Abstract
Reflections from a hydrocarbon-saturated zone are generally expected to have a tendency to be
low frequency. Previous work has shown the application of seismic spectral decomposition for
low-frequency shadow detection. In this paper, we further analyse the characteristics of
spectral amplitude in fractured sandstone reservoirs with different fluid saturations using the
Wigner–Ville distribution (WVD)-based method. We give a description of the geometric
structure of cross-terms due to the bilinear nature of WVD and eliminate cross-terms using
smoothed pseudo-WVD (SPWVD) with time- and frequency-independent Gaussian kernels as
smoothing windows. SPWVD is finally applied to seismic data from West Sichuan depression.
We focus our study on the comparison of SPWVD spectral amplitudes resulting from different
fluid contents. It shows that prolific gas reservoirs feature higher peak spectral amplitude at
higher peak frequency, which attenuate faster than low-quality gas reservoirs and dry or wet
reservoirs. This can be regarded as a spectral attenuation signature for future exploration in the
study area.
Amplitude
1
of the multicomponent borehole seismic signals. Moriya
and Niitsuma (1996) used the Choi–Williams distribution 0
(Choi and Williams 1989) with an exponential function as -1
a kernel for precise determination of P-wave arrival times. 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Recently, WVD-based methods were applied to seismic Time/s
spectral decomposition for reservoir characterization. A
Figure 1. A synthetic real signal consisting of three Gaussian
comparison between STFT and continuous wavelet transform
time–frequency atoms with a sampling space of 10 ms.
(CWT) and the WVD-based method (Rauch-Davies and
Ralston 2005, Ralston et al 2007) shows that the WVD-based
method is of superior resolution for seismic field data. A where τ is the time delay variable and x ∗ (t) is the complex
spectral analysis of Rick’s wavelet model by Li and Zheng conjugate of x(t). Equation (1) shows that WVD is regarded
as Fourier transform for τ of x(t + τ /2)x ∗ (t − τ /2), which
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X Wu and T Liu
40 40
Frequency/Hz
Frequency/Hz
30 30
20 20
10 10
0 0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Time/s Time/s
40
× x ∗ (η − τ/2) dη e−j2πf τ dτ (6)
Frequency/Hz
128
Seismic spectral decomposition and analysis based on WVD for sandstone reservoir characterization in West Sichuan depression
1800
40 1750 L150
Frequency/Hz
CX560
30 1700
20 1650
river
X201
Crossline
1600 X2
10
X101
X853
1550 X851
0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
XJ1
Time/s Amplitude
1500 7.00
4.00
1800 1400
3.00
CX565
L150 2.00
1750 1350
1.00
CX560
1300 0.00
1700 1200 1250 1300 1350 1400 1450 1500
Inline
1650 Figure 7. RMS amplitude slice between T51 and T511. Low values
correspond to lake sedimentary facies and high values correspond to
X201 braid river sedimentary facies.
1600 X2
Crossline
X101
X853 average output of about 150 × 104 m3 d−1. It indicates that the
1550 X851
deep Xujiahe formation possesses large exploration potential.
XJ1 Time/s However, subsequently, the dry well L150 and the wet well
CX565 with gas output less than 0.1 × 104 m3 d−1 show that
1500 2.51
2.47
the gas deposits are not large-area distributed. In order to
1450 analyse the distribution and seismic spectral characteristics of
2.43 this type of gas reservoir, SPWVD was performed on this 2D
1400 seismic section using the following parameters. The length of
CX565 2.39 h(τ ) is decided by the time duration of the seismic wavelet.
Figure 9 displays the zero-phase wavelet extracted from the
1350
2.35 traces around well X851. The interval between the two troughs
1300
is about 25 ms. So we use Gaussian windows with lengths of
2.31
1200 1250 1300 1350 1400 1450 1500 25 ms and 50 ms for h(τ ) and g(t). α and β are given the same
Inline values of 14.0 and 4.0 as the synthetic signal.
Figure 6. Time depth of T51 corresponding to the top of the second A set of different isofrequency sections is shown in
member of XuJiahe formation, which reflects the figure 10. For X851 at the section of 20 Hz, there is slightly
paleogeomorphology in the upper Triassic period. high energy cluster at the position of the reservoir. This energy
cluster becomes stronger at 40 Hz and 60 Hz and appears
belts: braid river sedimentary facies and lake sedimentary as frequency shadow, but gradually attenuates at 80 Hz and
facies. The lake sedimentary facies belts consist of shales and 100 Hz. For CX565 and L150, the energy clusters appear at
the braid river sedimentary facies belts are composed of deep the section of 40 Hz rather than 20 Hz; moreover, they only
dense sandstones. We can see the northeastward paleo-rivers last to the section of 60 Hz. For better clarity, we calculate the
dramatically in figure 7. instantaneous spectral amplitude (ISA). Figure 11 displays the
Figure 8 displays a 2D seismic connect—well line frequency gathers of average ISA between T51 and T511.
extracted from the 3D data set. The sampling space is 2 ms It is found that the values of high spectral amplitudes at
and the trace space is 20 m. A long time of deep burial in the X851 are greater than those of CX565 and L150. It has a
Indosinian and Yanshanian periods has made the sandstones of wider energy cluster lasting from 20 Hz to 100 Hz. Note
high density (2.5–2.7 g cm−3) and low acoustic interval transit that the highest spectral amplitudes occurred at CDP 250–
time (50–65 μs m−1). X851 is the first well aimed at this 350. There is still an energy cluster at the 100 Hz section in
type of deep tight sandstone reservoir with an accidental high figure 10(e). It is possibly due to the significant impedance
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X Wu and T Liu
-2.2
Amplitude
Time/s
8.0
T51 4.0
-2.4
0.0
T511
-4.0
-8.0
Figure 8. Stack section across the three wells CX565, X851 and L150 from 3D seismic data with density well-log (drawn with red colour)
on the left and acoustic well-log (drawn with blue colour) on the right. The target reservoir is between horizon T51 and T511.
Table 1. Attribute parameters of the nine frequency-average ISA curves in figure 12.
Well ID X851 X853 X2 X201 L150 CX560 CX565 X101 XJ1
Fluid types Prolific gas Gas Prolific gas Prolific gas Dry Wet Wet Wet Wet
-2.2
Amplitude
700.0
Time/s
600.0
500.0
-2.4 400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
-2.2
Amplitude
700.0
Time/s
600.0
500.0
-2.4 400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
-2.6 0.0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
CDP number
(b) 40Hz
-2.2
Amplitude
Time/s
700.0
600.0
500.0
-2.4 400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
-2.6 0.0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
CDP number
(c) 60Hz
Figure 10. A set of isofrequency sections at 20 Hz, 40 Hz, 60 Hz, 80 Hz and 100 Hz for the seismic section in figure 8 with SPWVD.
at X101. X201 and X2 are also located at positions of high (a) The first class: high amplitudes at low frequencies and
energy cluster which last to the slice of 80 Hz with some low amplitudes at high frequencies. Attribute to that
attenuation. As shown in figure 13, we divide the spectral attenuation is strongly affected by the porous-medium
amplitude into three classes. properties and fluid saturation (Hauge 1981, Sams et al
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X Wu and T Liu
-2.2
Amplitude
Time/s
700.0
600.0
500.0
-2.4 400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
-2.2
Amplitude
Time/s
700.0
600.0
500.0
-2.4 400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
-2.6 0.0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
CDP number
(e) 100Hz
100 1050
850
80
f/Hz
650
60
450
40
250
20
50
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
CDP number
Figure 11. Frequency gathers of average ISA between T51 and T511; black lines indicate the locations of wells. The x-axis represents the
CDP direction and the y-axis is the frequency ranging from 2 to 120 Hz.
1997, Goloshubin and Korneev 2000); reservoirs may (b) The second class: high amplitudes in almost all
be located at a place where there are high amplitudes at bandwidths. This class is possibly due to the high
low frequencies and low amplitudes at high frequencies; impedance difference between shales and super-tight
furthermore, higher amplitudes at low frequencies imply sandstones with no fractures, such as the area above
prolific gas deposits, while not so high amplitudes may be X2 (including CDP 250–350 in figure 11) as shown in
related to low-quality gas or wet zones. figure 13.
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Seismic spectral decomposition and analysis based on WVD for sandstone reservoir characterization in West Sichuan depression
Amplitude Amplitude
Amplitude
800 800 X101:Wet
CX560:Wet 800
600 XJ1:Wet
600 600
400 400
400
200 200
200
0 0
0
0 40 80 120 0 40 80 120
0 40 80 120
f /Hz f /Hz f /Hz
Figure 12. Frequency-average ISA curves of the nine wells between T51 and T511.
CX560 CX560
1700 1700
1650 1650
X201 X201
Crossline
Crossline
1600 X2 1600 X2
X101 X101
X853 X853
1550 X851 1550 X851
XJ1 XJ1
1500 1500
1300 1300
100 100
1300 1300
1200 1250 1300 1350 1400 1450 1500 1200 1250 1300 1350 1400 1450 1500
Inline Inline
Figure 13. Average ISA slices between T51 and T511 at 40 Hz and 80 Hz by SPWVD.
(c) The third class: low amplitudes in almost all bandwidths. bilinear nature of WVD. SPWVD is not just a mathematical
This class is related to shales belonging to lake method. It has an explicit physical sense, which represents
sedimentary facies. the energy density distribution in the time–frequency plane.
The case study of super-tight sandstone reservoirs indicates
Conclusions that SPWVD can be used to perform spectral decomposition
for frequency shadow detection. SPWVD spectra are different
We have given a detailed description of using Gaussian kernel between prolific gas reservoirs and low-quality gas, dry or wet
functions to smooth away cross-term interference due to the reservoirs. Prolific gas reservoirs feature higher peak spectral
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X Wu and T Liu
amplitude at higher peak frequency, which attenuates faster Goloshubin G M, Korneev V A and Vingalov V M 2002 Seismic
than low-quality gas reservoirs and dry or wet reservoirs. low-frequency effects from oil-saturated reservoir zones 72nd
Ann. Meeting, SEG Expanded Abstracts pp 1813–7
This can be regarded as a spectral attenuation signature for
Goloshubin G M, Schuyver Van C, Korneev V, Silin D and
further exploration in the study area. However, we still need Vingalov V 2006 Reservoir imaging using low frequencies of
to pay attention to the strong spectral amplitude due to the seismic reflections Leading Edge 25 527–31
significant impedance difference between shales and super- Hauge P S 1981 Measurements of attenuation from vertical seismic
tight sandstone with no fractures. It is the interference with profiles Geophysics 46 1548–58
Korneev V A, Goloshubin G M, Daley T M and Silin D B 2004
the high spectral amplitude due to high-quality gas reservoirs.
Seismic low frequency effects in monitoring fluid-saturated
A further study should be aimed at the evidence from rock reservoirs Geophysics 69 522–32
physics modelling according to the physical parameter of the Li Y and Zheng X 2008 Spectral decomposition using Wigner–Ville
study area. distribution with applications to carbonate reservoir
characterization Leading Edge 28 1050–7
Liu E, Chapman M, Loizou N and Li X 2006 Applications of
Acknowledgments spectral decomposition for AVO analyses in the west of
Shetland 76th Ann. Meeting; SEG Expanded Abstracts
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