Permeability effects on the seismic response of gas reservoirs

In this work, we analyse the role of permeability on the seismic response of sandstone reservoirs characterized by patchy gas-water saturation. We do this in the framework of Johnson's model, which is a generalization of White's seminal model allowing for patches of arbitrary geometry. We first assess the seismic attenuation and velocity dispersion characteristics in response to wave-induced fluid flow. To this end, we perform an exhaustive analysis of the sensitivity of attenuation and velocity dispersion of compressional body waves to permeability and explore the roles played by the Johnson parameters T and S/V, which characterize the shape and size of the gas-water patches. Our results indicate that, within the typical frequency range of exploration seismic data, this sensitivity may indeed be particularly strong for a variety of realistic and relevant scenarios. Next, we extend our analysis to the corresponding effects on surface-based reflection seismic data for two pertinent models of typical sandstone reservoirs. In the case of softer and more porous formations and in the presence of relatively low levels of gas saturation we observe that the effects of permeability on seismic reflection data are indeed significant. These prominent permeability effects prevail for normal-incidence and non-normal-incidence seismic data and for a very wide range of sizes and shapes of the gas-water patches. For harder and less porous reservoirs, the normal-incidence seismic responses exhibit little or no sensitivity to permeability, but the corresponding non-normal-incidence responses show a clear dependence on this parameter, again especially so for low gas saturations. The results of this study therefore suggest that, for a range of fairly common and realistic conditions, surface-based seismic reflection data are indeed remarkably sensitive to the permeability of gas reservoirs and thus have the potential of providing corresponding first-order constraints.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Numerical analysis of wave-induced fluid flow effects on seismic data: Application to monitoring of CO2 storage at the Sleipner field

In this work we analyze how patchy distributions of CO2 and brine within sand reservoirs may lead to significant attenuation and velocity dispersion effects, which in turn may have a profound impact on surface seismic data. The ultimate goal of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of these processes within the framework of the seismic monitoring of CO2 sequestration, a key strategy to mitigate global warming. We first carry out a Monte Carlo analysis to study the statistical behavior of attenuation and velocity dispersion of compressional waves traveling through rocks with properties similar to those at the Utsira Sand, Sleipner field, containing quasi-fractal patchy distributions of CO2 and brine. These results show that the mean patch size and CO2 saturation play key roles in the observed wave-induced fluid flow effects. The latter can be remarkably important when CO2 concentrations are low and mean patch sizes are relatively large. To analyze these effects on the corresponding surface seismic data, we perform numerical simulations of wave propagation considering reservoir models and CO2 accumulation patterns similar to the CO2 injection site in the Sleipner field. These numerical experiments suggest that wave-induced fluid flow effects may produce changes in the reservoir's seismic response, modifying significantly the main seismic attributes usually employed in the characterization of these environments. Consequently, the determination of the nature of the fluid distributions as well as the proper modeling of the seismic data constitute important aspects that should not be ignored in the seismic monitoring of CO2 sequestration problems.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Do seismic waves sense fracture connectivity?

A defining characteristic of fractured rocks is their very high level of seismic attenuation, which so far has been assumed to be mainly due to wave-induced fluid flow (WIFF) between the fractures and the pore space of the embedding matrix. Using oscillatory compressibility simulations based on the quasi-static poroelastic equations, we show that another important, and as of yet undocumented, manifestation of WIFF is at play in the presence of fracture connectivity. This additional energy loss is predominantly due to fluid flow within the connected fractures and is sensitive to their lengths, permeabilities, and intersection angles. Correspondingly, it contains key information on the governing hydraulic properties of fractured rock masses and hence should be accounted for whenever realistic seismic models of such media are needed.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Seismoacoustic signatures of fracture connectivity

Wave-induced fluid flow (WIFF) between fractures and the embedding matrix as well as within connected fractures tends to produce significant seismic attenuation and velocity dispersion. While WIFF between fractures and matrix is well understood, the corresponding effects related to fracture connectivity and the characteristics of the energy dissipation due to flow within fractures are largely unexplored. In this work, we use oscillatory relaxation simulations based on the quasi-static poroelastic equations to study these phenomena. We first consider synthetic rock samples containing connected and unconnected fractures and compute the corresponding attenuation and phase velocity. We also determine the relative fluid displacement and pressure fields in order to gain insight into the physical processes involved in the two manifestations of WIFF in fractured media. To quantify the contributions of the two WIFF mechanisms to the total seismic attenuation, we compute the spatial distribution of the local energy dissipation. Finally, we perform an exhaustive sensitivity analysis to study the role played by different characteristics of fracture networks on the seismic signatures. We show that in the presence of connected fractures both P wave attenuation and phase velocity are sensitive to some key characteristics of the probed medium, notably to the lengths, permeabilities, and intersection angles of the fractures as well as to the overall degree of connectivity of the fracture network. This, in turn, indicates that a deeper understanding of these two manifestations of WIFF in fractured media may eventually allow for the extraction of some of these properties from seismic data.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Seismoacoustic signatures of fracture connectivity

Wave-induced fluid flow (WIFF) between fractures and the embedding matrix as well as within connected fractures tends to produce significant seismic attenuation and velocity dispersion. While WIFF between fractures and matrix is well understood, the corresponding effects related to fracture connectivity and the characteristics of the energy dissipation due to flow within fractures are largely unexplored. In this work, we use oscillatory relaxation simulations based on the quasi-static poroelastic equations to study these phenomena. We first consider synthetic rock samples containing connected and unconnected fractures and compute the corresponding attenuation and phase velocity. We also determine the relative fluid displacement and pressure fields in order to gain insight into the physical processes involved in the two manifestations of WIFF in fractured media. To quantify the contributions of the two WIFF mechanisms to the total seismic attenuation, we compute the spatial distribution of the local energy dissipation. Finally, we perform an exhaustive sensitivity analysis to study the role played by different characteristics of fracture networks on the seismic signatures. We show that in the presence of connected fractures both P wave attenuation and phase velocity are sensitive to some key characteristics of the probed medium, notably to the lengths, permeabilities, and intersection angles of the fractures as well as to the overall degree of connectivity of the fracture network. This, in turn, indicates that a deeper understanding of these two manifestations of WIFF in fractured media may eventually allow for the extraction of some of these properties from seismic data.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Permeability effects on the seismic response of gas reservoirs

In this work, we analyse the role of permeability on the seismic response of sandstone reservoirs characterized by patchy gas-water saturation. We do this in the framework of Johnson's model, which is a generalization of White's seminal model allowing for patches of arbitrary geometry. We first assess the seismic attenuation and velocity dispersion characteristics in response to wave-induced fluid flow. To this end, we perform an exhaustive analysis of the sensitivity of attenuation and velocity dispersion of compressional body waves to permeability and explore the roles played by the Johnson parameters T and S/V, which characterize the shape and size of the gas-water patches. Our results indicate that, within the typical frequency range of exploration seismic data, this sensitivity may indeed be particularly strong for a variety of realistic and relevant scenarios. Next, we extend our analysis to the corresponding effects on surface-based reflection seismic data for two pertinent models of typical sandstone reservoirs. In the case of softer and more porous formations and in the presence of relatively low levels of gas saturation we observe that the effects of permeability on seismic reflection data are indeed significant. These prominent permeability effects prevail for normal-incidence and non-normal-incidence seismic data and for a very wide range of sizes and shapes of the gas-water patches. For harder and less porous reservoirs, the normal-incidence seismic responses exhibit little or no sensitivity to permeability, but the corresponding non-normal-incidence responses show a clear dependence on this parameter, again especially so for low gas saturations. The results of this study therefore suggest that, for a range of fairly common and realistic conditions, surface-based seismic reflection data are indeed remarkably sensitive to the permeability of gas reservoirs and thus have the potential of providing corresponding first-order constraints.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Numerical analysis of wave-induced fluid flow effects on seismic data: Application to monitoring of CO2 storage at the Sleipner field

In this work we analyze how patchy distributions of CO2 and brine within sand reservoirs may lead to significant attenuation and velocity dispersion effects, which in turn may have a profound impact on surface seismic data. The ultimate goal of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of these processes within the framework of the seismic monitoring of CO2 sequestration, a key strategy to mitigate global warming. We first carry out a Monte Carlo analysis to study the statistical behavior of attenuation and velocity dispersion of compressional waves traveling through rocks with properties similar to those at the Utsira Sand, Sleipner field, containing quasi-fractal patchy distributions of CO2 and brine. These results show that the mean patch size and CO2 saturation play key roles in the observed wave-induced fluid flow effects. The latter can be remarkably important when CO2 concentrations are low and mean patch sizes are relatively large. To analyze these effects on the corresponding surface seismic data, we perform numerical simulations of wave propagation considering reservoir models and CO2 accumulation patterns similar to the CO2 injection site in the Sleipner field. These numerical experiments suggest that wave-induced fluid flow effects may produce changes in the reservoir's seismic response, modifying significantly the main seismic attributes usually employed in the characterization of these environments. Consequently, the determination of the nature of the fluid distributions as well as the proper modeling of the seismic data constitute important aspects that should not be ignored in the seismic monitoring of CO2 sequestration problems.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

An energy-based approach to estimate seismic attenuation due to wave-induced fluid flow in heterogeneous poroelastic media

Wave-induced fluid flow (WIFF) due to the presence of mesoscopic heterogeneities is considered as one of the main seismic attenuation mechanisms in the shallower parts of the Earth’s crust. For this reason, several models have been developed to quantify seismic attenuation in the presence of heterogeneities of varying complexity, ranging from periodically layered media to rocks containing fractures and highly irregular distributions of fluid patches. Most of these models are based on Biot’s theory of poroelasticity and make use of the assumption that the upscaled counterpart of a heterogeneous poroelastic medium can be represented by a homogeneous viscoelastic solid. Under this dynamic-equivalent viscoelastic medium (DEVM) assumption, attenuation is quantified in terms of the ratio of the imaginary and real parts of a frequency-dependent, complex-valued viscoelastic modulus. Laboratory measurements on fluid-saturated rock samples also rely on this DEVM assumption when inferring attenuation from the phase shift between the applied stress and the resulting strain. However, whether it is correct to use an effective viscoelastic medium to represent the attenuation arising from WIFF at mesoscopic scales in heterogeneous poroelastic media remains largely unexplored. In this work, we present an alternative approach to estimate seismic attenuation due to WIFF. It is fully rooted in the framework of poroelasticity and is based on the quantification of the dissipated power and stored strain energy resulting from numerical oscillatory relaxation tests.We employ this methodology to compare different definitions of the inverse quality factor for a set of pertinent scenarios, including patchy saturation and fractured rocks. This numerical analysis allows us to verify the correctness of the DEVM assumption in the presence of different kinds of heterogeneities. The proposed methodology has the key advantage of providing the local contributions of energy dissipation to the overall seismic attenuation, information that is not available when attenuation is retrieved from methods based on the DEVM assumption. Using the local attenuation contributions we provide further insights into the WIFF mechanism for randomly distributed fluid patches and explore the accumulation of energy dissipation in the vicinity of fractures.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

Inversión espectral prestack simultánea de ondas PP y PS para la caracterización cuantitativa de capas delgadas

En este trabajo extendemos un método de inversión espectral para determinar las propiedades de una capa delgada y de los medios que se encuentran por encima y por debajo de la misma, a partir del espectro de amplitud de la respuesta sísmica prestack, con aplicación a la caracterización de reservorios asociados a estructuras con espesores por debajo del tunning. Estas propiedades incluyen el espesor de la capa delgada como así también las velocidades de las ondas compresionales y de corte, y las densidades de cada uno de los tres medios. Se presentan numerosos ejemplos utilizando datos sintéticos con ruido gaussiano generados a partir de diversos modelos de capas delgadas representativos de reservorios de gas de unos pocos metros de espesor. Se demuestra que, bajo ciertas condiciones, es posible obtener estimaciones razonables de los diversos parámetros involucrados utilizando el dato sísmico prestack convencional (ondas PP). Se analiza asimismo el impacto del uso de la información adicional provista por las ondas de corte convertidas (ondas PS), demostrándose que éstas contribuyen a mejorar significativamente las calidad de los resultados y a relajar las condiciones requeridas por el uso de las ondas PP solamente. Por último, y con el objetivo de reducir los problemas de no-unicidad inherentes a este tipo de problema inverso, las soluciones son forzadas a satisfacer, dentro de cierta tolerancia, la posible correlación existente entre las velocidades de las ondas P y S, y entre la velocidad de la onda P y la densidad, información a priori con frecuencia disponible a partir de datos de pozo. Como consecuencia, la incerteza en la estimación del espesor, velocidades y densidad de la capa delgada se reduce significativamente, lo que permite obtener soluciones más precisas y confiables.In this work, we extend a spectral inversion method for determining the properties of a thin bed and those of the media lying above and below it from prestack seismic data. These properties include the thickness of the thin layer as well as the compressional- and shear-wave velocities and densities of the three media. The estimation of the model parameters is carried out in the frequency domain, and can be applied to the characterization of geological formations with thicknesses below tuning. We apply the methodology to noisy synthetic data generated by considering different thin layers representative of gas reservoirs and having thicknesses of only a few meters. The corresponding results indicate that, under certain conditions, reasonable solutions can be obtained when using conventional prestack seismic data (PP waves). Moreover, we show that the additional information provided by the converted shear waves (PS waves) allows us to improve the quality of the results and, at the same time, it enables us to relax the constraints required when using PP waves only. Finally, in order to reduce the nonuniqueness difficulties typically arising in this kind of inverse problem, the solutions are forced to honor, within a certain tolerance, the potential correlations between P- and S-wave velocities, as well as between P-wave velocity and density, which constitutes valuable information often available from well log data. As a consequence, the uncertainties associated with the estimates of the thickness, wave velocities and density of the thin layer are significantly reduced, therefore allowing to obtain more accurate and reliable solutions.Asociación Argentina de Geofísicos y Geodesta

Inversión espectral prestack simultánea de ondas PP y PS para la caracterización cuantitativa de capas delgadas

En este trabajo extendemos un método de inversión espectral para determinar las propiedades de una capa delgada y de los medios que se encuentran por encima y por debajo de la misma, a partir del espectro de amplitud de la respuesta sísmica prestack, con aplicación a la caracterización de reservorios asociados a estructuras con espesores por debajo del tunning. Estas propiedades incluyen el espesor de la capa delgada como así también las velocidades de las ondas compresionales y de corte, y las densidades de cada uno de los tres medios. Se presentan numerosos ejemplos utilizando datos sintéticos con ruido gaussiano generados a partir de diversos modelos de capas delgadas representativos de reservorios de gas de unos pocos metros de espesor. Se demuestra que, bajo ciertas condiciones, es posible obtener estimaciones razonables de los diversos parámetros involucrados utilizando el dato sísmico prestack convencional (ondas PP). Se analiza asimismo el impacto del uso de la información adicional provista por las ondas de corte convertidas (ondas PS), demostrándose que éstas contribuyen a mejorar significativamente las calidad de los resultados y a relajar las condiciones requeridas por el uso de las ondas PP solamente. Por último, y con el objetivo de reducir los problemas de no-unicidad inherentes a este tipo de problema inverso, las soluciones son forzadas a satisfacer, dentro de cierta tolerancia, la posible correlación existente entre las velocidades de las ondas P y S, y entre la velocidad de la onda P y la densidad, información a priori con frecuencia disponible a partir de datos de pozo. Como consecuencia, la incerteza en la estimación del espesor, velocidades y densidad de la capa delgada se reduce significativamente, lo que permite obtener soluciones más precisas y confiables.In this work, we extend a spectral inversion method for determining the properties of a thin bed and those of the media lying above and below it from prestack seismic data. These properties include the thickness of the thin layer as well as the compressional- and shear-wave velocities and densities of the three media. The estimation of the model parameters is carried out in the frequency domain, and can be applied to the characterization of geological formations with thicknesses below tuning. We apply the methodology to noisy synthetic data generated by considering different thin layers representative of gas reservoirs and having thicknesses of only a few meters. The corresponding results indicate that, under certain conditions, reasonable solutions can be obtained when using conventional prestack seismic data (PP waves). Moreover, we show that the additional information provided by the converted shear waves (PS waves) allows us to improve the quality of the results and, at the same time, it enables us to relax the constraints required when using PP waves only. Finally, in order to reduce the nonuniqueness difficulties typically arising in this kind of inverse problem, the solutions are forced to honor, within a certain tolerance, the potential correlations between P- and S-wave velocities, as well as between P-wave velocity and density, which constitutes valuable information often available from well log data. As a consequence, the uncertainties associated with the estimates of the thickness, wave velocities and density of the thin layer are significantly reduced, therefore allowing to obtain more accurate and reliable solutions.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica