Measure twice, cut once: determining Roseneath Epsilon Murteree (REM) shale gas potential with point-source, point-receiver full-azimuth acquisition

Abstract

The key to the successful exploitation of shale resources, such as the REM shale gas interval in Queensland, is to obtain maximum reservoir contact by efficient drilling and hydraulic fracturing. This can be achieved by identifying areas of the reservoir already naturally fractured or where minimum effort is required for stimulation. Detection of these so-called sweet spots can be crucial for efficient reservoir development. Seismic methods can be used in shale gas reservoir characterisation studies to achieve an improved understanding of the structure, heterogeneity, and geotechnical stress regime of the reservoir and related containment, leading to identification of the desired production sweet spots and optimum placement of future wells. To achieve this, much more stringent requirements are placed on the quality and characteristics of seismic data than would be needed for a purely structural image. Innovative best-practice solutions based on experience in the basin and elsewhere were included in the survey design of the Winnie 3D seismic acquisition. The survey featured broadband acquisition with point-source vibroseis and point-receiver accelerometers. Omnidirectional and symmetrical dense sampling with appropriately long offsets provided uniform azimuthal coverage with extremely high trace density. The high-specification acquisition design was complemented with latest non-uniform noise attenuation to enable a fast-track interpretation, detection of velocity anomalies, pre-stack seismic inversion, and the extraction of seismic attributes in advanced stages of data processing.