Seismic anisotropy of a fractured rock during CO₂ injection: a feasibility study

Abstract

Fluid substitution plays the key role in reservoir characterization, leading to enhance understanding of the influence of fluids on seismic parameters. In general, fluid substitution tool assumes that the Earth is as an isotropic medium, which may not represent the practical field situation. Nevertheless, anisotropic fluid substitution provides important insights into the processes that control the anisotropic seismic response of a fractured rock when subjected to CO₂ injection for enhanced oil recovery and its geological sequestration. Here, we examine the influence of fluid substitution in a porous yet fractured reservoir for quantitative interpretation of seismic data. This investigation involves anisotropic Gassmann’s equation and linear slip theory for fluid substitution in a transversely isotropic media with a horizontal axis of symmetry (HTI). We present a synthetic case by conceptualizing a double-layered half-space model with upper layer as shale and bottom layer as HTI sandstone, representing an Indian mature reservoir. The effects of variation in background porosity and fracture weaknesses on anisotropic (Thomsen’s) parameters, acoustic parameters including amplitude variation with angle have also been discussed. We observe that brine and oil sands to be associated with the highest elastic moduli, while CO₂ sands exhibit contrasting trend. It is noteworthy that CO₂ is more sensitive to fracture weakness when compared to the other reservoir fluids such as hydrocarbons and brines, as P-wave moduli (as much as 37.1%) and velocity (as high as 12.2%) reduces significantly with the increase in fracture weakness. Further, Gassmann’s assumption is validated as we noticed unchanged values in shear-wave moduli and shear-wave splitting parameter (γ) for various fluid types.