Relating Depositional Facies to the Seismic AVO Response

Roger A. Young
Houston, TX

Traditionally AVO has been used as a tool for finding anomalies caused by the presence of gas. However the AVO response is also sensitive to the character of the sands. For example AVO can be used to discriminate the following facies: fining or coarsening upward sands, blocky sands, shaley sands and laminated sands.

The discussed AVO approach will reduce the exploration life cycle as well as greatly reduce risk. This presentation will explain and demonstrate the AVO response using models as well as examples. You will also see how to use mapped AVO information to imply such things as thickness, porosity, lithologic contrast, fluid contrast and depositional facies.

It is equally appropriate to apply the discussed AVO approach at the beginning of the exploration cycle to the entire dataset before any interpretation has been done. This analysis can continue to be used through the development stage. This allows the interpreter to use the technology to focus in on key areas as well as picking the optimal well location.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90085 © 2008 GCAGS 58th Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas