Seismic reprocessing and interpretation of a shallow “buried-hill” play: Texas Panhandle

Abstract

The Panhandle-Hugoton field, Texas is a giant oil field and the largest conventional gas field in North America, with estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of 1400 million barrel of oil and 75 trillion cubic feet of gas. The majority of hydrocarbon production in this field comes from the Amarillo uplift area, where the basement is most shallow. Although the field has been extensively produced, local hydrocarbon accumulations have not been fully exploited. Recent drilling activity indicates that some wells produce directly from basement fracture, suggesting a new play type for the area. Because the basement is shallow (∼2500 ft deep), seismic data are heavily contaminated by noise, such as ground roll and head wave, creating challenges for seismic processing. To improve seismic interpretation, I carefully reprocess the field gathers through trace editing, velocity analysis, linear noise suppression, prestack time migration, and well tie. I evaluate the efficacy of my workflow using seismic attributes, inversion products, and AVAz analysis. I find strong anisotropy and low impedance about the well producing from basement fractures.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90221 © 2015 Mid-Continent Section, Tulsa, Oklahoma, October 4-6, 2015