Application of Structural Seismic
Attributes
for “Polygonal Faults” Interpretation in Unconventional Carbonate Reservoir
Abstract
Seismic attributes
are specific functions derived from seismic data, to enhance the appearance of different geologic features along the main seismic reflectors in both cross-section and map views. In this work we applied volume seismic
attributes
in order to enhance the appearance of the polygonal faults located at the Abu El-Gharadig basin, North of Western Desert, Egypt. The main objective is to illuminate the small or sub-seismic faults to determine its implication on the unconventional carbonate reservoir, of the Middle Eocene Apollonia Formation. The workflow started by the application of the structural
smoothing
attribute on a 3D post-stack, depth migrated seismic volume, in order to highlight the discontinuities of the seismic reflectors along the seismic sections. This is followed by the calculation of two main
attributes
, seismic coherence and curvature
attributes
. The most positive and most negative curvature
attributes
allowed us to identify small faults that are below seismic resolution. We found that the curvature
attributes
delineate faults distribution in our area of study better than other
attributes
. The presence of these faults had been verified by the geosteering technique applied during the drilling of one of the horizontal wells in the field. As a result, this study can potentially enhance the quality interpretation of seismic data and better identification of the major and minor faults that have an important implication on the fluid flow characterization of the reservoir.
AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90355 © 2019 AAPG Africa Region, The Eastern Mediterranean Mega-Basin: New Data, New Ideas and New Opportunities, Alexandra, Egypt, September 6-7, 2019