Seismicity in the Rangely, Colorado, area: 1962-1970

abstract Seismic data recorded for a 7-year period at the Uinta Basin Observatory were searched for earthquakes originating near an oil field at Rangely, Colorado, 65 km ESE of the observatory. Changes in the number of earthquakes recorded per year appear to correlate with changes in the quantity of fluid injected per year. Between November 1962 and January 1970, 976 earthquakes were detected near the oil field by the UBO station; 320 earthquakes were larger than magnitude 1. Richter local magnitudes are estimated from both S-wave and P-wave measurements; a method based on the duration of the seismic signal is used to estimate the magnitude of the larger shocks. Magnitude of the two largest shocks was 3.4 and 3.3. The total seismic energy released was 1017 ergs. During this same period, the energy used for water injection, measured at the wellhead, was 1021 ergs.

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Using Seismic Data to Predict Shale Pore Pressure and Overpressure Sweet Spots: A Case Study from the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation in Sichuan Basin, China

10.2118/208098-ms ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sheng Chen ◽

Qingcai Zeng ◽

Xiujiao Wang ◽

Qing Yang ◽

Chunmeng Dai ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prediction Model ◽

Wave Velocity ◽

Shale Gas ◽

Seismic Data ◽

P Wave ◽

Formation Pressure ◽

S Wave ◽

P Wave Velocity ◽

New Formation ◽

Sweet Spots

Abstract Practices of marine shale gas exploration and development in south China have proved that formation overpressure is the main controlling factor of shale gas enrichment and an indicator of good preservation condition. Accurate prediction of formation pressure before drilling is necessary for drilling safety and important for sweet spots predicting and horizontal wells deploying. However, the existing prediction methods of formation pore pressures all have defects, the prediction accuracy unsatisfactory for shale gas development. By means of rock mechanics analysis and related formulas, we derived a formula for calculating formation pore pressures. Through regional rock physical analysis, we determined and optimized the relevant parameters in the formula, and established a new formation pressure prediction model considering P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity and density. Based on regional exploration wells and 3D seismic data, we carried out pre-stack seismic inversion to obtain high-precision P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity and density data volumes. We utilized the new formation pressure prediction model to predict the pressure and the spatial distribution of overpressure sweet spots. Then, we applied the measured pressure data of three new wells to verify the predicted formation pressure by seismic data. The result shows that the new method has a higher accuracy. This method is qualified for safe drilling and prediction of overpressure sweet spots for shale gas development, so it is worthy of promotion.

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The 1998 Valhall microseismic data set: An integrated study of relocated sources, seismic multiplets, and S-wave splitting

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/1.3205028 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 74 (5) ◽

pp. B183-B195 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

K. De Meersman ◽

J.-M. Kendall ◽

M. van der Baan

Keyword(s):

Seismic Anisotropy ◽

Amplitude Ratio ◽

Temporal Variations ◽

Oil Field ◽

P Wave ◽

Wave Form ◽

S Wave ◽

Data Set ◽

Wave Splitting ◽

Source Mechanisms

We relocate 303 microseismic events recorded in 1998 by sensors in a single borehole in the North Sea Valhall oil field. A semiautomated array analysis method repicks the P- and S-wave arrival times and P-wave polarizations, which are needed to locate these events. The relocated sources are confined predominantly to a [Formula: see text]-thick zone just above the reservoir, and location uncertainties are half those of previous efforts. Multiplet analysis identifies 40 multiplet groups, which include 208 of the 303 events. The largest group contains 24 events, and five groups contain 10 or more events. Within each multiplet group, we further improve arrival-time picking through crosscorrelation, which enhances the relative accuracy of the relocated events and reveals that more than 99% of the seismic activity lies spatially in three distinct clusters. The spatial distribution of events and wave-form similarities reveal two faultlike structures that match well with north-northwest–south-southeast-trending fault planes interpreted from 3D surface seismic data. Most waveform differences between multiplet groups located on these faults can be attributed to S-wave phase content and polarity or P-to-S amplitude ratio. The range in P-to-S amplitude ratios observed on the faults is explained best in terms of varying source mechanisms. We also find a correlation between multiplet groups and temporal variations in seismic anisotropy, as revealed by S-wave splitting analysis. We explain these findings in the context of a cyclic recharge and dissipation of cap-rock stresses in response to production-driven compaction of the underlying oil reservoir. The cyclic nature of this mechanism drives the short-term variations in seismic anisotropy and the reactivation of microseismic source mechanisms over time.

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EXTRACTING SUB-SURFACE INFORMATION FROM LONG OFFSET P-WAVE DATA—A CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE TO MULTICOMPONENT OBC FOR EXPLORATION?

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj01038 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 627

Author(s):

R.G. Williams ◽

G. Roberts ◽

K. Hawkins

Keyword(s):

Seismic Energy ◽

Higher Order ◽

P Wave ◽

S Wave ◽

Additional Information ◽

Wave Data ◽

Wave Velocities ◽

Avo Inversion ◽

Long Offset ◽

Multicomponent Data

Seismic energy that has been mode converted from pwave to s-wave in the sub-surface may be recorded by multi-component surveys to obtain information about the elastic properties of the earth. Since the energy converted to s-wave is missing from the p-wave an alternative to recording OBC multi-component data is to examine p-wave data for the missing energy. Since pwave velocities are generally faster than s-wave velocities, then for a given reflection point the converted s-wave signal reaches the surface at a shorter offset than the equivalent p-wave information. Thus, it is necessary to record longer offsets for p-wave data than for multicomponent data in order to measure the same information.A non-linear, wide-angle (including post critical) AVO inversion has been developed that allows relative changes in p-wave velocities, s-wave velocities and density to be extracted from long offset p-wave data. To extract amplitudes at long offsets for this inversion it is necessary to image the data correctly, including correcting for higher order moveout and possibly anisotropy if it is present.The higher order moveout may itself be inverted to yield additional information about the anisotropy of the sub-surface.

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NEW DIRECTIONS IN GEOSCIENCE TECHNOLOGY FOR PETROLEUM EXPLORATION IN THE NEW AGE

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj93019 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 189

Author(s):

T. L. Burnett

Keyword(s):

Oil And Gas ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Seismic Energy ◽

Oil And Gas Industry ◽

Transport Processes ◽

Source Rocks ◽

P Wave ◽

Petroleum Exploration ◽

S Wave ◽

Seismic Acquisition

As economics of the oil and gas industry become more restrictive, the need for new means of improving exploration risks and reducing expenses is becoming more acute. Partnerships between industry and academia are making significant improvements in four general areas: Seismic acquisition, reservoir characterisation, quantitative structural modelling, and geochemical inversion.In marine seismic acquisition the vertical cable concept utilises hydrophones suspended at fixed locations vertically within the water column by buoys. There are numerous advantages of vertical cable technology over conventional 3-D seismic acquisition. In a related methodology, 'Borehole Seismic', seismic energy is passed between wells and valuable information on reservoir geometry, porosity, lithology, and oil saturation is extracted from the P-wave and S-wave data.In association with seismic methods of determining the external geometry and the internal properties of a reservoir, 3-dimensional sedimentation-simulation models, based on physical, hydrologic, erosional and transport processes, are being utilised for stratigraphic analysis. In addition, powerful, 1-D, coupled reaction-transport models are being used to simulate diagenesis processes in reservoir rocks.At the regional scale, the bridging of quantitative structural concepts with seismic interpretation has led to breakthroughs in structural analysis, particularly in complex terrains. Such analyses are becoming more accurate and cost effective when tied to highly advanced, remote-sensing, multi-spectral data acquisition and image processing technology. Emerging technology in petroleum geochemistry, enables geoscientists to infer the character, age, maturity, identity and location of source rocks from crude oil characteristics ('Geochemical Inversion') and to better estimate hydrocarbon-supply volumetrics. This can be invaluable in understanding petroleum systems and in reducing exploration risks and associated expenses.

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On plane‐wave decomposition: Alias removal

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/1.1442595 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 54 (10) ◽

pp. 1339-1343 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

S. C. Singh ◽

G. F. West ◽

C. H. Chapman

Keyword(s):

Plane Wave ◽

Seismic Data ◽

P Wave ◽

S Wave ◽

Plane Wave Decomposition ◽

Time Migration ◽

Time Distance ◽

P Domain ◽

Wave Decomposition ◽

Rapid Modeling

The delay‐time (τ‐p) parameterization, which is also known as the plane‐wave decomposition (PWD) of seismic data, has several advantages over the more traditional time‐distance (t‐x) representation (Schultz and Claerbout, 1978). Plane‐wave seismograms in the (τ, p) domain can be used for obtaining subsurface elastic properties (P‐wave and S‐wave velocities and density as functions of depth) from inversion of the observed oblique‐incidence seismic data (e.g., Yagle and Levy, 1985; Carazzone, 1986; Carrion, 1986; Singh et al., 1989). Treitel et al. (1982) performed time migration of plane‐wave seismograms. Diebold and Stoffa (1981) used plane‐wave seismograms to derive a velocity‐depth function. Decomposing seismic data also allows more rapid modeling, since it is faster to compute synthetic seismograms in the (τ, p) than in the (t, x) domain. Unfortunately, the transformation of seismic data from the (t, x) to the (τ, p) domain may produce artifacts, such as those caused by discrete sampling, of the data in space.

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Elastic reflectivity vectors and the geometry of intercept-gradient crossplots

The Leading Edge ◽

10.1190/tle38100762.1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 38 (10) ◽

pp. 762-769

Author(s):

Patrick Connolly

Keyword(s):

Elastic Property ◽

Elastic Properties ◽

Wave Velocity ◽

Seismic Data ◽

Measurement Errors ◽

Rock Physics ◽

P Wave ◽

S Wave ◽

P Wave Velocity ◽

Well Log Analysis

Reflectivities of elastic properties can be expressed as a sum of the reflectivities of P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity, and density, as can the amplitude-variation-with-offset (AVO) parameters, intercept, gradient, and curvature. This common format allows elastic property reflectivities to be expressed as a sum of AVO parameters. Most AVO studies are conducted using a two-term approximation, so it is helpful to reduce the three-term expressions for elastic reflectivities to two by assuming a relationship between P-wave velocity and density. Reduced to two AVO components, elastic property reflectivities can be represented as vectors on intercept-gradient crossplots. Normalizing the lengths of the vectors allows them to serve as basis vectors such that the position of any point in intercept-gradient space can be inferred directly from changes in elastic properties. This provides a direct link between properties commonly used in rock physics and attributes that can be measured from seismic data. The theory is best exploited by constructing new seismic data sets from combinations of intercept and gradient data at various projection angles. Elastic property reflectivity theory can be transferred to the impedance domain to aid in the analysis of well data to help inform the choice of projection angles. Because of the effects of gradient measurement errors, seismic projection angles are unlikely to be the same as theoretical angles or angles derived from well-log analysis, so seismic data will need to be scanned through a range of angles to find the optimum.

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Anisotropy extraction using a deviated well in the Mahanadi Basin, East Coast of India

Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology ◽

10.1007/s13202-019-00777-4 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 911-918

Author(s):

Biplab Kumar Mukherjee ◽

G. Karthikeyan ◽

Karanpal Rawat ◽

Hari Srivastava

Keyword(s):

Seismic Data ◽

East Coast ◽

Velocity Model ◽

P Wave ◽

S Wave ◽

Gardner Equation ◽

East Coast Of India ◽

Nonlinear Fitting ◽

Sonic Log ◽

Mahanadi Basin

Abstract Shale is the primary rock type in the shallow marine section of the Mahanadi Basin, East Coast of India. Shale, being intrinsically anisotropic, always affects the seismic data. Anisotropy derived from seismic and VSP has lower resolution and mostly based on P wave. The workflow discussed here uses Gardner equation to derive vertical velocity and uses a nonlinear fitting to extract the Thomsen’s parameters using both the P wave and S wave data. These parameters are used to correct the sonic log of a deviated well as well as anisotropic AVO response of the reservoir. The presence of negative delta was observed, which is believed to be affected by the presence of chloride and illite in the rock matrix. This correction can be used to update the velocity model for time–depth conversion and pore pressure modelling.

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Prestack 2D parsimonious Kirchhoff depth migration of elastic seismic data

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/1.3581359 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 76 (4) ◽

pp. S157-S164 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Robert Sun ◽

George A. McMechan

Keyword(s):

Seismic Data ◽

Velocity Model ◽

P Wave ◽

P Value ◽

Common Source ◽

S Wave ◽

P Values ◽

Depth Migration ◽

Reflector Surface ◽

Kirchhoff Depth Migration

We have extended prestack parsimonious Kirchhoff depth migration for 2D, two-component, reflected elastic seismic data for a P-wave source recorded at the earth’s surface. First, we separated the P-to-P reflected (PP-) waves and P-to-S converted (PS-) waves in an elastic common-source gather into P-wave and S-wave seismograms. Next, we estimated source-ray parameters (source p values) and receiver-ray parameters (receiver p values) for the peaks and troughs above a threshold amplitude in separated P- and S-wavefields. For each PP and PS reflection, we traced (1) a source ray in the P-velocity model in the direction of the emitted ray angle (determined by the source p value) and (2) a receiver ray in the P- or S-velocity model back in the direction of the emergent PP- or PS-wave ray angle (determined by the PP- or PS-wave receiver p value), respectively. The image-point position was adjusted from the intersection of the source and receiver rays to the point where the sum of the source time and receiver-ray time equaled the two-way traveltime. The orientation of the reflector surface was determined to satisfy Snell’s law at the intersection point. The amplitude of a P-wave (or an S-wave) was distributed over the first Fresnel zone along the reflector surface in the P- (or S-) image. Stacking over all P-images of the PP-wave common-source gathers gave the stacked P-image, and stacking over all S-images of the PS-wave common-source gathers gave the stacked S-image. Synthetic examples showed acceptable migration quality; however, the images were less complete than those produced by scalar reverse-time migration (RTM). The computing time for the 2D examples used was about 1/30 of that for scalar RTM of the same data.

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Full‐waveform processing and interpretation of kilohertz cross‐well seismic data

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/1.1443508 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 58 (9) ◽

pp. 1248-1256 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Ashraf A. Khalil ◽

Robert R. Stewart ◽

David C. Henley

Keyword(s):

Oil Recovery ◽

Seismic Data ◽

Shear Waves ◽

Synthetic Seismograms ◽

Oil Field ◽

S Wave ◽

Sonic Log ◽

The Cross ◽

Interval Velocities ◽

The Individual

High‐frequency, cross‐well seismic data, from the Midale oil field of southeastern Saskatchewan, are analyzed for direct and reflected energy. The goal of the analysis is to produce interpretable sections to assist in enhanced oil recovery activities ([Formula: see text] injection) in this field. Direct arrivals are used for velocity information while reflected arrivals are processed into a reflection image. Raw field data show a complex assortment of wave types that includes direct compressional and shear waves and reflected shear waves. A traveltime inversion technique (layer stripping via ray tracing) is used to obtain P‐ and S‐wave interval velocities from the respective direct arrivals. The velocities from the cross‐well inversion and the sonic log are in reasonable agreement. The subsurface coverage of the cross‐well geometry is investigated; it covers zones extending from the source well to the receiver well and includes regions above and below the source/receiver depths. Upgoing and downgoing primary reflections are processed, in a manner similar to the vertical seismic profiling/common‐depth‐point (VSP/CDP) map, to construct the cross‐well images. A final section is produced by summing the individual reflection images from each receiver‐gather map. This section provides an image with evidence of strata thicknesses down to about 1 m. Synthetic seismograms are used to interpret the final sections. Correlations can be drawn between some of the events on the synthetic seismograms and the cross‐well image.

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Supercritical reflections observed in P- and S- wave data

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/1.1441908 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 185-195 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

D. F. Winterstein ◽

J. B. Hanten

Keyword(s):

Seismic Data ◽

Critical Angle ◽

Plane Waves ◽

Critical Distance ◽

P Wave ◽

S Wave ◽

Sh Waves ◽

Midland Basin ◽

Head Waves ◽

Sonic Logs

We have observed a conspicuous example of supercritical reflection in both P- and SH- wave seismic data. Data were recorded in the Midland Basin (Texas) Project of the Conoco Shear Wave Group Shoot in 1977–1978. P- and S- wave critical angle phenomena, as observed in the data, are remarkably similar. Event amplitudes are small or undetectable at offsets out to about 2 000 ft, but at offsets from 2 500 to 3 600 ft amplitudes are higher than those of any other event. Head waves originating at the critical distance are weak but detectable. Long path multiplies of the supercritical parts of P and SH events appear at expected times and offsets. Constant velocity moveout corrections helped identify them. Sonic logs in combination with a knowledge of the lithology made it possible to model P- wave critical angle phenomena. Agreement of model results with the data was good when we assumed cylindrical wavefronts. As expected, modeling based on plane waves was unable to match observed phase and amplitude behavior. A number of potential uses for supercritical reflections in exploration and data processing readily come to mind, many of them related to the recording of relatively high amplitudes at distances where source noise is low. Observed rise in amplitude near the critical offset was very abrupt, particularly for SH-waves. This suggests that variations in the onset of high amplitudes may be useful for monitoring changes in velocity contrast at the reflecting interface.

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