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A Hybrid Seismic Inversion Method for VP/VS Ratio and Its Application to Gas Identification

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Abstract

The ratio of compressional wave velocity to shear wave velocity (VP/VS ratio) has established itself as one of the most important parameters in identifying gas reservoirs. However, considering that seismic inversion process is highly non-linear and geological conditions encountered may be complex, a direct estimation of VP/VS ratio from pre-stack seismic data remains a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a hybrid seismic inversion method to estimate VP/VS ratio directly. In this method, post- and pre-stack inversions are combined in which the pre-stack inversion for VP/VS ratio is driven by the post-stack inversion results (i.e., VP and density). In particular, the VP/VS ratio is considered as a model parameter and is directly inverted from the pre-stack inversion based on the exact Zoeppritz equation. Moreover, anisotropic Markov random field is employed in order to regularise the inversion process as well as taking care of geological structures (boundaries) information. Aided by the proposed hybrid inversion strategy, the directional weighting coefficients incorporated in the anisotropic Markov random field neighbourhoods are quantitatively calculated by the anisotropic diffusion method. The synthetic test demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed inversion method. In particular, given low quality of the pre-stack data and high heterogeneity of the target layers in the field data, the proposed inversion method reveals the detailed model of VP/VS ratio that can successfully identify the gas-bearing zones.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully appreciate the two anonymous reviewers for offering valuable comments that led to great improvements in the paper. The authors acknowledge the considerable support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41374116 and 41674113) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (KYLX16_0758). The authors also acknowledge CNOOC Limited for providing the field data for analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 211100, China

    Qiang Guo, Hongbing Zhang & Feilong Han

  2. Energy Development Engineering Geophysical Prospecting Institute of Technology, CNOOC, Zhanjiang, 524000, China

    Wei Xiao

  3. College of Mechanics and Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing, 211100, China

    Zuoping Shang

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  1. Qiang Guo
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  2. Hongbing Zhang
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  3. Feilong Han
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  4. Wei Xiao
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  5. Zuoping Shang
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Correspondence to Hongbing Zhang.

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Guo, Q., Zhang, H., Han, F. et al. A Hybrid Seismic Inversion Method for VP/VS Ratio and Its Application to Gas Identification. Pure Appl. Geophys. 175, 3003–3022 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-1829-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-1829-6

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