An integrated solution to rock physics modelling in fractured carbonate reservoirs

Simon S. Payne*, Philip Wild and Rudi Lubbe, Ikon Science Ltd.

Summary: elastic properties of the resultant effective medium. One

versatile feature of the Xu-Payne model is that individual
An integrated workflow is presented to model the seismic pore components can be included into the model such that
response of a fractured carbonate reservoir. Carbonate they are either isolated, or, in perfect fluid connectivity
rocks are known to have a more complicated, with the remaining pore space.
heterogeneous pore structure than sandstone rocks. The
workflow uses P-wave and porosity log data to calibrate a The pore space model is calibrated using a cross-plot of P-
multi-porosity model using the extended Xu-White model wave velocity against porosity (Kumar & Han, 2005).
(Xu and Payne, 2009). The model is then up-scaled to Thus, a multi-porosity model can be interpreted for a
investigate the low frequency seismic response through the carbonate reservoir from sonic and porosity log data
inclusion of aligned meso-scale fracture sets. Analysis is (Figure 1). Sonic logs measure the effective rock properties
shown for log data measured in a fractured limestone in a region close to the borehole wall with a probing
reservoir. The rock physics model was used to predict the wavelength approximately 10-30cm. Measurements at this
P-wave and P-to-S wave reflectivity from the top of the scale are not able to fully characterise meso-scale fracture
limestone reservoir. The results demonstrate that rock networks that are important to reservoir production. The
physics is able to play an important role in modelling and multi-porosity model can be up-scaled to include the low-
characterizing the seismic response of carbonate reservoirs. frequency seismic response of a fracture network using the
effective medium theory described by Schoenberg and
Introduction: Sayers (1995). Parameterization of the fracture properties
can come from a mixture of FMI, VSP and laboratory data.
Approximately 50% of the worlds known hydrocarbon
reserves are contained in carbonate reservoirs. Central to Method:
the seismic characterization of carbonate reservoirs is an
understanding of the effect of porosity on the elastic A multi-porosity model is calibrated for a particular
moduli. Carbonate rocks are known to exhibit reservoir using petrophysical log data. The clay-related
heterogeneous pore space structures that are both complex pore space is accounted for using the shale volume curve.
and highly variable. Dissolution of the carbonate rock can Pores in clay are expected to be water saturated, bound and
result in moldic pores and vugs that behave very differently of low aspect ratio (0.02-0.05). The remaining porosity can
under the passage of a seismic wave when compared with be divided into contributions from typically three
conventional inter-granular pores observed in sandstone representative pore space components, each with a
reservoirs. Fractures also commonly play an important role characteristic pore aspect ratio, see Table 1. This step is
in production from carbonate reservoirs. Areas of high performed by inverting the measured log data on a sample
fracture density can act as high permeability channels by sample basis. The generated multi-porosity model is one
within an otherwise low permeability carbonate reservoir. valid model that explains the log data. When core samples
are available, the relative contribution of each pore
Xu and White (1995) developed a multi-porosity model for component should be compared to expectations from
shaley sandstones by combining the Kuster-Toksz (1974) petrographic analysis in each carbonate interval.
and differential effective medium theories with Gassmanns
equation. Xu and Payne (2009) demonstrated that this Pore component Representative pore aspect ratio
model can be extended to predict velocities in carbonate Inter-particle pores 0.15
rocks. The extended Xu-White model (referred to as the Microcracks 0.01
Xu-Payne model) divides the total pore volume into four Stiff pores 0.80
components: (i) clay-related pores, (ii) inter-particle pores,
Table 1: Aspect ratio of representative pore types used to construct
(iii) microcracks and (iv) stiff pores. Each pore component the multi-porosity model (after Xu and Payne, 2009).
is incrementally added to the rock matrix to calculate the
 Modelling fractured carbonate reservoirs

The Xu-Payne approach permits two types of fluid

substitution to be performed in the rocks pore space.
Fluids contained in an isolated pore space component
cannot flow to equalise pressure gradients created by the
passage of a seismic wave. The response due to these pores
is modelled by inserting fluid saturated inclusions with the
differential effective medium. Saturation changes are
considered by modelling inclusions with different pore
fluids. In contrast, the pore space components that are
assumed to be in perfect fluid connectivity are modelled by
inserting dry inclusions and fluid substitution to the desired
saturation is performed as a final step using Gassmanns
equation.

Schoenberg and Sayers (1995) showed that the elastic

moduli of a fractured rock can be obtained as the sum of
the compliance tensor of the unfractured rock and the
compliance tensor for each set of aligned fractures. The
compliance tensor of the unfractured rock is calculated for
the calibrated multi-porosity model in the previous step. A
single set of rotationally symmetric fractures is fully
described by four parameters: fracture density, strike
azimuth, fracture normal and tangential compliance. FMI
log data are used to interpret the average strike of an
aligned fracture set. FMI data collected in horizontal, or,
deviated wells can also be useful in estimating the density
of vertical fractures. The range of published values for
fracture compliance has been compiled by Worthington
(2007). Lubbe et al. (2007) suggested that a normal-
tangential compliance ratio of 0.5 is a representative
average value for modelling. Alternatively, anisotropic
Thomsen parameters that characterise the fractured rock
can be estimated from VSP surveys.

Example:

Log data from a gas condensate, limestone reservoir are

shown in Figure 2. The reservoir is observed to be clean,
with a relatively low interpreted clay volume. Cross-plots
of the P-wave velocity against porosity (Figure 1) indicate
that a model containing both stiff pores and microcracks is
required to explain the data in all three intervals. The P-
wave velocity log was inverted to calculate the relative
contribution of the two pore space components to the total
porosity. In this example, the clay-related pores have been
modelled as isolated but the remaining pore components
Figure 1: P-wave vs. porosity cross-plots for 3 limestone are considered to be in fluid connectivity with each other.
reservoir intervals. The solid lines show the reference The calculated ratio of the two pore components and the
trends for models containing only: 100% microcracks modelled P-wave curve are shown in Figure 2.
(dark red), 100% inter-granular pores (green) and 100%
stiff pores (dark blue). The dashed lines show intermediate Fracture information was interpreted from FMI image logs
models containing contributions from 2 pore components. in the different intervals. A single set of sub-vertical (dip
The upper interval (a) contains gas condensate and is >50) fractures, with an average fracture strike of 187,
modelled with a water saturation of 40%, the lower were observed in the upper limestone interval. The
intervals are 100% water saturated. fractures were not observed to continue upwards into the
 Modelling fractured carbonate reservoirs

marl overburden and different fracture sets were interpreted

in the lower limestone intervals. In this example, an excess
fracture normal compliance of 6x10-11 Pa-1 was observed to
generate a practical upper limit for modelling, generating a
value of P-wave anisotropy () of approximately 0.2, see
Table 2.

The seismic response of the fractured reservoir was

calculated in terms of the P and P-to-S AVO reflectivity
(Vavryuk and Penk, 1998, Jlek, 2000). The AVO
reflectivity patterns are shown for the top limestone horizon
as a function of survey azimuth relative to the fracture
strike direction (Figure 3). The P-wave reflectivity is only
observed to differ from the isotropic reflectivity at very
large angles of incidence. A much stronger anisotropic
reflection pattern is observed in the PS data, with the PSh
exhibiting the expected clover-leaf pattern.

Marl overburden Upper limestone

Vp (km/s) 4.68 5.61
Vs (km/s) 2.86 2.91
(g/cc) 2.65 2.71
0.00 0.19
0.00 0.14
0.00 0.19
Table 2: Average interval properties used in calculating the AVO
reflectivity shown in Figure 3.

Conclusions:

The seismic response of a carbonate reservoir can be

studied through the construction of a multi-porosity rock
physics model. The model is calibrated using log data from
the reservoir and up-scaled to include the effects of meso-
scale fracture sets. A particular feature of the model is the
ability to include different pore space components as either
isolated, or, in perfect fluid connectivity with the remaining
pore space. The calibrated rock physics model can be used
to study and interpret the offset and azimuth dependent
seismic reflectivity of the reservoir.

Figure 2: Left-to-right: clay volume (brown = clay, blue = calcite),

An example is shown for a multi-porosity fractured total porosity (coloured by saturation), pore space component (pink
limestone reservoir. The synthetic AVO indicates that it = stiff pores, blue = microcracks) and Vp logs (black = measured,
will not be possible to interpret any information about red = calculated) from a carbonate reservoir. The upper limestone
fracturing within the reservoir from the P-wave reflectivity interval is between markers Limestone_A and Limestone_B. This
interval contains a gas condensate and has an average water
alone. In this case, it would be necessary to analyze P-to-S saturation of 40%. Calculation of the pore space component logs is
converted wave reflections to study spatial variations in the described in the text.
fracturing.
 Modelling fractured carbonate reservoirs

Figure 3: AVO reflectivity from the top limestone interface. Each subplot includes the AVO reflectivity curve along a certain survey
azimuth (left) and the reflectivity as a function of survey azimuth for an incidence angle of 30 (right). Plots (a) and (b) show the AVO
reflectivity for a survey azimuth parallel to fracture strike (modelled as 000); plots (c) and (d) show the AVO reflectivity for a survey
azimuth perpendicular to the fracture strike. The anisotropic P-wave reflectivity is shown in black, the anisotropic PSv reflectivity in blue,
the anisotropic PSh reflectivity in pink, and the equivalent isotropic reflectivity in grey. Note the reflectivity scale is shown differently for
the P-wave and P-to-S cases.

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