The Value of Legacy 3D Seismic Data: An Evaluation of the Mississippi Lime Potential in Kay County, Oklahoma Using New Processing Technology and Attributes to Define Bypassed Pay in a Mature Field

Daniel B. Trumbo

With the recent increase in drilling activity in the Mississippi Lime formation in north-central Oklahoma and south-central Kansas, many operators are looking for ways to best develop this once dormant play. Acreage positions are competive and production results from new wells are held tightly. In order to better understand the play and maximize the results from developing the Mississippi Lime in a horizontal fashion, I reexamine a legacy survey from Kay Co., OK that includes over 200 Mississippi Lime wells. Working with colleagues, the seismic data have been reprocessed and run through prestack seismic inversion. I correlate these inversion products and seismic attributes such as coherence, curvature, and textures to the well control with the objective not only of lithology, but with completion strategies included, of generating a statistical correlation with oil, gas, and water production. Because of the diagenetic alteration of the top of the Mississippi Lime, conventional time structure maps of the top Mississippi Lime are difficult to generate. Rather I use more modern stratal slicing and volumetric visualization tools to better identify tripolite sweet spots. In addition to identifying potential bypassed pay in the survey area, this study can serve as a template to identify similar lithologies in less drilled Kay County acreage.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90176©AAPG Mid-Continent Meeting, Wichita, Kansas, October 12-15, 2013