Physical modelling and the poroelastic model with application to fluid detection in a VTI medium

Abstract

In this paper, both poroelasticity theory and pre-stack inversions have been combined to generate a flexible way to derive an effective fluid factor, which is then used to identify the presence of the hydrocarbon in weakly anisotropic VTI reservoirs. The effective fluid factor has been derived by using an approximate fluid substitution equation for anisotropic VTI media. The approximate equation provides a means of performing fluid substitution for elastic moduli along the vertical symmetry axis of a VTI medium with fewer elastic moduli. The effective fluid factor can be used to analyse the sensitivity of seismic attributes to fluid content. In order to examine the effectiveness of the effective fluid factor, an anisotropic physical model has been constructed. The rock properties of artificial sandstone used as a reservoir building material are properly selected by using an empirical model and Gassmann's equation. An effort is made to ensure the physical modelling data represent the `true' response of different fluid-filled sands. The fluid detection method is then applied to interpret the inverted seismic impedance obtained from physical modelling seismic data with some known gas-sands and wet-sands. The results shows that the interpretive resolution of seismic fluid detection has been dramatically improved by using the effective fluid factor. In addition, more information on lateral changes in fluid content can be distinguished. This study has demonstrated the potential of this method in detecting different fluid content in weakly anisotropic VTI reservoirs.