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generate a suite of equiprobable fracture-density real- through high-resolution seismic stochastic inversion
izations. These realizations can then be screened and (Haas and Dubrule, 1994). In this process, synthetic seis-
calibrated to permeability-thickness (kh) data or direc- mograms are generated from the pseudoimpedance log
tional permeability data obtained from well tests. The and compared to the actual seismic trace at a given well lo-
resulting effective permeability model can then be ex- cation. The synthetic seismogram that results in the best
ported for use in numerical simulation and development match to the actual seismic trace is retained as the inver-
planning. A simplified workflow summarizing the entire sion solution at that location. The vertical resolution of
3-D CFM approach is shown in Figure 1. the simulated data is determined by the selection of the
vertical cell size (determined by the end user of the
model) and not by the frequency content of the seismic
data. The result of the stochastic seismic inversion is a
VALUE OF SEISMIC DATA IN CONTINUOUS 3-D volume with a seismic-like areal resolution and a
FRACTURE MODELING loglike vertical resolution that honors both the log data
and the seismic data.
The CFM approach relies heavily on the use of seismic An example showing the soundness of this tech-
data to provide key fracture drivers. Structural fracture nique comes from a recent work in a Hungarian reser-
drivers such as dip magnitude and interpreted faults can voir (Zellou et al., 2006) where the data from five wells
be derived from basic seismic interpretation, and seis- were used to generate a high-resolution seismic imped-
mic attributes can be derived from seismic volumetric ance volume with a sample rate of 0.5 ms (2–3 m [6–
curvatures (Al-Dosari and Marfurt, 2006). Bed thickness 10 ft]). The resulting impedance volume was then com-
variations can be determined from isochrons or from pared to the actual impedance values at four blind wells
the tuning frequency derived from spectral imaging. Li- resulting in a correlation coefficient of 0.77 (Figure 2).
thology, porosity, and other rock properties can be de- This goodness of fit illustrates the potential ability of
rived indirectly from high-resolution seismic attributes the high-resolution inversion to accurately predict imped-
obtained in prestack and poststack inversions calibrated ance values in the 3-D seismic volume. For the fracture
against log and core data from wells. Under good condi- modeling effort in this example, a high-resolution imped-
tions, these seismic attributes can be generated at a ver- ance was derived using all nine wells.
tical resolution of 2–3 m (6–10 ft), which, in our experi- The predictive capabilities of CFM depend, in large
ence, is comparable to the thickness of intervals that part, on the quality of the seismic and well-log data used
control fluid flow in fractured reservoirs and to the ver- to extract the relevant seismic attributes. A good-quality
tical scale at which geocellular models are built. 3-D seismic survey and a large number of available wells
The key to deriving attributes at a 2–3-m (6–10-ft) with good-quality sonic and density logs recorded over a
scale is to integrate the seismic traces with the log data long interval provide the best input data.
The quality of the seismic data also has a significant olution of 2–3 m (6–10 ft) for more than a decade (Lo
impact on the quality of the structural framework and and Bashore, 1999; Torres-Verdin et al., 1999; Dasgupta
the resulting 3-D geocellular grid, which are built in the et al., 2000; Robinson, 2001; Sullivan et al., 2004; Francis,
time domain using interpreted horizons and faults. For 2005; Raguwanti et al., 2005). Commercial software
example, poor seismic data may result in the inability using this approach has also been created. Despite these
to capture critical faults, which will negatively impact advances, many geoscientists are still unfamiliar with the
the acoustic impedance inversion. Figure 3 shows a technique and erroneously believe that seismic attributes
cross section of the impedance for the Hungarian res- are limited to a one-quarter wavelength resolution. In the
ervoir (Zellou et al., 2006) described previously. With- CFM approach, many seismic attributes are computed
out a proper structural framework that considers all near the seismic detection limit (2–3 m [6–10 ft]), which
the faults and an inversion algorithm that is able to could be five to seven times smaller than the seismic res-
honor the sharp offsets near each of the faults, the de- olution (15–20 m [49–66 ft]).
rived impedance will not be very useful in the CFM The use of high-resolution attributes is critical to
workflow. achieve good predictive capabilities with the CFM ap-
High-resolution seismic attributes have been pro- proach. Boadu (1998) showed that, in theory, a neural
duced for almost 15 yr using Haas and Dubrule’s sto- network can accurately predict the fracture density
chastic or geostatistical inversion techniques (Haas and using limited seismic attributes. The following case stud-
Dubrule, 1994; Dubrule et al., 1998). Many geoscien- ies each include the use of one or more high-resolution
tists have been using seismic attributes simulated at a res- seismic attributes in the CFM approach.
FIELD CASE STUDIES OF CONTINUOUS ture density and to create reservoir simulation models
FRACTURE MODELING in the South Arne field, a complex chalk reservoir. Nu-
merous fracture drivers, including a high-resolution
South Arne Chalk Field, Danish North Sea acoustic impedance inversion and several spectral imag-
ing attributes, were combined with porosity log values
In this project (Christensen et al., 2006), the CFM ap- at 15 wells to construct a porosity model. The result-
proach was used to predict the 3-D distribution of frac- ing model compared very favorably with three blind
wells that were not included in the model construction ity) are individual property models that were each gen-
(Figure 4). Four vertical appraisal wells drilled subse- erated within a single geocellular modeling project. The
quent to model construction were used to further validate effective permeability and porosity models were subse-
the inverted impedance and derived porosity models. quently exported for use in numerical simulation.
After validation, a fracture-density model was gener- As shown for two wells (Figure 5), the resulting
ated using porosity, seismic data, and geomechanical simulation runs matched the individual well perfor-
fracture drivers. Two fracture indicators were used to mance without making any substantive adjustments.
calibrate the fracture model and quantify the effects of The matches in these two wells, which had moderately
fractures: core permeability and the fracture density esti- simple completions, indicate that the derived fracture-
mated from image logs. A matrix permeability model density model was able to quantify the complex frac-
was also generated using the porosity model as the domi- ture network at the appropriate resolution. Other wells
nant fracture driver. This matrix permeability model in the field, with much more complex completions, were
was subsequently combined with the fracture-density more difficult to match. Nonetheless, the CFM-derived
model to generate an effective permeability model for effective permeability model used in the simulation work
numerical simulation. The resulting effective perme- was far better than the model previously used and re-
ability from fracture permeability enhancement for a quired smaller adjustments to obtain matches.
matrix volume with N fractures in the same direction The history match was further optimized by varying
was described by the following equation. the initially estimated average fracture aperture to find
the best overall match to effective permeability. The his-
tory match approach resulted in a geologically meaning-
Keff ¼ Km þ f a3h 84:44 106 ð1Þ
ful result using apertures ranging from 30 to 40 mm,
which provides a good starting point for future history
where Keff is the effective permeability of the combined matching once more well tests become available.
matrix and fracture flow, (in millidarcies), Km is the ma- The fracture-density model was validated on a well-
trix permeability (in millidarcies), f is the fracture density by-well basis by comparing fracture density in the model
(in number of fractures per meter), and ah is the average with the actual counts of conductive fractures. The re-
fracture aperture open for flow (in microns). sults are shown in Figure 6 for three random horizontal
The four models discussed above (porosity, matrix wells that were available during the study. The compar-
permeability, fracture density, and effective permeabil- ison shows fair to good agreement between the predicted
and actual occurrence of fractures. Subsequently, two cator. The CFM approach was used to quantify the re-
horizontal wells were drilled in 2007 after the comple- lationship between the fracture drivers and the fracture
tion of the study. Fracture-density logs extracted from indicator, and then to predict fracture density in every
the model showed a favorable comparison to the actual cell of the model.
fracture-density logs from these wells. Fifty equiprobable fracture model realizations were
generated, and three of these were selected as the base
Maloichskoe Carbonate Reservoir, case, downside case, and upside case for further analy-
Western Siberian Basin sis. A connectivity analysis based on displaying the CFM
results as discrete fractures and pipes was then con-
Unlike the South Arne field, where image logs and core ducted to identify those areas most likely to contain
permeability were used as the key fracture indicators, connected fractures. A well was subsequently drilled
this project (Pinous et al., 2006) used a simple differ- using this information, and based on a comparison of
ence in the values of the shallow and deep resistivity the image log from this well to the modeling results, a
logs as the key fracture indicator. good correspondence between the predicted and actual
Fracture drivers included seismic inversion and spec- location of fractured intervals existed (Figure 7).
tral imaging volumes, curvature in multiple directions, The predicted fracture model showed that the up-
distance to faults, porosity, and deformation. Overall, per interval would be highly fractured, the middle inter-
27 fracture drivers were evaluated and ranked based on val would be poorly fractured, and the lower interval
how accurately each was correlated to the fracture indi- would be moderately fractured. This is very similar to
the interpretation subsequently derived from the image multiple fracture-density models. An average model
log in this well. Although variations between the pre- was then chosen, and data from three well tests were used
dicted and actual fracture density are present, the com- to convert the model into fracture permeability. This
parison is quite good given that the key fracture indica- was then used as an input for numerical modeling. Dur-
tor was the difference between a shallow and a deep ing the history matching process, a match was achieved
resistivity log. The fracture-density model was built using by making adjustments to relative permeability. The
a geocellular grid containing cells 2 m (6 ft) thick, and fracture permeability distribution itself was not altered.
thus it was possible to generate a predicted fracture- After history matching was completed, various new dril-
density log having a 2-m (6-ft) resolution, as shown in ling locations were planned and tested with the model.
Figure 7. Based on the results of this work, the Sabria 11 well
was drilled and completed in 2007. A comparison be-
Sabria Quartzite Field, Tunisia tween the actual and predicted porosity for this well
(Figure 8) shows good agreement, as does the actual
This project began with a high-resolution inversion and and predicted impedance for this well. In addition, the
the generation of spectral imaging cubes. A structural actual oil rate of Sabria 11 is in line with the predicted
framework was then built in both time and depth, and range of rates forecasted by the numerical model.
two key seismic attributes, impedance and tuning fre-
quency, were resampled to the geocellular grid. Geosta-
tistical techniques were then used to distribute porosity, IMPACT OF NEW SEISMIC TECHNOLOGIES ON
permeability, water saturation, and shale content into CONTINUOUS FRACTURE MODELING
this grid. These four geological parameters, the two seis-
mic attributes, and structural information were used as Since its inception in 1995 (Ouenes et al., 1995), the
fracture drivers. main focus of the CFM approach has been to incorpo-
The fracture indicator log was provided by core de- rate multiple seismic attributes to improve the 3-D de-
scriptions from three wells. The CFM approach was used scription of fractures. The technique has been applied to
to rank the fracture drivers according to how reliably multiple fields, and its value has been demonstrated by
they matched this fracture indicator and to generate the ability of the resulting models to predict the fracture