Analysis of reservoir heterogeneity‐induced amplification effect on time‐lapse seismic responses of fluid substitution: A physical modelling study

• Published in: Geophysical Prospecting 2020-07, Vol.68 (6), p.1906-1926
• Main Authors: He, Yan‐Xiao, Wang, Shangxu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amplification; Anomalies; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulation; Fluids; Geological data; Heterogeneity; Hydrocarbons; Modelling; Nucleotide sequence; Oil; P-waves; Physics; Porous media; Reservoir characterization; Reservoir monitoring; Reservoirs; Rocks; Sandstone; Saturated hydrocarbons; Scattering; Sedimentary rocks; Seismic activity; Seismic effects; Seismic propagation; Seismic response; Seismic waves; Shale; Substitutes; Surveys; Thin films; Time dependence; Wave propagation; Wave scattering
• ISSN: 0016-8025; 1365-2478
• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2478.12950

ABSTRACT Seismic wave propagation through a fluid‐saturated poroelastic layer might be strongly affected by media heterogeneities. Via incorporating controlled laboratory simulation experiments, we extend previous studies of time‐lapse seismic effects to evaluate the wave scattering influence of the heterogeneous nature of porous permeable media and the associated amplification effects on 4D seismic response characteristics of reservoir fluid substitution. A physical model consisted of stratified thin layers of shale and porous sandstone reservoir with rock heterogeneities was built based on the geological data of a real hydrocarbon‐saturated reservoir in Northeast China. Multi‐surveys data of good quality were acquired by filling poroelastic reservoir layers with gas, water and oil in sequence. Experimental observations show that reservoir heterogeneity effect causes significantly magnified abnormal responses to the fluid‐saturated media. Specifically, reflection signatures of the gas‐filled reservoir are dramatically deviated from those of the liquid fluid‐filled reservoir, compared with ones of the homogeneous media. By removing the influences unrelated to reservoir property alterations, 4D seismic estimates of travel‐time and frequency‐dependent characteristic are reasonably consistent with fluid variations. Nevertheless, strong 4D amplitude difference anomalies might not correspond to the regions where fluid variations occur. We also find that 4D seismic difference attributes are evident between oil‐ and water‐filled models, whereas significant between oil‐ and gas‐filled models. Meanwhile, rock physics modelling results reveal the predicted 4D seismic differences are obviously smaller than those calculated from seismic observations. The results in this paper, therefore, implicate that the effect of a reservoir's heterogeneous nature might be beneficial for hydrocarbons detection as well as monitoring small variations in pore fluids.