First Case Study for Litho-Petro-Elastic AVA Pre-Stack Inversion for Complex Tight Reservoirs Miocene – Upper Cretaceous in East Onshore Abu Dhabi

Abstract

This study summarizes the efforts taken to provide reliable reservoir characterizations products to mitigate seismic interpretation challenges and delineation of the reservoirs. ADNOC has conducted seismic exploration activities to assess Miocene to Upper Cretaceous aged reservoirs in East Onshore Abu Dhabi. The Oligo-Miocene section comprises of interbedded salt (mainly halite), anhydrite, limestones and marls. Deposited in the foreland basin related to the Oman thrust-belt. Ranging in thickness from nearly 1.5 km in the depocenter to almost nil on the forebulge located to the west of the studied area. The well data based geological model suggests that initially porous rocks (presumably grain-supported carbonates) encompassed polyphase sulfate cementation during recurrent subaerial exposure in which pores and grains were recrystallized sometimes completely too massive, tight anhydrite beds. This heterogeneity of the complex shallow section showing high variation of velocity impact seismic imaging, and interpretation to model the stratigraphic/structural framework and link it with reservoir characterization. Hence, ADNOC decided to conduct a trial on state-of-art technique Litho-Petro-Elastic (LPE) AVA Inversion to mitigate the seismic interpretation challenges and delineate the reservoirs. The LPE AVA inversion provides a single-loop approach to reservoir characterization based on rock physics models and compaction trends, reducing the dependency on a detailed prior the low frequency model, Where the rock modelling and lithology classification are not separate steps but interact directly with the seismic AVO inversion for optimal estimates of lithologies and elastic properties. The LPE inversion scope requires seismic data conditioning such as CMP gathers de-noising, de-multiple, flattening and amplitude preservation, in addition to detailed log conditioning, petro-elastic and rock physics analysis to maximize the quality and value of the results. The study proved that the LPE AVA Inversion can be used to guide seismic interpreters in mapping the structural framework in challenging seismic data, as it managed to improve the prospect evaluation.