--> Abstract: Rock Physics and Seismic Modeling Guided Application of 4-D Seismic Attributes to Monitoring Enhanced Oil Recovery CO<SUB>2</SUB>-Flood in a Thin Carbonate Reservoir, Hall Gurney Field, Kansas, U.S.A., by Abdelmoneam E. Raef, Richard D. Miller, Alan Byrnes, and William E. Harrison; #90039 (2005)

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Rock Physics and Seismic Modeling Guided Application of 4-D Seismic Attributes to Monitoring Enhanced Oil Recovery CO2-Flood in a Thin Carbonate Reservoir, Hall Gurney Field, Kansas, U.S.A.

Abdelmoneam E. Raef, Richard D. Miller, Alan Byrnes, and William E. Harrison
Kansas Geological Survey, Lawrence, KS

Use of time-lapse seismic to monitor enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programs in carbonates has seen limited success. This has been due to various non-seismic factors such as the highly heterogeneous nature of carbonates, diagenetic complications of porosity distribution, shallow depth and thinness of many carbonate reservoirs, and low compressibilities that reduce fluid-effect. Other complications related to seismic imaging include resolution limitations, low signal-to-noise ratios, low-fold coverage at shallow depths, near-surface irregularities, and small-field economic constraints.

Following unconventional approaches to survey design, data acquisition, and data processing and interpretation, high-resolution time-lapse/4D seismic surveying effectively imaged movement of miscible CO2 through a thin (about 5 m), shallow (about 900 m), Oomoldic limestone reservoir during a tertiary oil recovery program. Extremely short survey-to-survey temporal separations (two months) between high-resolution time-lapse surveys enabled the evaluation of high-resolution time-lapse seismic sensitivity to changes in pore-fluid composition. Simulations uniquely displaying reservoir heterogeneities using rock physics and seismic attributes clearly depict a well constrained fluid flow scenario that is consistent with production data.

Selected 4D-seismic attribute maps that have undergone weak-anomaly enhancement through color balancing successfully monitored the movement of the injected miscible EOR-CO2 front and illuminated bypassed hydrocarbon areas. Rock physics and seismic modeling aided the understanding of response of seismic attributes to both effective pore-fluid and geometrical time thickness variations in this thin carbonate target.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90039©2005 AAPG Calgary, Alberta, June 16-19, 2005