Introduction to this special section: Business impact of 4D seismic

Since its introduction as a new technology in the mid-1980s, the adoption and deployment of 4D seismic methods has been phenomenal. 4D seismic was developed initially as a geophysical technology to answer key questions related to reservoir development and recovery methods in the North Sea, but early successes resulted in expanding the “customer base” from geoscientists to reservoir, production, drilling, and project engineers as well as management. Today, high-quality 4D interpretations are used to constrain and improve subsurface simulation models, which include both the reservoir and the overburden. In turn, 4D has become an integral part of key business decisions that optimize both selection of new well targets and the overall reservoir management strategy.