Small-scale (< 20 m), non-resolvable sand injectites can constitute a large part of the net-to-gross volume and affect fluid flow in the reservoir. However, they may also cause challenges for well placement and reservoir development because they are too small to be reliably constrained by reflection seismic data. It is therefore important to better understand how small-scale injectites influence seismic images and may be recognized and characterized above reservoirs. The Grane Field (North Sea) hosts numerous small-scale sand injectites above the main reservoir unit, causing challenges for well placement, volume estimates and seismic interpretation. Here, we investigate how such small-scale sand injectites influence seismic images and may be characterized by (1) using well-, 3D seismic- and outcrop data to investigate geometries of small-scale sand injectites (0-15 m) and creating conceptual models of injectite geometries, (2) performing seismic convolution modelling to investigate how these would be imaged in seismic data, and (3) compare these synthetic seismic images to actual 3D seismic from the well-investigate Grane Field.Our results show that despite injectites being below seismic resolution, small-scale sand injectites can be detected in seismic data. They are more likely to be detected with high thickness (> 5 m), steep dip (> 30°), densely spaced sand injectites, and homogeneous background stratigraphy. Furthermore, as fraction of sand injectites increases the top reservoir amplitude will decrease. Moreover, comparison of the synthetic seismic images with real seismic data from the Grane Field indicates that the low-amplitude anomalies and irregularities observed above the reservoir may be a result of the overlying sand injectites. Additionally, the comparison strongly suggests that the Grane Field hosts sand injectites that are thicker and located further away from the top reservoir than what is indicated by well observations. These results may be used to improve well planning and develop reservoirs with overlying sand injectites.Supplementary material: A PDF file containing all the seismic modelling results allowing the reader to flip back and forth between the different models is available at https://www.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14333102 . Well logs from well 25/11-18 T2 are available at https://factpages.npd.no/pbl/wellbore_documents/2358_25_1_18_COMPLETION_REPORT_AND_LOG.pdf
