The petrophysical properties characteristic of the sands prone to shallow water flow (SWF) make them identifiable due to their abnormally high Vp/Vs ratios compared to the adjacent rocks. The Vp/Vs inversion procedure identifies anomalies that could be related to SWF sands and it is based on seismic inversion of multicomponent seismic data. The new approach for estimating the Vp/Vs ratio from multicomponent seismic data was evaluated on synthetic logs where the estimated Vp/Vs ratios matched very well the real values. For real ocean bottom cable data (OBC) from GOM, the Vp/Vs inversion procedure was used to estimate Vp/Vs sections that showed clear anomalies that could be related to sand bodies responsible for SWF. These sections are useful for identifying high Vp/Vs ratio zones and could be used to plan a drilling program to prevent SWF during perforation. Preliminary analyses indicate that the methodology has the potential of being a direct hydrocarbon indicator (DHI) as well.
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