Patent Application
20090279387
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of passive seismic methods for direct detection of hydrocarbon reservoirs. More specifically, the invention relates to methods for passive seismic detection of hydrocarbons performed in a body of water.
2. Background Art
Passive seismic techniques known in the art are described, for example, in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0060099 filed by Sorrells et al. Passive seismic techniques include placing one or more seismic sensors above a volume of the Earth's subsurface that is to be evaluated, and recording signals generated by the sensor(s) in response to natural seismic energy emanating from the subsurface. No controlled or active source is used. Other passive seismic methods and uses for such methods are described, for example, in: U.S. Pat. No. 6,462,549 issued to Curtis et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,104 issued to Sorrells et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,361 issued to Geiser; U.S. Pat. No. 6,947,843 issued to Fisher et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,508 issued to Deflandre; U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,726 issued to Sorrells et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,110 issued to Helms; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,419 issued to Uhl et al.
What is known in the art as “hydrocarbon microtremor analysis” is a passive seismic method that detects ambient energy propagating through the Earth for the direct detection of subsurface hydrocarbon bearing rock formations. Many apparently successful case studies from land surveys around the world indicate a unique physical phenomenon being involved in such analysis and detection. Background acoustic energy within the Earth of oceanic origin (in a frequency range of about 0.1-0.35 Hz) is polarized within or around a hydrocarbon-saturated subsurface rock formation into vertically-propagating energy with a frequency range of about 1-7 Hz. Such energy can be detected by sensitive, three-component particle motion sensors such as geophones placed at or near the Earth's surface. Geophones placed directly above a hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir have been known to successfully identify a frequency anomaly in the naturally occurring seismic energy in a range of about 2.0-3.5 Hz. The foregoing spectral anomaly has not been observed anywhere other than above hydrocarbon bearing subsurface formations.
It is believed that resonances excited in the pore spaces of certain porous rock formations can only exist when the pore spaces include at least some hydrocarbon therein. Any ability to establish reservoir saturation (the fractional volume of the pore space actually occupied by hydrocarbon) or the thickness of such reservoirs using passive seismic techniques remain unsubstantiated. Methods known in the art at the time of the present invention fundamentally are a binary discriminator, in that they identify whether or not a hydrocarbon bearing rock formation is present in the subsurface at any particular geodetic location
Microtremors are continuous, low-amplitude ambient ground vibrations that propagate along the surface of the earth (unlike earthquakes, or other medium-to-high-amplitude transient seismic waves such as those associated with deliberately induced seismic sources used in controlled source seismic surveys). The spectral characteristics of microtremors can vary with time and geodetic location, but they may be considered essentially constant for short durations (on the order of a few minutes) and relatively small changes in geodetic position.
The mode of microtremor energy propagation (e.g. body waves as contrasted with surface waves) can also vary with geodetic location and with the frequency content of the energy, although it is believed that most microtremor energy propagates as surface waves. As a broad generalization, the origins of microtremors with frequencies less than 1 Hz are from natural phenomena such as wind noise, ocean wave action on coastlines and atmospheric variation, while microtremor energy greater than 1 Hz typically originates from man-made sources such as road traffic, trains, factory machines, etc.
Microtremor analysis methods known in the art use surface-wave dispersion to determine shear velocity of subsurface formations and layer thickness information for formations typically disposed at depths in the subsurface of less than about 100 meters. Analysis of spectral attributes of energy detected by three-component geophones is claimed to show characteristic spectral anomalies in the low-frequency range of 1-7 Hz for certain types of subsurface rock formations. Based on certain physical phenomena, background energy within the earth of oceanic origin (in the range of about 0.1-0.35 Hz) is transformed into vertically-propagating energy in a range of about 1-7 Hz. The most common attribute used to determine the existence of spectral anomalies is the ratio between the amplitude spectra (peak value) of the vertical and horizontal ground motion (V/H ratio), which weakly increases from a background range of about 1.0 to 1.2, to about 1.5 over hydrocarbon reservoirs. As such, the method is claimed to have the ubiquitous ability to reduce exploration risk, identify reservoir locations by fast-screening of relatively unexplored areas, to avoid dry wells, and to overcome surface or geological barriers to conventional controlled source seismic and electromagnetic survey methods. The foregoing techniques have been published in case examples and suggest a high success rate for more than 20 surveys conducted around the world since 2003 (almost all on land).
As explained above, the existence of a very low frequency (0.1-0.35 Hz), long wavelength ambient acoustic energy in the Earth has been established in scientific literature, and is generally attributed to oceanic wave activity along the coast of each land mass. Such long wavelength acoustic energy can propagate hundreds or thousands of kilometers within the Earth's crust. Three mechanisms believed to be related to the observed direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs) in the background noise of the Earth are proposed in Graf, R., Schmalholz, S. M., Podladchikov, Y., and Saenger, E. H., 2007, Passive low frequency spectral analysis: Exploring a new field in geophysics, World Oil 228, 47-52. Information published on the Internet, by Spectraseis AG, Giessereistrasse 5, 8005 Zurich, Switzerland at the URL http://www.spectraseis.com condensed this story to two primary candidates, resonant amplification and resonant scattering. Briefly, the two mechanisms may be described as follows.
1) Resonant amplification: An anomaly exists with a narrow frequency range, and the signal power is proportional to the hydrocarbon-bearing layer thickness of the reservoir. A peak is observed in the V/H ratio, that is, energy is polarized more into the vertical direction. Field data and modeling results suggest that microtremor signals originate from within the reservoir itself, which acts as a secondary source to the primary background source of the ambient noise field within the earth. There is also a theoretical argument that coupling between the reservoir rock and the pore fluid creates a characteristic resonance frequency within the pore space.
2) Resonant scattering: A less well-defined anomaly exists, but occurs on a macro-scale, where characteristic maxima are generated by reflections both between the reservoir and the surface and within the reservoir. The reflections result from complex impedance contrast due to the reservoir. Such scattering can be related to standing wave resonance. When seismic waves propagate from one medium to another medium with different complex impedances (e.g. a sharp change in the value of the quality factor), a part of the seismic waves is reflected. The phenomenon can possibly be explained by reflections generated when waves propagate from an elastic medium to a porous, elastic medium.
Spectraseis publications have loosely referred to “patchy saturation” models as part of the model for how the seismic anomaly is generated, but this 3D concept is only considered in the ID context in sponsored research by Quintal et al. See, Quintal, B., Schmalholz, S. M., Podladchikov, Y., and Carcione, J. M., 2007, Seismic low-frequency anomalies in multiple reflections from thinly-layered poroelastic reservoirs, SEG Abstracts, 1690-1694.
Frehner et al. (2007) describes that a non-wetting fluid entrapped in a pore can oscillate with a characteristic eigenfrequency (energy has been polarized into one dominant direction, and carries a characteristic peak frequency value in its amplitude spectrum). The elastic wave generated in the Earth by ocean waves initiates oscillations of the fluid drops in porous subsurface formations. The oscillatory energy of the pore fluid is transferred continuously to the rock matrix. As a result, seismic waves in the elastic rock carry a second frequency, the eigenfrequency of the pore fluid oscillations, on top of the applied external frequency. See, Frehner, M., Schmalholz, S. M., and Podladchikov, Y., 2007, Interaction of seismic background noise with oscillating pore fluids causes spectral modifications of passive seismic measurements at low frequencies, SEG Expanded Abstracts, 1307-1311.
Lambert et al. (2007) also use numerical simulations to suggest that the resonant amplification model is the mechanism behind observed changes in the spectral V/H ratio of ground motion. See, Lambert, M., Schmalholz, S. M., Saenger, E. H., and Podladchikov, Y., 2007, Low-frequency anomalies in spectral ratios of single station microtremor measurements: Observations across an oil and gas field in Austria, SEG Expanded Abstracts, 1352-1356.
Time reverse modeling of field data acquired by Spectraseis in Austria, backed by synthetic modeling and processing, suggests that passively-recorded microtremors over a reservoir can be used to isolate the reservoir body as a discrete energy source. This supports the inference that a fundamental acoustic phenomenon occurs within the reservoir. As noted above, Spectraseis interprets these modeling results as a supportive of the resonant amplification models. See, Steiner, B., Saenger, E. H., and Schmalholz, S. M., 2007, Time reverse modeling of microtremors: A potential methodfor hydrocarbon reservoir localization, SEG Expanded Abstracts, 2115-2119.
Quintal et al. (2007) instead address the resonant scattering model using numerical ID modeling. It is demonstrated in the Quintal et al. publication that poroelastic models must be used instead of elastic models when investigating the low-frequency attenuation and velocity scattering claimed by Spectraseis. The physical model proposed is wave-induced viscous (dissipative) fluid flow, generated by fluid pressure differences in heterogeneous, saturated poroelastic materials. Implicit in the discussion is the high values of attenuation associated with hydrocarbon-filled reservoirs, thus providing a discrimination foundation for the identification of oil vs. water. The choice of poroelastic parameterization and layer thickness (the reservoir is considered as a stack of thin layers) can change the computed impedance contrast of the reservoir against the background from 0.6% to 8%.
Irrespective of the particular mechanism by which the observed seismic anomaly is generated over hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs, tests of a DHI technique to date have all used stationary receivers, disposed on the land surface or on the bottom of a body of water. There exists a need to extend DHI techniques to be usable with towed marine acquisition systems.
A method according to one aspect of the invention is for detection of hydrocarbon bearing formations below the bottom of a body of water from seismic signals acquired by moving a plurality of spatially distributed seismic sensors in a body of water. The signals include response to any seismic energy having frequencies down to proximate zero. The method includes stacking the acquired seismic signals from the plurality of the sensors in both longitudinal and transverse directions with respect to motion of the sensors in the body of water. The stacked signals are analyzed for presence of passive seismic energy indicative of hydrocarbon bearing formations below the bottom of the body of water.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.
An example marine seismic data acquisition system that can be used in various examples of a method according to the invention is shown schematically in
The seismic sensors 22 are typically disposed at selected longitudinal positions along each of a plurality of streamer cables 20 or “streamers.” The streamers 20 are towed by the survey vessel 10, and are maintained in relative lateral position with respect to each other and with respect to the vessel center line by certain towing devices. Such towing devices may include paravanes 16 coupled to the vessel 10 by “superwide” ropes 16A, lead in cables terminated at the forward end of each streamer 20 by a lead in coupling 18, and spreader cables 17 to maintain the relative lateral position of the streamers 20. Motion stability of the streamers 20 in the water 11 and acquisition of certain types of data, e.g., geodetic position, may be performed by certain equipment in a tail buoy 24 affixed to the distal end of each streamer 20. The precise configuration of the acquisition system, for example, the number of and length of the streamers 20, the types and numbers of sensors, and the towing equipment configuration described herein is only one example, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The seismic sensors 22 may be pressure or pressure gradient responsive sensors such as hydrophones. The sensors 22 may also include both pressure responsive sensors and particle motion responsive sensors such as geophones or accelerometers. One example of a streamer including a combination of both pressure responsive sensors and motion responsive sensors is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,239,577 issued to Tenghamn et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
The system shown in
As explained above in the Background section herein, it is believed that background acoustic energy exists within the Earth, is of oceanic origin and is within a frequency range of about 0.1 to 0.35 Hz. In marine seismic acquisition systems such as shown in
The above described background acoustic energy, generally in the frequency range of 0.1 to 0.35 Hz, is believed to be polarized into vertically-propagating acoustic energy in a frequency range of about 1 to 7 Hz within hydrocarbon bearing subsurface rock formations. For land-based seismic surveys or for water bottom based seismic surveys, where three-component particle motion sensors can be used, the most common attribute determined from passive seismic energy measurements is the ratio between the amplitude spectra (peak value) of the vertical and horizontal ground (or water bottom) motion (“V/H ratio”), which may increase from a background value of about 1.0 to 1.2, to about 1.5 above hydrocarbon bearing rock formations. Such response is shown in the graphs of
Referring once again to
In conventional seismic acquisition, analog or other forms of signal filtering are applied to the signals generated by the seismic sensors 22 to exclude sensor response below a predetermined lower frequency, as explained above with reference to
If the sensors 22 include pressure responsive and motion responsive devices, such as described in the Tenghamn et al. '577 patent referred to above, some factors may be considered in data acquisition and processing according to the invention that are different from those relevant to active source seismic acquisition. When “dual sensor” streamers, such as disclosed in the Tenghamn et al. '577 patent, are used in active source seismic acquisition, typical acquisition and processing includes filtering the particle motion sensor signals at lower frequencies (for example, below about 20 Hz) because of substantial noise at such lower frequencies. In performing passive seismic recording as explained above, the seismic signals are evaluated typically at frequencies of 6 Hz and below for amplitude variation in such frequency range. The signals from the motion sensors can then be filtered, for example, to exclude all signal components that do not propagate in a vertical direction (i.e. from the subsurface reservoir), to reduce the noise. Further, in a typical 3D acquisition system, the area covered by the data acquisition system is large enough so as to avoid spatial aliasing, which will make additional filtering methods (e.g., f-k filtering) usable. By using additional filtering of the particle motion signals, the noise in the particle motion sensor signal is substantially attenuated.
In the event there is excessive noise in the particle motion sensor signals in particular implementations of the invention, the invention may be performed using only signals from the pressure responsive sensors. It may then be advantageous to tow the streamers at greater depth below the water surface to provide lower attenuation as a result of signal reflection from the water surface (the surface “ghost”).
After recording and stacking as explained above, the stacked signals may be processed to further attenuate noise resulting from acoustic energy traveling across the water. Such processing may include, for example, frequency-wavenumber (f-k) filtering. The signals may then be transformed into the frequency domain, for example, using a discrete or fast Fourier transform. Signal amplitude in the range of about 0 to 10 Hz may be determined for the processed signals. Where signal amplitude in, for example, the frequency range of about 2 to 6 Hz exceeds a selected threshold, it may be inferred that the geodetic position of the sensors corresponding to such indication is above a hydrocarbon bearing subsurface formation.
The invention may provide a method for direct detection of subsurface hydrocarbon bearing formations using conventional marine seismic survey systems. The invention may be performed contemporaneously with acquisition of conventional marine seismic signals, at essentially no additional cost.
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.
