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.

A method for gravity anomaly separation based on preferential continuation and its application

Based on the preferential continuation method proposed by Pawlowski （1995）, we propose a method and procedure for gravity anomaly separation with the preferential upward continuation operator in the case that the various sources are uncorrelated with one another and the continuation height is enough large. We also present a method for estimating optimum upward-continuation height, based on analyzing the characteristics of the preferential upward continuation operators of a synthesized gravity anomaly varying with different continuation heights. The method is tested on the raw Bouguer gravity data over an iron deposit. The result shows that the method separates the data into regional anomaly and residual anomaly efficiently and clearly.

Numerical simulation of the dual laterolog for carbonate cave reservoirs and response characteristics

Cave carbonate formations are characterized by heterogeneity, which makes electrical log prediction difficult. It is currently important to know how to use the dual laterolog to accurately identify and quantitatively evaluate caves. Using numerical simulation to calculate electrical log responses can provide a theoretical basis for cave identification and evaluation. In this paper, based on the dual laterolog principles, we first study different size spherical cave models using the finite element method （FEM）, determine a relation between resistivity and cave filling after comprehensively studying the log responses of cave models with different filling material, and finally study the dual laterolog responses on caves filled with shale, limestone, conglomerate, and thin laminated formation of sand and shale. The numerical results provide a theoretical basis for identification and evaluation of carbonate cave reservoirs.

Forward modeling and inversion of tensor CSAMT in 3D anisotropic media

Tensor controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotellurics （CSAMT） can yield information about electric and magnetic fields owing to its multi-transmitter configuration compared with the common scalar CSAMT. The most current theories, numerical simulations, and inversion of tensor CSAMT are based on far-field measurements and the assumption that underground media have isotropic resistivity. We adopt a three-dimensional （3D） staggered-grid finite difference numerical simulation method to analyze the resistivity in axial anisotropic and isotropic media. We further adopt the limited-memory Broyden- Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno （LBFGS） method to perform 3D tensor CSAMT axial anisotropic inversion. The inversion results suggest that when the underground structure is anisotropic, the isotropic inversion will introduce errors to the interpretation.

Three-dimensional conjugate gradient inversion of magnetotelluric full information data

Based on the analysis of impedance tensor data, tipper data, and the conjugate gradient algorithm, we develop a three-dimensional （3D） conjugate gradient algorithm for inverting magnetotelluric full information data determined from five electric and magnetic field components and discuss the method to use the full information data for quantitative interpretation of 3D inversion results. Results from the 3D inversion of synthetic data indicate that the results from inverting full information data which combine the impedance tensor and tipper data are better than results from inverting only the impedance tensor data （or tipper data） in improving resolution and reliability. The synthetic examples also demonstrate the validity and stability of this 3D inversion algorithm.

Three-dimensional forward modeling and inversion of borehole-to-surface electrical imaging with different power sources

Borehole-to-surface electrical imaging （BSEI） uses a line source and a point source to generate a stable electric field in the ground. In order to study the surface potential of anomalies, three-dimensional forward modeling of point and line sources was conducted by using the finite-difference method and the incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradient （ICCG） method. Then, the damping least square method was used in the 3D inversion of the formation resistivity data. Several geological models were considered in the forward modeling and inversion. The forward modeling results suggest that the potentials generated by the two sources have different surface signatures. The inversion data suggest that the low- resistivity anomaly is outlined better than the high-resistivity anomaly. Moreover, when the point source is under the anomaly, the resistivity anomaly boundaries are better outlined than when using a line source.

2D joint inversion of CSAMT and magnetic data based on cross-gradient theory

A two-dimensional forward and backward algorithm for the controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric （CSAMT） method is developed to invert data in the entire region （near, transition, and far） and deal with the effects of artificial sources. First, a regularization factor is introduced in the 2D magnetic inversion, and the magnetic susceptibility is updated in logarithmic form so that the inversion magnetic susceptibility is always positive. Second, the joint inversion of the CSAMT and magnetic methods is completed with the introduction of the cross gradient. By searching for the weight of the cross-gradient term in the objective function, the mutual influence between two different physical properties at different locations are avoided. Model tests show that the joint inversion based on cross-gradient theory offers better results than the single-method inversion. The 2D forward and inverse algorithm for CSAMT with source can effectively deal with artificial sources and ensures the reliability of the final joint inversion algorithm.