Abstract
Summary Successful exploration for new reservoirs in mature trends often requires trying techniques unproven in the area. The Vicksburg Formation in South Texas has been heavily explored using subsurface geology and structural mapping based on conventional seismic data. Although there is a scarcity of direct hydrocarbon indicators such as bright spots, models generated using dipole sonic data suggested that Class 2 AVO anomalies would be associated with gas reservoirs. A pilot reprocessing study demonstrated that gas reservoirs generate Class 2 AVO anomalies and that incident angles greater than about 26o are required to observe them. A large non-exclusive 3D survey was reprocessed using non-hyperbolic moveout and resulting angle stacks were analyzed. Several untested anomalies were identified, including stratigraphic traps. Wildcat drilling based on this effort has resulted in six commercial discoveries and two dry holes, a success rate significantly higher than was achieved through conventional subsurface geology and structural mapping.
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