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Seismic rock physical modelling for gas hydrate-bearing sediments

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Abstract

There are ambiguities and uncertainties in the recognition of gas hydrate seismic reflections and in quantitative predictions of physical information of natural gas hydrate reservoirs from seismic data. Rock physical modelling is a bridge that transforms the seismic information of geophysical observations into physical information, but traditional rock physics models lack descriptions of reservoir microstructures and pore-filling materials. Considering the mineral compositions and pore microstructures of gas hydrates, we built rock physical models for load-bearing and pore-filling gas hydrate-bearing sediments, describe the mineral compositions, pore connectivity and pore shape using effective media theory, calculated the shear properties of pore-filling gas hydrates using Patchy saturation theory and Generalized Gassmann theory, and then revealed the quantitative relation between the elastic parameters and physical parameters for gas hydrate-bearing sediments. The numerical modelling results have shown that the ratios of P-wave and S-wave velocities decrease with hydrate saturation, the P-wave and S-wave velocities of load-bearing gas hydrate-bearing sediments are more sensitive to hydrate saturation, sensitivity is higher with narrower pores, and the ratios of the P-wave and S-wave velocities of pore-filling gas hydrate-bearing sediments are more sensitive to shear properties of hydrates at higher hydrate saturations. Theoretical analysis and practical application results showed that the rock physical models in this paper can be used to calculate the quantitative relation between macro elastic properties and micro physical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments, offer shear velocity information lacking in well logging, determine elastic parameters that have more effective indicating abilities, obtain physical parameters such as hydrate saturation and pore aspect ratios, and provide a theoretical basis and practical guidance for gas hydrate quantitative predictions.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41706042), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2015M582060), the Special Fund for Land & Resources Scientific Research in the Public Interest (Grant No. 201511037), the National Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2017YFC0307400) and the Foundation of Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences (Grant No. KLSG1603).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Gas Hydrate, Ministry of Land and Resources, Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Xinxin Liu & Xiwu Luan

  2. Laboratory for Marine Mineral Resources, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Xinxin Liu, Xingyao Yin & Xiwu Luan

  3. School of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China

    Xingyao Yin

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Liu, X., Yin, X. & Luan, X. Seismic rock physical modelling for gas hydrate-bearing sediments. Sci. China Earth Sci. 61, 1261–1278 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-017-9214-2

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