DIRECT SEISMIC DETECTION OF HYDROCARBONS

Abstract

During the past two years, much publicity has been given to the direct indication of hydrocarbon accumulations by "Bright Spot" reflections: the very high amplitude reflections from a shale to gas-sand or gas-sand to water-sand interface. It was soon generally realised, however, that this phenomenon was of limited occurrence, being mostly restricted to young, shallow, sand and shale sequences such as the United States Gulf Coast. A more widely detectable indication of hydrocarbons was found to be the reflection from a fluid interface, such as the gas to water interface, within the reservoir. This reflection is characterised by its flatness, being a fluid interface, and is often called the "Flat Spot".

Model studies show that the flat spots have a wide range of amplitudes, from very high for shallow gas to water contacts, to very low for deep oil to water contacts. However, many of the weaker flat spots on good recent marine seismic data have an adequate signal to random noise ratio for detection, and the problem is to separate and distinguish them from the other stronger reflections close by. In this respect the unique flatness of the fluid contact reflection can be exploited by dip discriminant processes, such as velocity filtering, to separate it from the generally dipping reflectors at its boundaries. A limiting factor in the detection of the deeper flat spots is the frequency bandwidth of the seismic data. Since the separation between the flat spot reflection and the upper and lower boundary reflections of the reservoir is often small, relatively high frequency data are needed to resolve these separate reflections. Correct display of the seismic data can be critical to flat spot detection, and some degree of vertical exaggeration of the seismic section is often required to increase apparent dips, and thus make the flat spots more noticeable.

The flat spot is generally a smaller target than the structural features that conventional seismic surveys are designed to find and map, and so a denser than normal grid of seismic lines is required adequately to map most flat spots.