Abstract
Tight-sandstone gas reservoirs have low porosity and permeability, dissimilar pore types, and generally high clay content. Partial saturation leads to local fluid flow induced by seismic waves, resulting in velocity dispersion and attenuation, and this is the reason why the dissipation factor () (inverse quality factor) is highly sensitive to fluid saturation. A relation between and saturation can be based on the self-consistent approximation and poroelasticity theory, to build, in principle, a two-dimensional (2D) rock-physics template. However, there is an ambiguity in the process of estimation because one value of may correspond to two saturations. Thus, this paper addresses this limitation. Moreover, a well-log in the Sichuan Basin and reported experimental data show that these reservoirs may have a high clay content, which affects the estimation. To take into account this factor, the hydration effect of clay is considered in the framework of the double double-porosity theory of wave propagation. Ultrasonic measurements were performed on a tight sandstone and the spectral-ratio method was used to estimate . Then, three-dimensional (3D) rock-physics templates are built by introducing the phase velocity ratio (), clay content, and seismic estimated with an improved frequency-shift method. The template is calibrated and tested with ultrasonic, well-log, and seismic data and applied to estimate reservoir porosity, clay content, and gas saturation on 2D and 3D seismic data.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41974123), the research funds from SINOPEC Key Laboratory of Geophysics, the Jiangsu Innovation and Entrepreneurship Plan and the Jiangsu Province Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant No. BK20200021).
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Information
Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 3 • June 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 2, 2020
Accepted: Jan 26, 2021
Published online: Apr 8, 2021
Published in print: Jun 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Sep 8, 2021
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Clays
- Earthquake engineering
- Engineering fundamentals
- Flow (fluid dynamics)
- Fluid dynamics
- Fluid flow
- Fluid mechanics
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Hydraulic engineering
- Hydraulic structures
- Hydrologic engineering
- Material mechanics
- Material properties
- Materials engineering
- Porosity
- Reservoirs
- Saturated soils
- Seismic effects
- Seismic tests
- Soft soils
- Soil gas
- Soil mechanics
- Soil properties
- Soils (by type)
- Tests (by type)
- Water and water resources
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