The economical production of natural gas from conventional and low permeability gas resources requires additional advances in exploration and production technologies. In particular, diagnostic and imaging technologies are needed to assess the effectiveness of new extraction techniques related to drilling, completion, and stimulation. This project will develop three-dimensional, multicomponent seismic data analysis, interpretation, and application techniques for detecting variations in lithology, porosity, pore fluid content (i.e. discriminating oil, water, and gas), and bulk reservoir properties. These techniques will allow better imaging of geologic structure and improved reservoir characterization in structurally complex land areas, enabling the direct detection of natural gas resources by discriminating between oil, water, and gas content. The technology is based on creating angle gathers for both P-wave and S-wave amplitude-versus-angle (AVA) analysis. Unlike traditional amplitude-versus-offset (AVO) gathers, AVA gathers provide a direct assessment for inverting P-wave and S-wave reflectivity for seismic lithology, porosity, and pore fluid content.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The three-dimensional multicomponent seismic data should be much more effective for characterizing and delineating oil reservoirs and for monitoring enhanced-oil-recovery processes, especially in extremely complicated geological conditions such as the deep Rocky Mountain basins. Accurate and higher resolution imaging in these areas should reduce extraction and development costs, and increase both the amount of hydrocarbons recovered and the amount of national oil and gas reserves that can be produced economically
