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Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Estimating smectite content from seismic data

Roman Beloborodov A C , Marina Pervukhina A , Valeriya Shulakova A , Dimitri Chagalov A , Matthew Josh A , Michael B. Clennell A , Gavin Ward B , Matthew Waugh B and Juerg Hauser B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A CSIRO, 26 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington, WA, 6151, Australia.

B Chevron Australia, 250 St Georges Terrace, Perth, WA 6000, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: roman.beloborodov@csiro.au

The APPEA Journal 59(2) 851-855 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18223
Accepted: 22 February 2019   Published: 17 June 2019

Abstract

Predicting the mineralogical composition of shales is crucial for drilling operations related to hydrocarbon exploration/production as well as for the assessment of their sealing capacity as hydrocarbon or CO2 barriers. For example, hydrocarbon exploration in the Northern Carnarvon Basin, North-West Shelf, Australia is hindered by the presence of a thick (up to 1 km) smectite-rich shale seal that spreads regionally. Complex structures of the channelised oil and gas fields in the area make it necessary to drill deviated wells through that seal. The maximum deviation angle at which successful drilling is possible depends strongly on the clay mineralogy and, in particular, on the smectite content in the shale. Here, we introduce a novel workflow combining seismic data, well logs and laboratory measurements to infer shale composition at the reservoir scale. It is applied to the Duyfken 3D seismic survey in the central part of the Northern Carnarvon Basin. Interpretation results are verified against the laboratory X-ray diffraction measurements from the test well that was not used for the interpretation. The results match the test data well within the determined uncertainty bounds.

Keywords: AVO inversion, Carnarvon Basin, North-West Shelf of Australia, petrophysics, rock physics, seal, shale, shale composition.

Dr Roman Beloborodov is a Geophysicist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia), where he works on the quantitative interpretation of seismic data. He specialises in the analysis of shale properties using a variety of geophysical methods, including rock physics and petrophysical analysis of borehole data and inversion of seismic data.

Dr. Marina Pervukhina is a Principal Geoscientist at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia), working on rock physics and petrophysics of unconventional and seal shales. She specialises in stress field analysis, rock physics of sedimentary and hard rocks, modelling of shale elastic properties and estimation of hydraulic permeability from log data. Before moving to Australia, Marina worked for the Geological Survey of Japan in the Earthquake Prediction group. Marina is an author of 3 book chapters, more than 50 journal papers in ISI journals and more than 70 conference papers. She is an Associate Editor of Geophysics Journal and active member of the Federal Executive of Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

Valeriya Shulakova is a Research Scientist in CSIRO, Perth, Australia. She is a geophysicist, specialising in seismic data processing, time-lapse processing, and image processing with focus on digital rock physics.

Dimitri Chagalov is a Geophysicist (Double Major in Geology and Geophysics) with extensive experience within the geoscience sector of the oil and gas industry. His career spans multiple years of work for both oil and gas, and seismic service companies both in Australia and internationally. He is a subject matter expert in depth imaging, QA/QC and experienced in the integrating of cross-functional work teams spread over various national and overseas locations. His main interests are in the anisotropic depth imaging, seismic data processing and QI. He is a member of SEG, ASEG and EAGE.

Dr. Matthew Josh is currently employed at CSIRO to develop methods of broadband rock electrical properties characterisation. Matthew’s primary field of training is in electrical engineering and physics and he specialises in experimental electromagnetic instrumentation and methods. He graduated with a PhD in geophysics from the University of Sydney in 2004, investigating the development of novel borehole dielectric logging tools, for use in the geotechnical and extractive industries. Prior to this he was working with CRC Mining and CSIRO industrial physics where he was involved in the development of ground probing radar (GPR) to assist in fault and dyke detection in the coal mining operation, and GPR for agricultural purposes such as identifying wetting fronts during crop irrigation to improve water management.

Dr. Michael (Ben) Clennell is a Senior Principal Research Scientist in the area of rock physical properties. His research spans petrophysics, geomechanics, structural geology and marine and petroleum geology, applied to onshore and offshore oil and gas, subsurface storage of carbon dioxide and the understanding of geohazards including earthquakes, submarine landslides and gas hydrates.

Gavin Ward is currently an Earth Science mentor working in Luanda on Chevron’s Angolan assets. He obtained a BSc (Hons) (1987) in geology/geophysics from University of Leicester before completing a PhD (1991) in crustal geophysics at University of Cambridge. During his time with BP he worked on projects in a number of locations and in various roles including seismic processing/acquisition, exploration, appraisal/development and production. In 1997, he completed a Petroleum Engineering MSc at Imperial College. Since joining Chevron Australia in 2009 he has sought to enhance sub-surface integration both as a technical lead and subsurface team lead. An area of particular focus has been the leveraging of petrophysics as a common basis for geophysical, geomechanical and reservoir characterisation.

A biography has not been supplied for Matthew Waugh.

Juerg Hauser is a senior research scientist at CSIRO and leads the Advanced Inversion Methods theme of the Deep Earth Imaging Future Science Platform. He has a strong background in the development of methods to infer geological meaningful models of the subsurface and information about their robustness from geodata, chiefly geophysical data. An important aspect of his research is the propagation of recovered uncertainties into predictive applications in support of decision making, particularly in a mineral exploration context. Prior to joining CSIRO in 2011 he was a postdoctoral fellow at NORSAR and KAUST. He obtained his PhD at the Australian National University and holds an undergraduate degree from ETH Zürich.


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