Geostatistics

I don't know much in detail about geostatistics, but what little I do know suggests it represents a very powerful tool for correlating m/i elastic depth images with sparse sets of in situ measurements. Parameters such as porosity, permeability or sand/shale content can be measured in a few boreholes, but are not generally directly sensed by seismic reflection data. However, there is a widespread notion that in a given survey area or prospect, seismic attributes (traveltime residuals, amplitude variations, and elastic parameter values themselves) may have spatial statistical correlations with the secondary in situ parameters. If this correlation can be validated in a prospect area, then geostatistics may provide an exciting method to extrapolate/interpolate the sparse in situ measurements over the entire subsurface volume illuminated by seismic (Doyen, 1988). This could lead to interesting approaches to reservoir characterization in conjunction with the corresponding uncertainty analyses.