Rock Physics Integration to Seismic Reservoir Characterization - A Carbonate Reservoir Case Study

Carbonate sediments are prone to rapid and pervasive diagenetic alterations that change the pore structure within carbonate rocks. Rock physics plays an important role in linking elastic properties of rock to petrophysical properties, so a rock physics model which might be capable to model pore structure of carbonate rocks can be very beneficial for characterization of these reservoirs. In this study well logs and seismic data of an oil field located in Iran are used for characterization of a carbonate reservoir. The Arab formation, which consists of dolomite, calcite and anhydrite is studied in order to examine efficiency of an inclusion rock physics model in S-wave velocity estimation and litho-fluids discrimination.

The rock physics model is optimized by calibrating the estimated properties with the measured log data, and then the model is used for generating a rock physic template. Then, the litho-fluids distinguished based on this template and the results of simultaneous pre-stack seismic inversion are classified by using Bayes’ rule. The results show that presented rock physics model helps to estimate S-wave velocity more accurately and improves litho-fluids classification of Arab formation in the studied field.