Frequency–amplitude range of hydrocarbon microtremors and a discussion on their source

Abstract

Recently, some studies have suggested using ambient noise as a tool for hydrocarbon reservoir investigation. This new passive seismic technique, named HyMas, is based on the positive energy anomaly in data spectra between 1 to 6 Hz for microtremor measurements over reservoirs, which are called hydrocarbon microtremors. Despite the acceptable results obtained by the HyMas technique, there are many unknowns, especially concerning the source and generation mechanism of hydrocarbon microtremors and the relations between reservoir characteristics and the attributes of hydrocarbon microtremors. In this study we tried to find the relations between reservoir characteristics, including fluid content and depth, for 12 sites around the world with hydrocarbon microtremor attributes, including peak amplitude and frequency. Based on the power spectral density curves of these 12 reservoirs, a frequency-amplitude range is also proposed as a criterion for separating hydrocarbon microtremors from local noise not related to reservoirs. Finally, the source of the hydrocarbon microtremors is discussed and tidal displacement is suggested as a probable agent for the generation of these anomalies.

Microtremor Analysis in Seismic Reflection Data for Identification of Oil and Gas Reservoirs

“…In other words, Vedernikov method uses long offsets and early times (e.g. Vedernikov 2006;2012;2013;Vedernikov and Hogoev 2006;. An example of the method application is illustrated in Figure 4.…”

“…The discovery of this kind of hydrocarbon (HC) microtremors has led to the development of passive microseismic technologies for seismic exploration (e.g. Arutyunov et al 1998;Dangel et al 2003;Birialtsev et al, 2006;Holzner et al 2005;Hanssen and Bussat 2008;Lambert et al 2009;Saenger et al 2009;Katebi et al 2011;Gerivani et al 2012). The MS response of oil and gas reservoirs from different oil/gas fields in the world has the same characteristics of frequency range and spectrum shape.…”