From Seismic Character and Seismic Attributes to Reservoir Properties:

Case History in Arab-D Reservoir of Saudi Arabia

Shivaji N. Dasgupta, J. J. Kim, Ahmed M. Almousa, Husam M. AlMustafa
(Saudi Aramco) Fred Aminzadeh and Eric von Lunen (FACT & dGB-USA)
SUMMARY
Seismic Attributes and subtle changes in the character of the seismic response from a target horizon are used to
predict different reservoir properties. Among the key reservoir properties that are predicted are the interwell
porosity, lithology, heterogeneity and fluid saturation. A catalogue of seismic characters for different representative
wells in Arab D reservoir of Ghawar oil field is developed. A neural network is trained to classify those seismic
characters to different groups based on to the corresponding reservoir properties and geologic facies. The entire 3-D
data cube in the study area is then divided to different classes based on the proximity of their respective seismic
character to those of the catalogue. To further improve the resolving power of seismic characters, other attributes
that are considered to be sensitive to given reservoir properties are combined with the seismic character for
classification purposes. Aside from some of the conventional attributes, fluid sensitive attributes that capture the
hydrocarbon related high frequency loss are one set of attributes used. Others are the time frequency analysis (TFA)
attribute and the porosity sensitive acoustic impedance attributes.
GEOLOGIC SETTING
Ghawar, the largest oil field in the world is located onshore, east of Saudi Arabia. It is approximately 250
Kilometers north-south and 30 Kilometers east-west. The field was discovered in 1936. The upper Jurassic Arab-D
carbonate reservoir in Ghawar field is cyclical and heterogeneous. It is a limestone reservoir with a wide range to
very high porosity/permeability (with numerous super K production profiles in some parts of the field). Horizontal
wells are drilled in the Arab-D reservoir to enhance well productivity and fluid injectivity. These wells are designed
to produce by-passed or trapped oil from zones underlain by water, to produce selected tight layers in the complex a
vertical aggrading and prograding carbonate reservoir. Understanding the fracture and fault distribution, reservoir
heterogeneity and fluid saturation is critical for planning and completion of the horizontal wells. While it is desirable
to have the wells intersect the fractures in the low permeable reservoir layers, this should be avoided where fractures
form conduits for premature break-through water.
METHOD OF ATTACK
The main objective of this study was to establish a relationship between the seismic character and seismic attributes
on the one hand and reservoir heterogeneity in terms of lithology, porosity, and reservoir fluid saturation on the
other hand. Two different methodologies were employed:
1- Seismic character as a classification tool using neural networks
2- Seismic Attributes that are deemed sensitive to certain reservoir properties
Using another neural network cascade, the two approaches were then combined with both seismic character and
seismic attributes as an input to the ANN. This operation, further improve the prediction power of the attributes. The
attributes chosen to predict reservoir properties were both the conventional Hilbert attributes and several newly
defined attributes and time frequency analysis attributes. Figure 1 shows the attributes defined from the power
spectrum of the seismic trace in a given window. The following attributes are defined to capture the high frequency
loss of the power spectrum that can be related to hydrocarbon saturation:
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Seismic Attributes to Reservoir Properties: Case History in Arab-D Reservoir
Average Frequency Squared, (AFS)
AFS is the average of the square of the frequency values within the spectrum.
Maximum Spectrum Amplitude, (MSA)
MSA is the amplitude associated with the dominant frequency.
Frequency Slope Fall, (FSF)
FSF is a measure of how fast the slope of the spectrum falls beyond dominant frequency.
Absorption Quality Factor, (AQF)
AQF is the area under the spectrum beyond dominant frequency.
High Frequency Loss Factor (MDA)
MDA is the product of MSA and the Dominant Frequency.
These attributes were chosen from many different frequency related attributes as the top five that can determine
subtle impacts of the hydrocarbon saturation on the frequency content of the seismic waveform.
UNSUPERVISED NEURAL NETWORKS-
Unsupervised neural networks were used to classify the seismic characteristics of the reflection event correlated with
the reservoir interval. The reflective seismic character is a complex waveform with dominant frequency between 18-
30Hz dependent on the reservoir sub surface image. In a first pass, the unsupervised neural network was used to
classify seismic waveform character of the Arab D reservoir interval. These class segments, between 12 and 16 trace
character groups were examined for distinct character, refer to figure 1. A set of 50+ wellbores were plotted and
segmented according to the seismic waveform character. Additional petrophysical segmentation was completed to
note changes and sensitivity to porosity and lithology with the reservoir interval. The reservoir interval was
vertically divided into time-depth intervals corresponding to the principal reservoir sub-zones. Wellbores located
near the transition boundary between segment waveform character classes were examined for changing facies
patterns and indicative changes in porosity or lithology. An example of unsupervised neural network segmentation
sensitive to waveform character and lithofacies is shown in Figure 2.
SUPERVISED NEURAL NETWORKS-
Supervised neural networks were used to predict porosity and lithology fractional volumes within the reservoir
interval. The first step consisted of envisioning a hierarchy of sequence stratigraphic lithofacies descriptive of the
Arab D reservoir. The training sets were selected from the available petrophysical observations, with blind tests
validation subsets randomly picked. The first supervised neural network was trained to predict a reservoir porosity
volume from seismic and petrophysical data. The hierarchy framework for porosity is shown in Figure 3. The
second cascaded supervised neural network utilized a training set including the original seismic volume, predicted
porosity, and impedance volume. The neural network rationale strategy was premised on the conceptual belief the
carbonate lithology could be predicted, if the neural network learned seismic character to associate with porosity
variations. Shown in Figure 4. The carbonate fractional volumes were predicted and contrasted with the known
petrophysical evaluation of wireline logs. Finally, a third neural network cascade was assembled with seismic cubes
for waveform character, predicted porosity, impedance, predicted lithology, and fluid sensitive attributes and
petrophysical evaluations to predict and examine fluid type detection and possible saturation.
The results of the first pass supervised neural network fluid prediction is shown in Figure 5, over a test area. This
spectral Absorption Quality Factor attribute concept is shown in figure 6 graphically, and is believed to be sensitive
to saturation fluid changes within the Arab D reservoir. At present, the authors are verifying the reliability of this
attribute to fluid saturation prediction.
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Seismic Attributes to Reservoir Properties: Case History in Arab-D Reservoir
Frequency
Avg. Freq. Squared (AFS)
Max. Spect. Amp. (MSA)
Freq. Slope Fall (FSF)
Absorption Qual. Factor (AQF)
MSA*Dom. Freq. (MDA)
dominant frequency
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MSA
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This article has been cited by:
1. Andy Clifford, Fred AminzadehGas detection from absorption attributes and amplitude versus offset with artificial neural networks
in Grand Bay Field 375-380. [Abstract] [References] [PDF] [PDF w/Links] [Supplemental Material]
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