Seismic data are rich in information about subsurface formations and fluids

Mohammed Farfour, Wang Jung Yoon, Dongshin Kim, and Jeong-Hwan Lee

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1738, 480001 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4952237

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4952237
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apc/1738/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics
 Seismic Data are Rich in Information about Subsurface
Formations and Fluids
Mohammed Farfoura, Wang Jung Yoon a, Dongshin Kima
and Jeong-Hwan Lee b
a
Geophysical Prospecting Lab, Energy & Resources Eng., Dept., Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South
Korea
b
Petroleum Engineering Lab, Energy & Resources Eng., Dept., Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South
Korea

Abstract. Seismic attributes are defined as any measured or computed information derived from seismic data.
Throughout the last decades extensive work has been done in developing variety of mathematical approaches to extract
maximum information from seismic data. Nevertheless, geoscientists found that seismic is still mature and rich in
information. In this paper a new seismic attribute is introduced. Instantaneous energy seismic attribute is an amplitude
based attribute that has the potential to emphasize anomalous amplitude associated with hydrocarbons. Promising results
have been obtained from applying the attribute on seismic section traversing hydrocarbon filled sand from Alberta,
Canada.
Keywords: Hydrocarbons, seismic expression, seismic amplitude
PACS: 93.85.Rt

SEISMIC ATTRIBUTES AS MATHEMATICAL APPROACHES IN RESERVOIR

IDENTIFICATION AND DELINEATION
Seismic attributes are defined as any measured or computed information derived from seismic data. Over the last
decades extensive work has been done in developing variety of mathematical approaches to extract maximum
information from seismic data about subsurface formations and fluids.
Hydrocarbons charged sediments are known to leave some remarkable expressions in seismic sections that can
be relevant to their pore content. However discriminate these expressions from other anomalies associated with
surrounding rocks can pose challenges for geoscientist. Therefore, understanding hydrocarbons behavior and
developing physically meaningful seismic attributes would provide a great assistance and prevent from drilling false
anomalies.
The Zoeppritz (1919) equations allow geophysicist to derive the exact plane wave amplitudes of a reflected P
wave as a function of angle, but do not give an intuitive understanding of how these amplitudes relate to the various
physical parameters. Over the years, a number of approximations to these equations have been made and published
in literature.
Among other approximations, Aki and Richards (1980), Shuey (1984) suggested that seismic amplitude recorded
at angle can be expressed as follows:

(1)

Where, Rp is the amplitude or reflection coefficient at normal incidence called intercept and G is the change rate of
the amplitude from near to far offset called gradient.
Applying conventional stacking process to all traces (n trace) at different offsets one could have the following
equation:

0 .. (2)

International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics 2015 (ICNAAM 2015)
AIP Conf. Proc. 1738, 480001-1480001-4; doi: 10.1063/1.4952237
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1392-4/$30.00

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Using the simplified expression of reflectivity in equations (1), equation (2) can be rewritten as follows:

0 0 0 0 (3)
0 ] (4)
Stack 0 1 ] (5)
Note that in hydrocarbon presence high negative amplitude (negative intercept) would increase with offset (negative
gradient). Therefor the term would be positive.

INSTANTANEOUS ENERGY ATTRIBUTE

Seismic energy is a window based attribute that calculates the squared sum of seismic samples in specified time
gate divided by the number of samples. By calculating the attribute over each single sample one can obtain
instantaneous energy attribute. In other words, we just square every sample in seismic section. Equation 5 suggests
that the magnitude of resulting trace will depend upon the sign of ; if positive, amplitude in stacked data will
increase in magnitude; if not, the amplitude will decrease or remains constant. This can be expressed mathematically
as:

(6)

0 1 (7)

FIGURE 1. Seismic section passing through a hydrocarbon charged sand (550 ms).

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 FIGURE 2. Seismic energy attribute section derived from seismic section in figure 1.

FIGURE 3. Spectral decomposition image at frequency component shows anomalous frequency

response at the reservoir zone.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

We have applied the attribute on seismic section traversing a gas charged sand from Alberta, Canada. It is clearly
noticed in the section that hydrocarbons are showing strong amplitude compared to their background. However,
delineating these anomalous responses and make them stand out from their surrounding is not unambiguous.
Applying the new attribute did assist in emphasizing the gas sand anomaly and discern its extension. The strong
anomalous amplitude at the reservoir can be interpreted as follows. Hydrocarbon presence causes strong negative

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amplitude at normal incidence that changes remarkably as we go from near to far offset. As illustrated in equation 5,
in stack section the stacking process applied on prestack data would result in an increase in sacked traces amplitudes
at the reservoir interval. As we raise the amplitude to higher power the second multiplicative term does amplify the
hydrocarbon seismic signature at the reservoir interval. This is due to the fact that hydrocarbons charged sediments
are known for their significant change in amplitude from near to far offset. Spectral decomposition using Short Time
Window Fourier Transform also successfully revealed anomalous frequency responses associated with
hydrocarbons. Interestingly, the spectral decomposition results are found very consistent with the instantaneous
energy attribute image.

CONCLUSION
Seismic data proved to be rich in information about subsurface formations and fluids. Once are well understood,
with the help of mathematical approaches, many key information can be derived.
Seismic instantaneous energy is promising attribute that can help in highlighting seismic expressions associated with
hydrocarbons saturated formations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Hampson-Russell Software Services from providing the data used in this study. Our
thanks go also to Korean Government for their support under the program BK21 plus.
This research projects is also supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning
(KETEP) grant funded by Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (No.20122010300020).

REFERENCES
1. Zoeppritz, K., 1919, Erdbebenwellen VIIIB, On the reflection and propagation of seismic waves: Gttinger Nachrichten, I,
66-84.
2. Aki, K., and Richards, P. G., 1980, Quantitative seismology: Theory and methods :W. H. Freeman and Co
3. Shuey, R.T., 1985. A simplification of the Zoeppritz equations: Geophysics, 50, p. 609-614.

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