The manner in which a fault intersects a hydrocarbon reservoir affects production characteristics and thus must be understood in great detail. A 3-D seismic data volume can be sliced interactively to yield seismic sections parallel to a fault plane. These fault slices can then be used in several ways for the study of faults. Tracking of correlative horizons on fault slices provides a map of fault throw and permits study of the throw as a function of vertical traveltime and horizontal position. Because a fault slice remains within one major fault block, the study of growth relationships in that block is facilitated. Splinter faults, which are also significant in development and production, can be studied effectively on fault slices because of the uniform proximity of these sections to the parent fault. We conclude that there is some uniformity in azimuth between splinter faults and their parent.
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