Application of back-propagation neural networks in the distribution of oil sand reservoirs\u2014a case study from the western slope of the Songliao Basin, China

Abstract

High-quality hydrocarbon source rocks are present in the upper Cretaceous layer in the western slope of the Songliao Basin. Oil and gas have accumulated in these rocks at the shallow edge of the basin, which has led to the formation of oil sand resources. This study uses the back-propagation (BP) neural network method to predict the distribution of oil sand reservoirs and is the first study of its kind in China. First, based on the basic data collected by core sample, well log and geochemical analyses, and the reasonable selection of samples, the cores are divided into mudstone, siltstone, fine sandstone, medium sandstone, and sand, according to lithology. Second, a three-layer BP neural network model is constructed with two hidden S-type layers and one linear output layer. Third, through a comparison of the effect of different numbers of training sessions of the sample data, we demonstrate that the accuracy of the model can be increased to 90% after training the network 100,000 times. Then, the log-derived data of rocks with unknown lithologies are input into the neural network to predict whether they contain oil sands. We show that the BP neural network method can predict the distribution of oil sand reservoirs in the target horizon of the study area, and the results are consistent with research results on the corresponding sand reservoirs and sedimentary facies. Thus, we conclude that it is feasible to use the BP neural network method to predict the distribution of oil sand reservoirs.