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Fracture
Orientation from P Wave Seismic
Data
Using Volumetric Curvature, Silo Field,
Wyoming*
By
Charles H. Blumentritt1, Kurtt J. Marfurt2, and Michael Murphy2
Search and Discovery Article #40250 (2007)
Posted August 6, 2007
*Adapted from oral presentation at AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California, April 1-4, 2007
1Geo-Texture Technologies, Houston, TX ([email protected])
2University of Houston, Houston, TX
Abstract
Silo Field is a
fractured reservoir over which 3-D P wave and S wave data
have been acquired for
the purpose of determining fracture orientation. The S wave
data
have been
analyzed for the usual slow wave and fast wave orientations to yield a fracture
orientation of 258 degrees. We apply volumetric curvature to the P wave
data
and
observed a similar result. Our technique is a simple, cost effective method of
using the lower cost P wave
data
to answer a question usually reserved for the
more expensive S wave
data
.
We determine
curvature values for every point in a conventional stacked and migrated 3-D
seismic
data
volume using a small (3 traces by 3 traces by 9 samples) subvolume.
We then observe the lineaments appearing in the curvature
data
at the target
level and analyze their orientations with rose diagrams. We propose that those
lineaments represent subtle anticlines, synclines, and flexures caused by the
stresses controlling and resulting from the anisotropy determined from the S
wave
data
.
Selected Figures
Fracture orientation from shear wave
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Time structure map, top Niobrara, and
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Conclusion
P wave curvature
provides identification of fracture orientation as well as 9-C shear wave data
.
References
Lewis, C., T.L. Davis, and C. Vuillermoz, 1991, Three-dimensional multicomponent imaging of reservoir heterogeneity, Silo Field, Wyoming: Geophysics, v. 56, p. 2048-2056.
Roberts, A., 2001, Curvature attributes and their application to 3D interpreted horizons: First Break, v. 19, p. 85-100.
Wynn, T.J., and S.A. Stewart, 2003, The role of spectral curvature mapping in characterizing subsurface strain distributions, in Fracture and in-situ stress characterization of hydrocarbon reservoirs: Geological Society of London Special Publications 209, p. 127-143.