Connecting the Dots between Geology and Seismic to Mitigate Drilling Risks: Mapping & Characterization of the High Pressure High Temperature Gotnia Formation in Kuwait

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajive Kumar ◽  
T Al-Mutairi ◽  
P Bansal ◽  
Khushboo Havelia ◽  
Faical Ben Amor ◽  
...  

Abstract As Kuwait focuses on developing the deep Jurassic reservoirs, the Gotnia Formation presents significant drilling challenges. It is the regional seal, consisting of alternating Salt and Anhydrite cycles, with over-pressured carbonate streaks, which are also targets for future exploration. The objective of this study was to unravel the Gotnia architecture, through detailed mapping of the intermediate cycles, mitigating drilling risks and characterizing the carbonate reservoirs. A combination of noise attenuation, bandwidth extension and seismic adaptive wavelet processing (SAWP)) was applied on the seismic data, to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the seismic data between 50Hz to 70Hz and therefore reveal the Anhydrite cycles, which house the carbonate streaks. The Salt-Anhydrite cycles were correlated, using Triple Combo and Elastic logs, in seventy-six wells, and spatially interpreted on the band-limited P-impedance volume, generated through pre-stack inversion. Pinched out cycles were identified by integrating mud logs with seismic data and depositional trends. Pre-stack stochastic inversion was performed to map the thin carbonate streaks and characterize the carbonate reservoirs. The improved seismic resolution resulted in superior results compared to the legacy cube and aided in enhancing the reflector continuity of Salt-Anhydrite cycles. In corroboration with the well data, three cycles of alternating salt and anhydrite, with varying thickness, were mapped. These cycles showed a distinctive impedance contrast and were noticeably more visible on the P-impedance volume, compared to the seismic amplitude volume. The second Anhydrite cycle was missing in some wells and the lateral extension of the pinch-outs was interpreted and validated based on the P-impedance volume. As the carbonate streaks were beyond the seismic resolution, they were not visible on the Deterministic P-impedance. The amount of thin carbonate streaks within the Anhydrite cycles could be qualitatively assessed based on the impedance values of the entire zone. Areas, within the zone, with a higher number of and more porous carbonate streaks displayed lowering of the overall impedance values in the Anhydrite zones, and could pose drilling risks. This information was used to guide the pre-stack stochastic inversion to populate the thin carbonate streaks and generate a high-resolution facies volume, through Bayesian Classification. Through this study, the expected cycles and over-pressured carbonate layers in the Gotnia formation were predicted, which can be used to plan and manage the drilling risks and reduce operational costs. This study presents an integrated and iterative approach to interpretation, where the well log analysis, seismic inversion and horizon interpretation were done in parallel, to develop a better understanding of the sub-surface. This workflow will be especially useful for interpretation of over-pressured overburden zones or cap rocks, where the available log data can be limited.

Geophysics ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (10) ◽  
pp. 1297-1305
Author(s):  
Scott C. Hornbostel

In some cases a real signal may be known a priori to be always positive. If this positive signal is later band‐limited, the knowledge of its original positivity can be used to help in recovering the lost frequencies. Specifically, the frequency‐domain values for members of this special class of signals have the interesting property that they are related to each other via the self‐convolution of Hermitian functions. This relationship is the basis for some current deconvolution approaches and can be generalized for the case of a signal of arbitrary sign. A steepest descent formulation in the frequency domain can determine these Hermitian functions while maximizing the fit to the known in‐band data and to estimated dc values. This formulation allows for the explicit calculation of the step size and is also easily modified to include finite support or penalty/reward constraints. Simulated data tests indicate good bandwidth extension for this method, while actually sometimes improving the signal‐to‐noise ratio of the in‐band values.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. T1-T9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Kui Zhang ◽  
Jude E. Alekhue

More and more seismic surveys produce 3D seismic images in the depth domain by using prestack depth migration methods, which can present a direct subsurface structure in the depth domain rather than in the time domain. This leads to the increasing need for applications of seismic inversion on the depth-imaged seismic data for reservoir characterization. To address this issue, we have developed a depth-domain seismic inversion method by using the compressed sensing technique with output of reflectivity and band-limited impedance without conversion to the time domain. The formulations of the seismic inversion in the depth domain are similar to time-domain methods, but they implement all the elements in depth domain, for example, a depth-domain seismic well tie. The developed method was first tested on synthetic data, showing great improvement of the resolution on inverted reflectivity. We later applied the method on a depth-migrated field data with well-log data validated, showing a great fit between them and also improved resolution on the inversion results, which demonstrates the feasibility and reliability of the proposed method on depth-domain seismic data.


Geophysics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. W1-W16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Liang ◽  
John Castagna ◽  
Ricardo Zavala Torres

Various postprocessing methods can be applied to seismic data to extend the spectral bandwidth and potentially increase the seismic resolution. Frequency invention techniques, including phase acceleration and loop reconvolution, produce spectrally broadened seismic sections but arbitrarily create high frequencies without a physical basis. Tests in extending the bandwidth of low-frequency synthetics using these methods indicate that the invented frequencies do not tie high-frequency synthetics generated from the same reflectivity series. Furthermore, synthetic wedge models indicate that the invented high-frequency seismic traces do not improve thin-layer resolution. Frequency invention outputs may serve as useful attributes, but they should not be used for quantitative work and do not improve actual resolution. On the other hand, under appropriate circumstances, layer frequency responses can be extrapolated to frequencies outside the band of the original data using spectral periodicities determined from within the original seismic bandwidth. This can be accomplished by harmonic extrapolation. For blocky earth structures, synthetic tests show that such spectral extrapolation can readily double the bandwidth, even in the presence of noise. Wedge models illustrate the resulting resolution improvement. Synthetic tests suggest that the more complicated the earth structure, the less valid the bandwidth extension that harmonic extrapolation can achieve. Tests of the frequency invention methods and harmonic extrapolation on field seismic data demonstrate that (1) the frequency invention methods modify the original seismic band such that the original data cannot be recovered by simple band-pass filtering, whereas harmonic extrapolation can be filtered back to the original band with good fidelity and (2) harmonic extrapolation exhibits acceptable ties between real and synthetic seismic data outside the original seismic band, whereas frequency invention methods have unfavorable well ties in the cases studied.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. T641-T652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Sams ◽  
Paul Begg ◽  
Timur Manapov

The information within seismic data is band limited and angle limited. Together with the particular physics and geology of carbonate rocks, this imposes limitations on how accurately we can predict the presence of hydrocarbons in carbonates, map the top carbonate, and characterize the porosity distribution through seismic amplitude analysis. Using data for a carbonate reef from the Nam Con Son Basin, Vietnam, the expectations based on rock-physics analysis are that the presence of gas can be predicted only when the porosity at the top of the carbonate is extremely high ([Formula: see text]), but that a fluid contact is unlikely to be observed in the background of significant porosity variations. Mapping the top of the carbonate (except when the top carbonate porosities are low) or a fluid contact requires accurate estimates of changes in [Formula: see text]. The seismic data do not independently support such an accurate estimation of sharp changes in [Formula: see text]. The standard approach of introducing low-frequency models and applying rock-physics constraints during a simultaneous inversion does not resolve the problems: The results are heavily biased by the well control and the initial interpretation of the top carbonate and fluid contact. A facies-based inversion in which the elastic properties are restricted to values consistent with the facies predicted to be present removes the well bias, but it does not completely obviate the need for a reasonably accurate initial interpretation in terms of prior facies probability distributions. Prestack inversion improves the quality of the facies predictions compared with a poststack inversion.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-54
Author(s):  
Song Pei ◽  
Xingyao Yin ◽  
Zhaoyun Zong ◽  
Kun Li

Resolution improvement always presents the crucial task in geological inversion. Band-limited characteristics of seismic data and noise make seismic inversion complicated. Specifically, geological inversion suffers from the deficiency of both low- and high-frequency components. We propose the fixed-point seismic inversion method to alleviate these issues. The problem of solving objective function is transformed into the problem of finding the fixed-point of objective function. Concretely, a recursive formula between seismic signal and reflection coefficient is established, which is characterized by good convergence and verified by model examples. The error between the model value and the inverted value is reduced to around zero after few iterations. The model examples show that in either case, that is, the seismic traces are noise-free or with a little noise, the model value can almost be duplicated. Even if the seismic trace is accompanied by the moderate noise, the optimal inverted results can still be obtained with the proposed method. The initial model constraint is further introduced into the objective function to increase the low-frequency component of the inverted results by adding prior information into the target function. The singular value decomposition (SVD) method is applied to the inversion framework, thus making a high improvement of anti-noise ability. At last, the synthetic models and seismic data are investigated following the proposed method. The inverted results obtained from the fixed-point seismic inversion are compared with those obtained from the conventional seismic inversion, and it is found that the former has a higher resolution than the latter.


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quézia C. dos Santos ◽  
Milton José Porsani

Os dados sísmicos terrestres, geralmente, apresentam baixa razão sinal-ruído devido, entre outros fatores, à presença deground roll, um ruído caracterizado por eventos coerentes e lineares, com altas amplitudes, baixas frequências temporais e baixas velocidades e, na maioria dos casos, dispersivos, que se sobrepõem àsreflexões, prejudicando o processamento e a interpretação dos dados. Quando a tentativa de atenuar oground roll durante a aquisição dos dados (utilizando arranjos de fontes e receptores) falha, diversos métodos podem ser empregados no processamento. Neste trabalho, discute-se um método de filtragem baseado no filtrode forma de Wiener, sua implementação e seus principais parâmetros. Também é apresentada uma variante do método, baseada no algoritmo de deconvolução direta. Os resultados da aplicação da filtragem direta em dados sísmicos reais são bastante satisfatórios, quando comparados com aqueles obtidos com os métodos convencionais FK e corta-baixas. ABSTRACT: Onshore seismic data often have low signal to noise ratio due to, among other factors, the presence of ground-roll, a noise characterized by coherent,linear and dispersive events with high amplitudes, low frequencies and velocities. This noise overlaps with reflections, hindering the data processing and interpretation.When the attempts to reduce the ground-roll during data acquisition (using source and receiver arrays) fail, several methods can be used in seismic processing. Herewe discuss a filtering method based on Wiener shaping filter, its implementation and its main parameters. We also present a different approach based on the directdeconvolution algorithm. The results of the application of direct methods to a real seismic data set are quite satisfactory when compared with those obtained withconventional FK and low-cut filters.Keywords: ground roll, shaping filters, seismic data processing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1533-1544
Author(s):  
Yasir Bashir ◽  
Muhammad Amir Faisal ◽  
Ajay Biswas ◽  
Amir abbas Babasafari ◽  
Syed Haroon Ali ◽  
...  

AbstractA substantial proportion of proven oil and gas reserves of the world is contained in the carbonate reservoir. It is estimated that about 60% of the world’s oil and 40% of gas reserves are confined in carbonate reservoirs. Exploration and development of hydrocarbons in carbonate reservoirs are much more challenging due to poor seismic imaging and reservoir heterogeneity caused by diagenetic changes. Evaluation of carbonate reservoirs has been a high priority for researchers and geoscientists working in the petroleum industry mainly due to the challenges presented by these highly heterogeneous reservoir rocks. It is essential for geoscientists, petrophysicists, and engineers to work together from initial phases of exploration and delineation of the pool through mature stages of production, to extract as much information as possible to produce maximum hydrocarbons from the field for the commercial viability of the project. In the absence of the well-log data, the properties are inferred from the inversion of seismic data alone. In oil and gas exploration and production industries, seismic inversion is proven as a tool for tracing the subsurface reservoir facies and their fluid contents. In this paper, seismic inversion demonstrates the understanding of lithology and includes the full band of frequency in our initial model to incorporate the detailed study about the basin for prospect evaluation. 3D seismic data along with the geological & petrophysical information and electrologs acquired from drilled wells are used for interpretation and inversion of seismic data to understand the reservoir geometry and facies variation including the distribution of intervening tight layers within the Miocene carbonate reservoir in the study area of Central Luconia. The out-come of the seismic post-stack inversion technique shows a better subsurface lithofacies and fluid distribution for delineation and detailed study of the reservoir.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 298-305
Author(s):  
Prashant Kumar Mishra ◽  
Sanjai Kumar Singh ◽  
Pradip Kumar Chaudhuri

The resolution limit of seismic data is an intricate issue that depends not only on frequency and data quality (signal-to-noise ratio) but also on the tools and technology used to analyze seismic response. In this context, the subject of thin-bed delineation is extremely significant for coal-laminated (causing large acoustic impedance contrasts) clastic sequences of the Western Onshore Basin, India. Most of the clastic reservoirs in the area are of subseismic resolution (below 10 m in thickness) due to the low dominant frequency available in seismic data (19–35 Hz). This is where improving seismic resolution is essential for a detailed structural and stratigraphic interpretation. We have implemented a modified workflow with which, by using state-of-the-art techniques of time-frequency decomposition and cepstral analysis, significant seismic bandwidth extension has been achieved. This in turn yields improved vertical resolution of the seismic data with better geologic interpretability. Our approach is named the “syn-cepstral method” after its two integral constituents — synchrosqueezing transform and cepstral analysis. Applying the syn-cepstral method produces better well-to-seismic ties and resolves additional events in comparison to the original seismic data. The validity of syn-cepstral methodology has been demonstrated by 1D and 2D modeling studies followed by application to a 3D seismic data set from the Western Onshore Basin of India. The improvement in thin-bed delineation arising from the increased bandwidth of the resultant data has been validated by well-to-seismic ties and amplitude map interpretation. Thus, while thin clastic reservoir beds in the logs show no discernible presence in the original seismic data, upon application of the syn-cepstral method, the resultant seismic data show improved interpretability of these units.


Geophysics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. R429-R448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Hadavand Siri ◽  
Clayton V. Deutsch

We have developed a fully coupled categorical-multivariate continuous stochastic inversion with a combined petro-elastic model and convolution. The new multivariate stochastic seismic inversion approach simulates multiple reservoir properties simultaneously and conditions them to the well and seismic data at the same time through the close integration of multivariate geostatistical modeling and stochastic inversion. This approach combines a trace-by-trace (column-wise) adaptive sampling algorithm with multivariate geostatistical techniques to select reservoir properties that match the seismic data. The adaptive sampling method uses an acceptance-rejection approach to condition geostatistical models to the well and seismic data. The adaptive sampling algorithm defines a practical stopping criteria based on the inherent uncertainty due to modeling assumptions and the size of the uncertainty space. This technique samples the realizations inside the space of uncertainty; the number of realizations attempted increases with the size of the space of uncertainty. Characterizing multiple reservoir properties simultaneously through the close integration of seismic inversion and multivariate geostatistical techniques leads to improved high-resolution reservoir property models that reproduce the original seismic data. A case study is considered to compare the proposed stochastic inversion approach with the conventional methods. The case study represents multivariate stochastic inversion provides high-resolution facies and reservoir physical properties simultaneously that reproduce the original seismic data within quality of data better than the other approaches.


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