Closing the gap between theory and practice in seismic interpretation of small-scale faults

The ability to map small-scale faults from seismic surveys depends upon res olution, noise content and acquisition/processing procedure. In addition, t he geoscientist must possess a sound understanding of plausible geometries consistent with analyses of well data. The comparison of two seismic datase ts from the Gullveig structure, northern North Sea, demonstrates that the l ateral resolution of the data is strongly dependent on the signal-to-noise ratio. By combining a theoretical approach with statistics from well analys es, exemplified by data from the Gullfaks Field, it is possible to enhance our understanding of the limits of fault resolution on 3D seismic data.