Delineation of gas-charged geobodies at Solar gas discovery offshore West Nile Delta, Egypt

Abstract

Gas accumulation has been proved at the Solar Channel offshore West Nile Delta, Egypt. It is produced as an important exploration target. It was important to carry out a detailed study in searching for gas play within the Solar Channel. The spectral-decomposition technique is applied to the imaging and mapping of bed thickness, geologic discontinuities, and channel delineation at Solar discovery. From the study, two distinctively different channels (the gas-bearing “Red Channel” and water-bearing “Yellow Channel”) are delineated in the area, proved by the drilled well. Rock-physics analysis (P-impedance versus S-impedance crossplot) of well-log data revealed that it could separate gas-bearing sands from water-bearing sands and shale. Poststack inversion of seismic data has been carried out to invert for P-impedance volume. Therefore, a lithofacies cube has been generated after applying P-impedance cutoffs to discriminate among gas-bearing sand, water-bearing sand, and shale. In the end, a gas-charged geobody is extracted at the Solar Channel.