Bayesian linearized rock-physics inversion

Abstract

The estimation of rock and fluid properties from seismic attributes is an inverse problem. Rock-physics modeling provides physical relations to link elastic and petrophysical variables. Most of these models are nonlinear; therefore, the inversion generally requires complex iterative optimization algorithms to estimate the reservoir model of petrophysical properties. We have developed a new approach based on the linearization of the rock-physics forward model using first-order Taylor series approximations. The mathematical method adopted for the inversion is the Bayesian approach previously applied successfully to amplitude variation with offset linearized inversion. We developed the analytical formulation of the linearized rock-physics relations for three different models: empirical, granular media, and inclusion models, and we derived the formulation of the Bayesian rock-physics inversion under Gaussian assumptions for the prior distribution of the model. The application of the inversion to real data sets delivers accurate results. The main advantage of this method is the small computational cost due to the analytical solution given by the linearization and the Bayesian Gaussian approach.