Fracture
Orientation from P Wave Seismic Data Using Volumetric Curvature,
Blumentritt, Charles H.1,
Kurtt J. Marfurt2, Michael Murphy3
(1) Geo-Texture Technologies, Houtson, TX (2)
University of Houston, Houston, (3) University of Houston, Houston, TX
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.
AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California