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AVO Analysis of a Pennsylvanian Age Channel Sandstone in the Arkoma Basin, Oklahoma
by Eric Kubera, University of Oklahoma

ABSTRACT
A seismic line which images a gas producing channel sand was acquired in September, 1994, in the Arkoma basin. The dataset was processed to retain relative seismic reflection amplitudes and was subsequently analyzed for anomalous amplitude behavior. Statistical determination of several amplitude attributes was performed, and the results were displayed as 'attribute plots'. The attribute plots were examined for information that would describe the nature of the amplitude anomalies. The reflection event interpreted to represent the top of the productive channel stands out from the rest of the section, and shows significant amplitude variation. The Amplitude Variation with Offset (AVO) signature of the channel sand is determined to be a positive normal incidence reflection of moderate relative amplitude, displaying a strong increase in amplitude with increasing offset.

(J. Hamilton, personal communication, 1995-96)).

GEOLOGY
S t u d y Area and Exploration Target

A seismic line which imaged a The seismic line used in this study was productive Hartshorne channel was shot in September, 1994, along a section recorded by Pathfinder Group LLC, road in T.4 N., R. 12 E., Pittsburg Norman, Oklahoma. The dataset was County, Oklahoma. Figure 1 shows the loaded into Promax 2-D Seismic Data study area and the location of the Processing package at the University of ] "~ "'1-..; h'-" ~._~, -'~",' Z-..1 :..,, . . . . ,..' Oklahoma to [ ~F ' ; , i ' ....... I ; : ' .... : " " be processed for relative r ' i=~, amplitudes and analyzed for an AVO signature. Two main goals - , " I.; " "'--~ of this project are to perform ""4 ' "'! AVO analysis to determine the presence of amplitude Arbuekle anomalies, and to characterize any anomalies found.
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INTRODUCTION
The Hartshorne Sandstone is a gas producing sandstone in the Arkoma Basin, Oklahoma. The Hartshorne producing trend extends over seventy miles, across Coal, Haskell, Hughes, and Pittsburg Counties. Although many of the delta facies produce in that trend, the channel sands are of notable importance. Production from wells in the channel sands can be from 2 to 10 BCFG per well (the channels can be up to 300 feet thick and about a mile wide, and can extend linearly for many miles

It was decided that a processing scheme that contained minimal manipulation of the data would suffice to gain a first order determination of the presence of an AVO signature. At the end of the processing scheme, the data was put through a flow - / which created amplitude ~ attribute stacks. These ~ stacks are analyzed ,~ and correlated to ,4l--., , determine the presence and nature of any amplitude anomalies. Information that suggests an AVO signatttre is scrutinized, and conclusions are drawn about the information derived from the attribute stacks.

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system that prograded from east to west into the Arkoma Basin. It has conformable contacts with the predominantly marine strata of the underlying Atoka (Houseknecht and others, 1983) and the coal bearing strata of the overlying McAlester (Gossling, 1994). The Hartshorne is divided into two geographically separate areas of the Arkoma Basin. The division is based on the number of Hartshorne sandstones and associated coals. In the north portion of the basin, the Hartshorne consists of a single sand unit and an overlying single coal unit. In the southern part of the basin, there exists a claystone bed (greater than one foot thick) that separates a Lower Hartshorne sand and coal, and an Upper Hartshorne sand and coal (Friedman, 1982). In the field area of this study, the coal unit is missing over the top of the channel that the seismic line images. Differential compaction of the sediments in the area left the thick distributary channel as a topographic high, causing the coal forming marsh IflO

areas to collect on the flanks of the channel (J. Forgotson, personal communication, 1994-96). From logs in the area, the isolated Hartshorne channel in this study has been interpreted to be approximately one mile wide and 220 to 230 feet thick (J. Hamilton, personal communication, 1995-96)

Production H i s t o r y
Desmoinesian sands were one of the earliest drilling targets in the Arkoma Basin because of the shallow depths. The early drilling rigs could reach the 1,400 to 3,600 foot target depths with little trouble. Gas production from Desmoinesian reservoirs was reported in Allen County, Kansas, in 1873. However, discoveries in the Arkoma Basin, Oklahoma, did not occur until the discovery of the Poteau-Gilmore field in 1910. Figure 3 is a production time line showing the Hartshorne gas fields and associated discovery dates. The Hartshorne sands produce natural gas in a trend that extends over 70 miles, across Haskell, Hughes, and Pittsburg Counties. The main trapping

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Figure 2 - Regional stratigraphic column for the study area.

seismic line. The primary target was a Pennsylvanian age Hartshorne channel sand, which produces natural gas from a depth of approximately 3600 feet. The gas wells producing in this area constitute the Ashland Field, discovered in 1976 by the Conoco Lane #1-28 well.

Regional Stratigraphy and the Hartshorne Depositional System

The Hartshorne Formation is a member of the Krebs Group. This group was deposited early in the Desmoinesian Series of the Middle Pennsylvanian System, and includes the younger McAlester, Savanna, and Boggy Formations. Figure 2 represents the regional stratigraphic column for the Arkoma Basin in the area of the recorded seismic data and shows significant formations above and below the zone of interest. The Hartshorne Formation was deposited in a tidally influenced delta 8 Strata SHAKER / JULY-AUGUSSr 1997

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mechanism for the Hartshome channels is structure. The dominant drive mechanism is pressure depletion. Recovery estimates are in the typical pressure-depletion drive range; approximated to be 80%. Porosities of pay zones range from 10 to 18%, with permeabilities averaging 6 md. Water saturations are typically 30%. The Hartshome reservoirs have a cumulative production of 655 Bcf. This total is more gas than any other reservoir in the Desmoinesian play. Figure 4 depicts the cumulative production from the Hartshorne as compared to other major producing Desmoinesian formations in the Arkoma Basin and Eastern Kansas.

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A V O EXPLAINED
Definition o f A V O A n a l y s i s Figure 4 Cumulativeand relativegas productionfrom the Desmoinesian sandstone reservoirs in the Arkoma Basin and Eastern Kansas. (After Brown and Parham, 1993.)
-

AVO (Amplitude Variation with Offset, or Amplitude Versus Offset) analysis is the investigation of seismic P-wave reflection data in search of a characteristic change in the amplitude of a reflection event with an increase in source-receiver offset and associated

angle of incidence. Figure 5 depicts the relationship between the sourcereceiver offset and the angle at which the seismic ray strikes the interface (angle of incidence). The source-

receiver offset associated with shot #6 and receiver #6 is significantly larger than the offset for shot #3 and receiver #3. It is clear that the angle associated with shot-receiver pair #6 (Os6)is also

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JULY-AuGuST 1997 / SHALE SHAKER9

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larger than the angle associated with shot-receiver pair #3 (0s3). In other words, the angle of the incident rays at the boundary increases with source receiver offset. It is necessary to understand how the amplitudes observed in the seismic data are related to the reflection coeffidents of the target reflectors. The reflection coefficient directly connects the physical properties of the rocks with the amount of energy transmitted and reflected. The amplitude of an event in the trace data is a representation of the reflection coefficient, but is not equivalent to it. This is because seismic frequencies and amplitude information are lost due to the physical interaction of the seismic wave with the rocks through which it travels. All effects on amplitude due to processes other than reflection itself are commonly grouped 'together and referred to as the earth filter. It is the goal of relative amplitude processing to recover the amplitudes lost to earth filtering so that the trace amplitude information can be used to represent the reflection coefficient directly. Consider Figure 6. Figure 6a represents the seismic energy travel path and angle of incidence for a near offset trace. Figure 6b represents the travel path and angle of incidence for a far offset trace. Note that the travel path for the far offset trace is larger than that of the near offset trace.

Figure 6a shows an incident and a reflected ray from a relatively short offset (small angle of incidence = 0). The equation which defines the reflection coefficient for the interface is:

RCi

AR1
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Equation 1

where An is the incident amplitude, and Aa is the reflected amplitude for the near offset case. The equation which represents the reflection coefficient for the far offset case (large angle of incidence = ) in Figure 6b is:

RC2

AR2 Ai2

Equation 2

where Ai2 is the incident amplitude, and A/2 is the reflected amplitude for the far offset case. The earth acts as an attenuating filter on the energy passing through. One of the attenuation mechanisms, spherical divergence, causes the amplitude to decay as 1/ (distance traveled) (Yilmaz, 1987). For near offset traces, the amplitude striking the interface is larger than the amplitude striking the interface from far offset traces, owing to the distance traveled through the subsurface. The seismic wave for a short offset raypath has traveled a shorter distance through the subsurface and, therefore, has more energy than the seismic wave traveling the long offset raypath. The difference in recorded amplitude between the former

short offset raypath, and the latter long offset raypath, is in the AIx term. It is assumed that after the application of a specific gain correction to the data during processing, the Aix terms have been set equal (the gain, and the manner in which it is used will be discussed when it is presented in the processing scheme). In addition, the amplitude differences caused by the travel path length for the upgoing ray, are equalized in the processing. It is then possible, through Equations I and 2, to allow the observed amplitude (ARx) values to represent the reflection coefficient values. More precisely, the exact magnitude of the reflection coefficient is not as important as its relative change with offset. It is known that the reflection coefficient of an interface is a function of the physical properties of the rock units involved and the angle at which the seismic energy strikes the interface. When we assume that the observed seismic amplitudes correctly represent the reflection coefficient for a boundary, angle/offset dependent variations in amplitude indicate angle/offset dependent variations in the reflection coefficient. Therefore, if a processing scheme retains the relative amplitudes of the seismic data after correcting for the amplitude attenuation of the earth filter, the variations of the observed amplitudes are directly related through the reflection coefficients, to the physical properties of the rock formation. A basic idea that makes AVO analysis applicable to oil and gas exploration is that a change of the physical properties of the rock is caused by the introduction of gas into the pore fluids. It is this effect that suggests an analysis of the present data from the Ashland Field may reveal an AVO response.

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RESULTS
Interpretation of Attribute Plots
Figure 6(a) - Seismic energy travel path and angle of incidence for a near offset trace. Figure 6(b) - Travel path and angle of incidence for afar offset trace.
10 SHALE SHAKER/ JULY-AuGusT1997

Attribute #1 (Promax Manual) is the Intercept. This value represents the

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CLIP# 298 TiitilliSl 2nn 314 330 346 362 378 393 409 425 441 457 473 489

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'Zero-Offset' or Normal Incidence (N.I.) reflection amplitude. The zero offset amplitude is directly related to the reflection coefficient calculated from the sonic and density logs because at an incidence angle of zero there is no loss of P-wave energy to the creation of mode converted waves. 12 Stu~ SJoa~n~/ JurY-AuGusr1997

COLD COLORS

The Intercept plot for this dataset is shown in Figure 7. On the color scale, red and yellow correspond to positive normal incidence reflection coefficients, and white and blue correspond to negative normal incidence coefficients. Noticeable reflectors at 300 ms, 500 ms, and 600 ms on this plot correspond to

Figure 7 - Plot of the Intercept attribute. Note the bright reflectors at 300, 500, and 600 ms. The Hartshorne Reflection occurs at approximately 680 ms. under CMP #419.

strong reflection events on the brute stack. No geologic correlation has been made to identify the formations

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CDP# 298 Time[ms] 200 31,4. 330 346 362 378 393 469 425 441 457 4,73 489

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associated with these high normal incidence reflections.

associated with the Lane 1-28 showed

the interpreted top of the channel to have a significantly large increase in Pwave velocity. However, the attribute

The literature surrounding the Hartshome channel sands suggests that the channel should be a highimpedance boundary (Rutherford and Williams, 1989). The sonic log

display does not show a significantly high intercept value for the Hartshorne reflection (Approx. 680 ms). A possible explanation for this apparent

Figure 8 - Plot of the Sign (Intercept) * Gradient attribute. Since this plot uses the value of the intercept as well as the sign, the notation for the operation would be better written as (Signed) Intercept * Gradient. Notice the Hartshorne displaying hot colors (peaks). See Table l for plot parameters.

JULY-AUGUSt 1997 / SHALE SHAKER13

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discrepancy is that the reflection from the Hartshorne sand could be of lower relative impedance when compared to the reflections at 300 ms, 500 ms, and 600 ms, and therefore does not show as an anomalously bright reflection in the Intercept plot. This plot is useful for beginning to identify and characterize the Hartshorne reflection event in terms of amplitude behavior.

Intercept plot, the reflection of interest was shown to be a peak. It follows that we have evidence for an AVO response characterized by a peak which becomes stronger in amplitude with increasing offset.

LITERATURE CITED
Brown, R.; and Parhara, K., 1993, "Desmoinesian Fluvial-Deltaic Sandstone Arkorna Basin, Oklahoma and Eastern Kansas": in Bebout, D. and Grasmick, M. (eds.), Atlas of Major Mid-Continent Gas Reservoirs, Coordinated by the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, Austin, Texas, p.36-39 Friedman, S.A., 1982, Determination of Reserves of Methane From Coal Beds for Use in Rural Communities in Eastern Oklahoma: Oklahoma Geological Survey, Special Publications 1982-1983, 32 p. Gossling, J., 1994, Coalbed Methane of the Hartshorne Coals in Parts of Haskell' Latimer, LeFlore, McIntosh, and Pittsburg Counties, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma, Norman, M. S. Thesis Houseknecht, D. and Others, 1983, Tectonic-Sedimentary Evolution of the Arkoma Basin and Guide Book to Deltaic Facies, Hartshorne Sandstone: SEPM Mid-Continent Section, v.1, 119 p. Promax, Operating Manual, Version 6.0, Advance Geophysical' Denver, 1995 Rutherford, S.; and Williams, 1989, Amplitude Versus Offset Variations in Gas Sands: Geophysics, v.54, no. 6. Yilmaz, O., 1987, Seismic Data Processing: Investigation in Geophysics, SEG, v.2

CONCLUSIONS

Using the two attribute stacks created by an amplitude sensitive processing scheme, the top of the Hartshorne The second attribute analyzed is the channel sand was positively identified Sign (intercept) * Gradient. It is the as a reflection from a known gasmathematical product of the sign of the bearing interval with distinctive intercept and the gradient. This Amplitude Variation with Offset (AVO) attribute retains the magnitude of the characteristics. The response is gradient, but its polarity varies with the characterized as a positive normal combined polarities of the gradient and incidence reflection of moderate intercept. A strong gradient will amplitude which increases in provide a strong response. amplitude with increasing offset. This AVO signature (+) intercept '* (+) gradient = peak could be helpful in (-) intercept * (-) gradient = peak tracking the target horizon on a stacked section, (-) intercept * (+) gradient = trough assuming that the (+) intercept * (-) gradient = trough discontinuous response is not a function of the signal/noise ratio Table 1 Parameters used in the calculation of the Sign (Intercept) * Gradient of the trace gathers plot and the corresponding result. being analyzed.
-

(The Sign (Intercept) * Gradient plot for the Hartshorne data is shown in Figure 8. The zone of interest shows relatively clear but discontinuous events in red. According to the parameters of the plot (shown in the table above), this indicates our target reflection is either a strong peak which increases in magnitude with offset, or a strong trough which increases in magnitude with offset. Referring back to the

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the Pathfinder Group for allowing me to use this data set. I would also like to thank the OCGS for their support towards the completion of my Masters project.

About the Author: Eric Kubera was born in Dunkirk, NY. He received his B.S. in Geophysics from SUNY at Fredonia in 1993 and a M.S. in Geophysics from the University of Oklahoma in December, 1996. He is now in Houston with the Exploration Technology Group of BHP Petroleum (Americas).

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