Elimination of seismic characteristics of solid-filled in ultra-deep fractured-vuggy reservoirs

Abstract

A large number of high-quality fractured-vuggy reservoirs (FVRs) are buried in ultra-deep (6500–9000 m) carbonate layers in the Tarim Basin, represented by the strong “beaded” reflection (SBR) on seismic profiles. This characteristic corresponds to the vast majority of high yield oil and gas wells, but there have also been a number of instances where the reservoir was filled with solid, leading to exploration failure. To avoid drilling failure, it is crucial to accurately identify fake reservoirs using geophysical methods. This paper proposes a novel method to eliminate the seismic characteristics of solid-filled in FVRs. Based on the waveform component decomposition (WCD) data, combined with drilling and logging data, an adaptive component reconstruction (ACR) can be completed to distinguish whether the reservoir is filled with solid or not, achieving the goal of eliminating the seismic characteristics of filling. Firstly, supervised WCD is performed on the target seismic data. Then, the waveform characteristics, which indicate the difference in the FVRs filled with solids, are combined accordingly with the sensitive attribute characteristics (instantaneous amplitude, heterogeneous anomalies, arc length, etc.) of each component data, and the feature templates of filled and non-filled FVRs are defined. Finally, the information entropy method is applied to optimise the component set that can distinguish the solid filled and non-filled FVRs and complete the component reconstruction. Forward modelling shows that this method can effectively distinguish the characteristics of FVRs that have been filled by solids from those that not. This method has achieved favourable results in the M block in the Tarim Basin. Successfully removed some or all the characteristic information of solid filled reservoirs confirmed by drilling from seismic data. The effectiveness of the method in identifying solid filled reservoirs has been confirmed by drilling, and the prediction rate of FVRs non-filled with solids has increased from 78% to 95%. This method can be used for reference in blocks with similar geological characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Fractured-vuggy reservoir
• solid filled
• supervised linear discriminant analysis
• waveform component decomposition
• adaptive component reconstruction (ACR)

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the authorisation of Tarim Oilfield Company to publish this work. Thanks to the assistance of BGP experts in writing this article.

Author Contributions

Conceptualisation, X.L.; Data curation, Z.D. and C.H.; Formal analysis, X.L.; Methodology, X.L.; Project administration, X.L.; Software, G.J.; Validation, B.G.; Visualisation, Z.D. and Q.C.; Writing – original draft, X.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The 3-D seismic data associated with this research are available and can be obtained by contacting BGP Inc., CNPC.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the research project of BGP on efficient early warning technology of complex drilling engineering [grant number GRIKY-2021-07]; Key scientific research project of BGP “Research on Seismic Identification Technology and Reservoir Formation Control of Strikeslip Faults in the Central and Western Superimposed Basins” [grant number 03-02-2022].