Experimental study on parameter determination of fluid replacement equation for volcanic reservoirs

In this study,the parameters of Gassmann equation based on fluid replacement theory are studied by measuring the acoustic velocity during the evaporation process of volcanic rocks in Nanpu area.The experimental data show that with the decrease of porosity of tight volcanic rock,the acoustic velocity difference between dry and wet rock samples increases,which is conducive for the identification of gas bearing reservoirs with acoustic log data.The fluid bulk modulus distribution of volcanic rocks in the study area conforms to Brie model,and the value of empirical coefficient e is related to lithology.The experimental results show that there is a linear relationship between the P-wave transit time of dry and wet rock samples.Using porosity to calculate the acoustic transit time of saturated rock samples,and taking it into the experimental formula,we can get the P-wave transit time and bulk modulus of dry rock samples.According to the bulk modulus of mixed fluid,dry rock and rock matrix determined by experiments,the saturation of volcanic reservoir in Nanpu area is calculated by Gassmann equation,which is in good contrast with the conclusion of gas test.This study provides an experimental basis for quantitative evaluation of volcanic gas reservoirs using seismic and acoustic logging data.

Rock skeleton models and seismic porosity inversion

By substituting rock skeleton modulus expressions into Gassmann approximate fluid equation, we obtain a seismic porosity inversion equation. However, conventional rock skeleton models and their expressions are quite different from each other, resuling in different seismic porosity inversion equations, potentially leading to difficulties in correctly applying them and evaluating their results. In response to this, a uniform relation with two adjusting parameters suitable for all rock skeleton models is established from an analysis and comparison of various conventional rock skeleton models and their expressions including the Eshelby-Walsh, Pride, Geertsma, Nur, Keys-Xu, and Krief models. By giving the two adjusting parameters specific values, different rock skeleton models with specific physical characteristics can be generated. This allows us to select the most appropriate rock skeleton model based on geological and geophysical conditions, and to develop more wise seismic porosity inversion. As an example of using this method for hydrocarbon prediction and fluid identification, we apply this improved porosity inversion, associated with rock physical data and well log data, to the ZJ basin. Research shows that the existence of an abundant hydrocarbon reservoir is dependent on a moderate porosity range, which means we can use the results of seismic porosity inversion to identify oil reservoirs and dry or water-saturated reservoirs. The seismic inversion results are closely correspond to well log porosity curves in the ZJ area, indicating that the uniform relations and inversion methods proposed in this paper are reliable and effective.

Rock critical porosity inversion and S-wave velocity prediction

A critical porosity model is often used to calculate the dry frame elastic modulus by the rock critical porosity value which is affected by many factors. In practice it is hard for us to obtain an accurate critical porosity value and we can generally take only an empirical critical porosity value which often causes errors. In this paper, we propose a method to obtain the rock critical porosity value by inverting P-wave velocity and applying it to predict S-wave velocity. The applications of experiment and log data both show that the critical porosity inversion method can reduce the uncertainty resulting from using an empirical value in the past and provide the accurate critical porosity value for predicting S-wave velocity which significantly improves the prediction accuracy.

Gas reservoir identification by seismic AVO attributes on fluid substitution

Traditionally, fluid substitutions are often conducted on log data for calculating reservoir elastic properties with different pore fluids. Their corresponding seismic responses are computed by seismic forward modeling for direct gas reservoir identification. The workflow provides us with the information about reservoir and seismic but just at the well. For real reservoirs, the reservoir parameters such as porosity, clay content, and thickness vary with location. So the information from traditional fluid substitution just at the well is limited. By assuming a rock physics model linking the elastic properties to porosity and mineralogy, we conducted seismic forward modeling and AVO attributes computation on a three-layer earth model with varying porosity, clay content, and formation thickness. Then we analyzed the relations between AVO attributes at wet reservoirs and those at the same but gas reservoirs. We arrived at their linear relations within the assumption framework used in the forward modeling. Their linear relations make it possible to directly conduct fluid substitution on seismic AVO attributes. Finally, we applied these linear relations for fluid substitution on seismic data and identified gas reservoirs by the cross-plot between the AVO attributes from seismic data and those from seismic data after direct fluid substitution.

Fluid substitution in a shaley sandstone reservoir at seismic scale

Shaley sandstone is heterogeneous at a seismic scale. Gassmann＇s equation is suited for fluid substitution in a homogeneous medium. To study the difference between shaley sandstone effective elastic moduli calculated by mean porosity as a homogeneous medium, and those calculated directly from the sub-volumes of the volume as a heterogeneous medium, computational experiments are conducted on Han＇s shaley sand model, the soft-sand model, the stiff-sand model, and their combination under the assumption that the shaley sandstone volume is made up of separate homogenous sub-volumes with independent porosity and clay content. Fluid substitutions are conducted by Gassmann＇s equation on rock volume and sub-volumes respectively. The computational data show that at seismic scale, there are minor differences between fluid substitution on rock volume and that on sub-volumes using Gassmann＇s equation. But fluid substitution on sub-volumes can take consideration of the effects of low porosity and low permeability sub-volumes, which can get more reasonable data, especially for low porosity reservoirs.

Experimental study of the relationship between fluid density and saturation and sonic wave velocity of rock samples from the WXS Depression,South China Sea

The relationship between fluid density and saturation and sonic wave velocity of rock samples taken from the WXS Depression in the South China Sea was studied by an oil-water replacement experiment under simulated in-situ temperature and pressure conditions.Two kinds of low-density oils（0.691 and 0.749 g/cm^3） and two kinds of high-density oils（0.834 and 0.873 g/cm^3） were used to saturate the rock samples at different oil-saturation states,and the saturated P- and S-wave velocities were measured.Through Gassmann＇s equation,the theoretical P- and S-wave velocities were also calculated by the fluid replacement method.With the comparison of the measured values and the theoretical values, this study comes to the following conclusions.（1） With the increase of oil saturation and the decrease of water saturation,the P-wave velocity of rock samples saturated by low-density oil increases and the changing rule is in accord with the effective fluid theory;the P-wave velocity of rock samples saturated by high-density oil decreases and the changing rule goes against the theory.（2） With the increase of oil density（namely 0.691→0.749→0.834→0.873 g/cm^3） when oil saturation is unchanged,P-wave velocity increases gradually.（3） The S-wave velocity is always stable and is not affected by the change of oil density and saturation.The results can be used to constrain pre-stack seismic inversion,and the variation rule of sonic wave velocity is valuable for hydrocarbon identification in the study area.