Estimation of shear wave velocity in an Iranian oil reservoir using machine learning methods

Abstract

Shear wave velocity is considered as one of the most important rock physical parameters which can be measured by dipole sonic imager (DSI) tool. This parameter is applied to evaluate porosity and permeability, rock mechanical parameters, lithology, fracture assessment, etc. On the other hand, this data is not available in all wells and hence, an accurate and reliable estimation of this parameter with the least uncertainty is of great importance in reservoir characterization. In this study, regression, multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP-ANN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP) methods are utilized to estimate the shear wave velocity using well log data. Also, the reported empirical correlations in the literature are also investigated in the studied field. The input data include depth, effective porosity, V p , gamma ray logs (natural and spectral), neutron log, density log and caliper log from the Bangestan Group Formation in one of the fields in southwestern Iran. In this study, all the expressed methods are compared based on the best coefficient of determination (R 2 ), root mean square error (RMSE), mean squared error (MSE), average absolute relative error (AARE), and average relative error (ARE). Among the used methods, MGGP was developed for using the useful features of this method including sensitivity analysis and correlation. Sensitivity analysis is performed on the input data using the MLP-ANN and MGGP method. Also, a correlation is suggested based on the MGGP method which is able to predict the shear wave velocity using the mentioned input parameters. The results show that the MLP-ANN method is more accurate, reliable and efficient compared to other methods studied in this paper. R 2 for the train, validation, and test phase are 0.9973, 0.9901 and 0.9898, respectively. The results of sensitivity analysis imply that compressional wave velocity has the highest impact on the shear wave velocity. Finally, Young Dynamic Modulus and Poisson Dynamic Ratio are computed using both real and predicted shear wave velocities. The results indicate that these two parameters can be calculated with high accuracy using predicted shear wave velocity. • Five methods are implemented for predicting shear wave velocity (V s ) using petrophysical logs. • ANN can predict the V s with high accuracy (R 2 Test = 0.9898). • A sensitivity analysis performed on the significance of input variables on the V s using the results of MGGP. • A correlation is introduced for forecasting the V s . • Investigate the effects of V s prediction by ANN on the geomechanical modelling.