 EMERGE 111

To see all the single-attribute transforms, click Single Attribute List. Accept all the defaults, as
shown:

Notice that the Test Non-Linear Transforms of Target and Test Non-Linear Transforms of
External Attributes options are checked. This means that for each of the selected External
Attributes, Caliper, Gamma Ray, etc., EMERGE will create a series of new attributes by
applying a set of non-linear transforms.

Click OK on this window, and the following table will appear:

December, 2013
112 EMERGE

This table shows that the minimum error is obtained by cross plotting P-wave**2 against
1/(RILM). The correlation obtained is 86%. To see this cross plot, select any cell in the first row
and click Cross Plot. The following display appears:

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 EMERGE 113

Now once again, select any cell in the first row and click Apply. The following display appears:

This display shows all four predicted (modeled) sonic logs in red. The two wells that contain
target logs (original), also show those logs in black.

Now start the multi-attribute analysis by clicking Multi Attribute List. On the first page, ensure
that all the wells are selected for analysis, and click Next.

December, 2013
114 EMERGE

Fill in the second page as shown below:

Note that for the log prediction from other logs, we tend to use an Operator Length of 1, which
is conventional multi-regression. Click Next. On the final page, accept the default parameters
and click OK.

When the analysis is complete, the following table appears:

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 EMERGE 115

Just as before, each line on this table represents a multi-attribute transform containing all the
attributes down to that line. For example, the third line, with the attribute (Gamma Ray)**2,
represents the multi-attribute transform with 1/(RILM), Log(Density), and (Gamma Ray)**2.

On this window, it also displays the Prediction Error Plot:

December, 2013
116 EMERGE

As before, the red (upper) curve shows the prediction error for the log that is hidden during the
analysis. Clearly, the proper number of attributes to use in this case is three.

Now, select the third row, with Final Attribute (Gamma Ray)**2, from the list and click Cross
Plot.

On the dialog that shows up, we can select a few wells that are of our interest. Here, we want to
cross plot all the wells, so click OK:

The resulting cross plot appears:

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 EMERGE 117

This plot shows that the correlation between the Predicted and Actual P-wave log is 93%,
indicating a very good fit.

Now, select the name (Gamma Ray)**2 (the third attribute) from the list and click List. This
table appears:

December, 2013
118 EMERGE

The table shows the actual weights to be applied to each of the logs in order to predict the sonic
log.

Finally, select the name (Gamma Ray)**2 (the third attribute) from the list and select
Apply>Training Result. This display appears:

On this window, select Export>Export Logs to Project. This will send the predicted logs back
to the Geoview database, where they can be used just like any other log.

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 EMERGE 119

Click Select all >> to export the sonic log from EMERGE to every well in the database.

Click OK on this window.

Now the following question appears:

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120 EMERGE

Click No on this window to force the program to calculate new depth-time curves for the new
sonic logs we have created.

To verify that this happened, go back to the Well Explorer window. The view below should still
be displayed. If not, then click the arrow next to the well B_Yates_11. Now click Reset to
display the new curves (shown below)

Now click the Wells tab to see the previous display of the B_Yates_11 well. By moving the
horizontal slide you can see the original DLT curve:

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 EMERGE 121

We would like to overlay the new calculated sonic log. To do that, right-click in the DLT
display track and choose to add the new curve, Emerge_P-wave, as shown:

When the new curve appears, it is not displayed identically to the original DLT curve. To fix
that, right click as shown:

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122 EMERGE

Set the popup dialog with the correct range and units, as shown, and click OK:

The final display now shows an overlay of the new sonic log (Emerge_P-wave) over the original
sonic log (DLT):

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 EMERGE 123

Close the Emerge window and confirm that you want to exit the Emerge session.

Exiting the program

We have now completed the Emerge Guide. To close the Geoview program, click on the “x” on
the upper right of the Geoview window:

There is no need to explicitly save the project, since it is automatically saved. Click Yes on the
confirmation dialog:

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124 EMERGE

December, 2013