PROCEEDINGS PIT HAGI 2012

37th HAGI Annual Convention & Exhibition

Palembang, 10-13 September 2012

Integration of Seismic Inversion, Pore Pressure Prediction, and TOC Prediction in Preliminary
Study of Shale Gas Exploration
Andika Perbawa(1), Bayu Kusuma(1), Sonny Winardhi(2)
(1) Medco E&P Indonesia, (2) Institute of Technology Bandung

Abstract Unconventional gas exploration has become a hot issue

Conventional natural gas is being exploited rapidly to
achieve energy security and to satisfy the demand.
However, due to the high demand for oil and gas it is
becoming more difficult to find sufficient conventional
reserves. To anticipate the predicted shortage of gas, we
need to explore new, unconventional resources, such as
shale gas. Shale gas is shale lithology that has high TOC, is
brittle, and is located in the dry gas window zone. This
study describes the early exploration of shale gas potential
in one block in South Sumatra basin area.
In this study, the integration of geochemical data, rock
physics and seismic inversion for characterizing and
searching for shale gas potential will be described. The
preliminary exploration stage of gas shale play covers
sweet spot analysis using the Passey method to create a
pseudo TOC in the target formation. Secondly, the
overpressure area is mapped to avoid any potential pitfalls.
Thirdly, seismic inversion is performed to map the
distribution of shale based on the parameters Vp / Vs and
map its TOC through conversion from Vp parameter.
since the price of gas and demand are increasing. In
addition, gas has become more economic to produce
compared to previous times. The defininition of
unconventional gas is natural gas that cannot be produced
at economic flow rates or in economic volumes of natural
gas unless the well is stimulated by a large hydraulic
fracture treatment, a horizontal wellbore, or by using
multilateral wellbores or some other technique to expose
more of the reservoir to the wellbore (Holditch, 2007).
One unconventional gas that will be explained in this
research is shale gas. The research will reveal the shale gas
potential in the preliminary exploration stage, although the
data are mainly for conventional gas exploration. The
methodology is quite simple, since the data availability for
the reseach is limited.

As a result, log analysis shows one target zone of potential

shale gas with TOC above 1% with a thickness of 100 feet.
Integration of pore pressure data, shale distribution and
TOC distribution of the target zone shows two potential
areas in west, north-south trending, and in the east
relatively of the well-X. Both locations can be
recommended for the next pilot holes in order to acquire a
complete set of new data and to be able to evaluate more
intensively.
Introduction
Fossil fuel is finite energy. The common conventional oil
and gas that we use every day are fossil fuels, which are
located in the subsurface reservoir having good porosity
and permeability. But, because of high demand and the
limited amount of available conventional oil and gas,
reserves are getting low. It is essential to find other
resources as additional fossil fuel stock for the near future.
One solution is to expand oil and gas exploration to include
unconventional resources, such as shale gas, shale oil,
basement fracture, heavy oil, tight gas and CBM.
The above picture shows a schematic geology of natural
resources. Shale gas resource is located in the gas-rich
shale zone. Horizontal drilling is common in shale gas
exploration and exploitation because the shale has to be
fractured in several stages due to low permeability.
Figure 1: Schematic geology of natural gas resources
(courtesy of U.S Energy Information Administration)
The key parameters in shale gas exploration are:
High TOC > 1%,
Hydrogen Index (HI) > 100,
Vitrinite Reflectance (Ro) > 1.3% (dry gas window),
Net shale thickness > 75 ft,
The kerogen type defines as type I (better), II or III,
The shale contains more quartz than clay minerals.
Brittle and fractures
PROCEEDINGS PIT HAGI 2012
37th HAGI Annual Convention & Exhibition
Palembang, 10-13 September 2012

The objective of preliminary shale gas exploration is as

follows :
Identify the sweetspot with Passey method (1990).
Create a pseudo shear wave as a seismic input in
simultaneous inversion.
Map the distribution of shale.
Map the distribution of TOC in the shale.
Make pore pressure predictions to avoid a pitfall of
interpretation.
Map the potential spot for shale gas.

Data and Method

The research data are taken from South Sumatra Basin area
(Figure 2). 3D pre-stack seismic data and one exploration
well datum are provided to evaluate the shale gas potential
in Lower Miocene age (Figure 3). The shale is Upper
Talang Akar Formation deposited as marine shale (Figure
4).
Target shale is located in lower Miocene, Upper Talang
Akar Fm. Tectonic setting is when the shale deposited was
basin sag due to compaction. The depositional energy was
slow so it generated abundant organic shale deposit. The
upper Talang Akar Fm. has less sandstone than Lower
Talang Akar Fm. Therefore the possibility of penetrating
clean and thick shale is increasing

Figure 3: Tectonostratigraphy column of South Sumatra

Basin (modified after Argakoesoemah, 2005)

The area of research in this paper is shown above by the

The above picture shows the location of South Sumatra
basin area. This basin is bordered by Dua Belas Mountains
and Tiga Puluh High in the north and northwest parts. In
the southwest area the basin is bordered by Barisan
Mountains. Sunda platform, Garba Moutains and
Lampung High are located in the east to south of the Basin
Figure 2: Location of South Sumatra Basin (Bishop,
2001)
red block. The Talang Akar Fm. either lower or upper part
predominantly consists of marine shale deposit. Therefore
the area of research will have thick shale with large area
distribution.
Figure 4: Depositional environment of Lower Talang
Akar Fm (Left) and Upper Talang Akar Fm. (Right).
(Ginger and Fielding, 2005).
PROCEEDINGS PIT HAGI 2012
37th HAGI Annual Convention & Exhibition
Palembang, 10-13 September 2012

Result and Discussion

Passey method shows a sweet spot interval in Upper Talang
Akar Fm. The sweet spot is identified by a large separation
between resistivity and Vp logs. This method also provides
pseudo TOC transformation from logR log. This TOC
prediction has to be validated by TOC from cutting data.
The pseudo TOC log has a good match with TOC from
cutting data. Basically, for validation it is better to use Core
or SWC data rather than cutting data because of the
accuracy of depth measurement from Core or SWC data.

Sweet spot

The research in this paper follows the above workflow

chart. A combination of geochemistry, well and seismic
data were used to identify potential shale gas resources.

Figure 5: Workflow Diagram.

The several steps to identify potential shale gas are shown

by the workflow in picture 5. The identification
incorporates geochemistry, well and seismic data. A
combination of resistivity and Vp log data generates log
logR (Passey, 1990). This log can be transformed to
pseudo Total Organic Carbon (TOC) with incorporate
The above picture shows an application of Passey method
Level of Maturity (LOM) from Ro transformation.
to determine sweet spot interval along the well bore. The
larger the separation, the greater is the expectation of TOC
Shear wave (Vs) data are needed as an input for
in the shale. The third log is logR, which also can be
simultaneous inversion (Fatti et.al, 1994). Since the well in
transformed to pseudo TOC log by using the above
this paper does not have shear wave data, Lee (2005) shear
equation. One interval which has TOC>1% of 100 feet
wave prediction is used. The methodology was tested and
with almost clean shale is near TOP Upper TAF.
validated in another well that has actual shear data. When it
shows a good match between predictions and actual, then
the method is applied to objective well data. Afterwards, Figure 6: TOC prediction using Passey method.
simultaneous seismic inversion is performed to generate
Vp, Vs, density, AI, SI (elastic impedance), and Vp/Vs
cube.

Pore pressure prediction has also become an important

factor, since the shale gas potential should be far from
overpressure zone. Overpressure shale contains abundant
water with unconsolidated and ductile rock, but for shale
gas potential it is better to have less water, and a more
brittle and fractured reservoir. To predict pore pressure
zone, Eatons formula (1975) was used in this research
The cross-plot between pseudo TOC and Vp shows an
The last step is to combine geochemistry, well and seismic organic shale trend (green area), intercalation sand-shale
data to generate shale distribution (from cross plot analysis zone (orange) and sand trend (yellow). Potential shale gas
between Vp/Vs and Gamma ray shows that Vp/Vs > 2.1 is is located in the green zone, which is in the Upper Talang
a shale zone), TOC distribution (transformation from Vp to Akar Fm.
TOC by cross-plot analysis, and then map the equivalent
mud weight (transformation from pore pressure prediction Figure 7: Cross-plot between pseudo TOC and Vp
analysis) to identify sweet spot shale that has high TOC and
low mud weight.
PROCEEDINGS PIT HAGI 2012
37th HAGI Annual Convention & Exhibition
Palembang, 10-13 September 2012
Pore pressure prediction log is made from Vp log,
converted Vp log from resistivity log (Faust, 1953), interval
velocity from check-shot and corrected stacking velocity.
It shows that there is no indication of overpressure zone
along the well bore. This method was applied to a whole
velocity seismic cube. After pore pressure cube was made,
it was converted to equivalent mud weight. The result, in
the near Upper Talang Akar Fm found several mild geo-
pressure regimes with about 12.51 16.36 equivalent mud
weight (Dutta, 1987). The target of shale gas exploration
should be soft geo-pressure regime to avoid unconsolidated
shale, which is filled with water.
Pore pressure prediction log is calculated by Eatons
formula. Red curve is pore pressure profile derived from
converted resistivity, purple curve is derived from Vp log
and black curve is derived from corrected interval velocity
seismic cube. Those curves have the same trend and show
a soft-to-medium geo-pressure regime (<12.6 ppg).
Figure 8: Pore pressure prediction in the well bore.
Figure 9 shows the horizon slice of near Upper Talang
Akar Fm. which is dominated by shale (green). The
equivalent mud weight map shows the area objective
dominated by soft geo-pressure regime (blue-to-yellow).
Pseudo TOC map shows more than 1% TOC (green) is
located in the western part of the well-X with north-south
Potential shale gas is located in the red dash line area. The
red gas symbol shows the location of the well-X.
Figure 9: Shale distribution map (left), mud weight
equivalent map (middle) and pseudo TOC map (right).
trending and in the eastern part (dashed red line).
Conclusions
Passeys method is useful for identifying potential shale gas
sweet spot in the upper Talang Akar Fm. The potential
shale gas has a thick mudstone of interval about 100 ft and
has TOC > 1% is in the Upper Talang Akar Fm. The Lower
Talang Akar Fm. has less potential shale gas. The shale that
has TOC > 1% is thin and has several intercalations with
sandstone. There are two interesting potential shale gas
locations, which are located relatively to the west of the
well-X, trending north-south and in the east. Both locations
can be recommended for the next pilot holes in order to
acquire a complete set of new data and to be able to
evaluate more intensively.
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http://www.eia.gov/energy_in_brief/images/charts/NatGasS
chematic-large.jpg
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank to Medco E&P Indonesia,
management, and colleagues for the dataset and support.
Thanks to Geophysical Engineering ITB for consultation.