Discrete wavelet transform-based multiresolution analysis and spectral enhancement to characterize heavy oil reservoirs in the southern Gulf of Mexico region

Abstract

In Neogene geologic settings, seismic resolution plays an important role in the static characterization of large stratigraphically complex reservoirs. Attenuation of high frequencies due to absorption and scattering of waves propagating through the subsurface contributes to the loss of seismic resolution, resulting, in particular, to a poor delineation of thin beds. This case history comprised the resolution enhancement of seismic data from one petroleum field located in the southern Gulf of Mexico. We applied discrete wavelet transform-based multiresolution analysis to identify frequency components in the data that required spectral enhancement. The resulting enhanced power spectrum contains a higher frequency content, which made it possible to identify new heavy oil (11°–23° API) reservoirs located in thin sandstones of deltaic sedimentary environments. The methodology used here helped us to cope with the attenuation problem.

A method for classifying pre‐stack seismic data based on amplitude–frequency attributes and self‐organizing maps

“…The purpose of using it in the study of pre-stack traces is to analyze the amplitude and the time-frequency distribution of each seismic trace at different scales at the same time, which can be useful to identify stratigraphic patterns (Sinha et al 2005), as well as to enhance seismic data resolution (Rivera-Recillas et al 2005;Camacho-Ramírez, Gonzalez-Flores and Campos-Enriquez 2016;González-Flores et al 2016). The purpose of using it in the study of pre-stack traces is to analyze the amplitude and the time-frequency distribution of each seismic trace at different scales at the same time, which can be useful to identify stratigraphic patterns (Sinha et al 2005), as well as to enhance seismic data resolution (Rivera-Recillas et al 2005;Camacho-Ramírez, Gonzalez-Flores and Campos-Enriquez 2016;González-Flores et al 2016).…”

“…The wavelet transform has been widely used in many different fields of science and engineering in the past decades. The purpose of using it in the study of pre-stack traces is to analyze the amplitude and the time-frequency distribution of each seismic trace at different scales at the same time, which can be useful to identify stratigraphic patterns (Sinha et al 2005), as well as to enhance seismic data resolution (Rivera-Recillas et al 2005;Camacho-Ramírez, Gonzalez-Flores and Campos-Enriquez 2016;González-Flores et al 2016). Analyses using wavelet transforms and SOMs have been proposed, such as the work of de Matos, Osorio and Johann (2006), where two methodologies were applied to detect facies: in the first, SOM networks were used to classify the amplitude of the seismic data, and in the second, SOM networks were used to classify seismic singularities, which were first calculated using the wavelet transform on the seismic data.…”