P- and S-wave seismic attenuation for deep natural gas exploration and development

Technical Report · Tue Apr 12 04:00:00 EDT 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/934923· OSTI ID:934923

Walls, Joel ^[1]; Uden, Richard ^[2]; Singleton, Scott ^[2]; Shu, Rone ^[2]; Mavko, Gary ^[3]

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1. Rock Solid Images, Houston, TX (United States); RDSP I, L.P. doing business as Rock Solid Images
2. Rock Solid Images, Houston, TX (United States)
3. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

Using current methods, oil and gas in the subsurface cannot be reliably predicted from seismic data. This causes domestic oil and gas fields to go undiscovered and unexploited, thereby increasing the need to import energy.The general objective of this study was to demonstrate a simple and effective methodology for estimating reservoir properties (gas saturation in particular, but also including lithology, net to gross ratios, and porosity) from seismic attenuation and other attributes using P- and S-waves. Phase I specific technical objectives: Develop Empirical or Theoretical Rock Physics Relations for Qp and Qs; Create P-wave and S-wave Synthetic Seismic Modeling Algorithms with Q; and, Compute P-wave and S-wave Q Attributes from Multi-component Seismic Data. All objectives defined in the Phase I proposal were accomplished. During the course of this project, a new class of seismic analysis was developed based on compressional and shear wave inelastic rock properties (attenuation). This method provides a better link between seismic data and the presence of hydrocarbons. The technique employs both P and S-wave data to better discriminate between attenuation due to hydrocarbons versus energy loss due to other factors such as scattering and geometric spreading. It was demonstrated that P and S attenuation can be computed from well log data and used to generate synthetic seismograms. Rock physics models for P and S attenuation were tested on a well from the Gulf of Mexico. The P- and S-wave Q attributes were computed on multi-component 2D seismic data intersecting this well. These methods generated reasonable results, and most importantly, the Q attributes indicated gas saturation.

• Research Organization: Rock Solid Images, Houston, TX (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science and Technology (OST) - (EM-50)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-04ER86227
• OSTI ID: 934923
• Report Number(s): DOE/NT/86227--4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
ALGORITHMS
ATTENUATION
GAS SATURATION
GULF OF MEXICO
HYDROCARBONS
IMPORTS
LITHOLOGY
NATURAL GAS FIELDS
P-wave
PHYSICS
POROSITY
S WAVES
S-wave
seismic attenuation
rock physics
AVO
SATURATION
SCATTERING
SHEAR
SIMULATION