Reservoir Delineation using Empirical Mode Decomposition Method

Khairul Ummah(1), Aan Anaya(2), Gogod Herryanto(2), Muhamad Sani(2), Bertha Sondang(2), and Dythia Prayudhatama(3)
(1)

Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia. Email: khairulu@ae.itb.ac.id. (2) Kalimantan Kutai Energi, Jakarta, Indonesia. Email: aananaya@kke.co.id; gogod.herryanto@kke.co.id; msani@kke.co.id; bertha@kke.co.id. (3) Waviv Technologies, Jakarta, Indonesia. Email: dythia@waviv.com.

ABSTRACT Reservoir delineation is an important process in the hydrocarbon exploration development. One of the methods currently developed for delineation process is empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The method is used to decompose seismic trace into several intrinsic mode functions (IMF). From these, one IMF is then selected based on the behavior closely related to the control well where the hydrocarbon layers data are known. The advantage of EMD is it gives sub-section image that can describe the reservoir better compared to the original seismic section. In this paper, the procedure of reservoir delineation method using EMD is presented. The result of the method is analyzed using several delineation methods. The result shows that EMD decomposition can improve the hydrocarbon delineation. KEYWORDS: reservoir delineation, empirical mode decomposition, seismic attribute INTRODUCTION Seismic attributes that commonly used in reservoir delineation are dependent on the quality of seismic stack. When we use seismic attribute analysis, it is common that many similar events appear that make it difficult to delineate the reservoir. To overcome this problem some band-limited frequency analyses have been developed to give more specific result. Currently the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is widely developed to improve the filtering process. In EMD the original signal is decomposed into several unique IMFs (Intrinsic Mode Function). Each IMF is a quasi-orthogonal signal that has little correlation to each other. Since each IMF contains a band-limited frequency, it can be found that some IMFs are more sensitive to the presence of oil and gas while others are not. Based on this idea, a procedure of EMD decomposition is used to improve the detection of hydrocarbon. In this paper, the EMD method will be investigated further to evaluate the benefit and drawback of this method as a strategy to improve reservoir delineation. For analyzing the effect of EMD, we use several delineation methods i.e. instantaneous amplitude, spectral decomposition, and correlation dimension. THEORY AND METHOD Empirical Mode Decomposition Developed by Huang (1998), EMD is used to decompose the original signals into their sub signals known as Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF). Compared to the Fourier decomposition that generates a series of harmonic signals, EMD produce a group of sub signals that are inharmonic but to follow the original form of the signals. Flandrin (2005) shows that the EMD acts similarly to a dyadic lter bank, i.e., the IMFs correspond to the output of a time-varying sub band ltering of the original signal and have partially overlapping frequency contents. The result of first IMF is usually a signal with the content of high frequency band. The next result of IMF gives a group of signals with lower frequency band. Between those signals the overlap can happen in the frequency content. Figure 1 is an example of a signal decomposed into several IMFs. Instantaneous Amplitude Reflection amplitudes anomalies are commonly used as direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHI) in some settings, usually as bright spots, flat spots, and dim spots. Unfortunately, changes in lithology or changes in bed thickness can create similar-looking

Proceedings of The Bali 2010 International Geosciences Conference and Exposition, Bali, Indonesia, 19-22 July 2010

amplitude anomalies. When amplitude anomalies located at geological structure trap, such as an anticline, it is commonly used as hydrocarbon indicator. Some derivatives of seismic amplitude such as instantaneous amplitude and trace envelope are commonly used as reservoir delineation. Spectral Decomposition Another method to delineate reservoir is spectral decomposition. The method is based on the idea that accumulated gas signal usually contain some low frequencies that can be used as DHI. In the spectral decomposition method, a bandlimited frequency is selected to delineate the reservoir. Correlation Dimension Based on idea that seismic trace is a fractal dimension case (neither a line nor two-dimension plane), a correlation dimension of fractal can be used to detect fractal anomalies related to hydrocarbon appearance. Huang (2003) have developed oil and gas hydrocarbon detection using correlation dimension analysis, and Xiaotao (2009) shows that EMD can improve this method. In general, the presence of oil and gas causes a complex waveform; therefore the correlation dimension becomes small. APPLICATION In this paper, the EMD is applied to 2D seismic section with known gas layer. The delineation process is carried out as follows: (a) decompose section into several IMF sections using EMD (b) choose an IMF section that visually resemble to DHI anomaly (c) apply delineation method The results of EMD decomposition are shown in Figure 2. Each IMF sub-section gives different appearance. We select IMF1 section, as this section resembles the bright spot anomaly of known gas layer.

The comparison of the results is shown in Figure 3. It is obvious that IMF1 section gives clearer reservoir delineation than original section. This improvement is consistently found in instantaneous amplitude, spectral decomposition, and correlation dimension method. CONCLUSION In this paper, the comparison of delineation process between currently common used seismic stack section with a EMD-derivative stack section is presented. The research is aimed to study the quality improvement of reservoir delineation using EMD, and the effect to several delineation methods. The study shows the capability of EMD to enhanced bright spot anomaly related to known gas layer. This EMD-derived seismic section gives better reservoir delineation. The result also shows that the improvement consistently affect all various delineation methods. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors gratefully acknowledge the courtesy of Kalimantan Kutai Energi (KKE) for the data used in this paper. REFERENCES Flandrin, P., Rilling, G., and Goncalves, P., 2005, Empirical mode decomposition as a filter bank: IEEE Signal Processing Letters, 11, 112-114. Huang, N. E., Shen, Z., Long, S. R., Wu, M. L., Shih, H. H., Zheng, Q., Yen, N. C., Tung, C. C., and Liu, H. H., 1998, The empirical mode decomposition and Hilbert spectrum for nonlinear and nonstationary time series analysis: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences, 454, 903995. Huang, X. D., 2003, Oil and gas prediction for reservoir description-Direct hydrocarbon detection via seismic prospecting: Jiangsu Science and Technology Press, Nanjing. Xiaotao, W., Zhenhua, H., and Deji, H., 2009, Reservoir detection based on EMD and correlation dimension: Applied Geophysics, 6, no. 1, 70-76.

Proceedings of The Bali 2010 International Geosciences Conference and Exposition, Bali, Indonesia, 19-22 July 2010

Figure 1. EMD decomposes signal from the original form (top most) into several IMFs. (note: the vertical scales are not all the same).

Figure 2. EMD-derived sections. (a) Original (b) IMF1 (c) IMF2 (d) IMF3. The IMF1 section shows amplitude anomaly related to gas layer (white arrow) clearer than other sections.

Proceedings of The Bali 2010 International Geosciences Conference and Exposition, Bali, Indonesia, 19-22 July 2010

Figure 3. Delineation results. The (a) original seismic section, processed with (b) instantaneous amplitude, (c) spectral decomposition, and (d) correlation dimension analysis. The (e) IMF1 seismic section, processed with (f) instantaneous amplitude, (g) spectral decomposition, and (h) correlation dimension analysis. White arrow shows gas layer location.

Proceedings of The Bali 2010 International Geosciences Conference and Exposition, Bali, Indonesia, 19-22 July 2010