Seismic forward modeling for investigating and interpreting thin beds in a carbonate reservoir in SW Iran

Abstract

High-frequency contents of reflections are essential in the investigation and interpretation of thin-bed reservoirs. These beds can be even more complicated in carbonate rocks, as pore geometries influence final seismic responses. To address these complexities, we propose a seismic forward modeling workflow to investigate several thin-bed reservoirs in a carbonate oilfield with variable pore geometries. The new workflow enhances the existing forward models for the investigation of thin beds by integrating seismic petrophysics, geological model building, and 2D finite-difference elastic modeling. We used seismic petrophysics to ensure the consistency between petrophysical well logs and seismic data using rock physics modeling. Then, we introduced a new high-resolution workflow for velocity modeling to build a reliable geological model. Finally, the 2D finite-difference elastic modeling is employed to generate synthetic traces based on our geological model to obtain seismic responses for the existing thin-bed reservoirs. The forward models used in this study are a powerful tool for investigating thin layers because they enable high-resolution investigation of the given geological model in distinguishing lateral and vertical lithofacies changes. The new velocity modeling workflow, implemented in this research, is more reliable and effective than the conventional velocity property modeling approaches, which resulted in synthetic seismic sections with increased lateral and vertical resolutions and enhanced data from a thin bed. The main features of this workflow are the incorporation of well-log data into geological model building, combining the high-resolution data of horizontal seismic stacking velocity with vertical well logging, and the incorporation of a residual model to improve the seismic stacking velocity. We produced a more coherent section resembling the acquired 3D seismic data by applying the proposed workflow to data from an oil carbonate reservoir in the Fahliyan Formation within the Abadan Plain in SW Iran. It is concluded that the higher frequency synthetic sections from the proposed workflow can assist in resolving the seismic interpretation challenges. By applying the proposed workflow to the current data set, four thin-bed carbonate reservoirs were investigated with corresponding thicknesses of approximately 25, and 17 m at peak frequencies of 60, and 90 Hz, respectively.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Thin-bed carbonate reservoirs; Rock physics modeling
• Seismic petrophysics; Velocity modeling; Finite-difference elastic modeling
• Seismic forward modeling

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Exploration Directorate of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for providing the data and valuable support.

Disclosure statement

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