Vol. 89 Supp.

ACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (English Edition)

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September 2015

WANG Fei, CHENG Lijun, XIE Qingming and HUANG Zhenhua , 2015. Pre-stack Simultaneous AVO Inversion and Lithology
Prediction of Shale Gas Reservoir . Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition), 89(supp.): 359-360.

Pre-stack Simultaneous AVO Inversion and Lithology Prediction

of Shale Gas Reservoir
WANG Fei1,2,3,*, CHENG Lijun1,2,3, XIE Qingming1,2,3 and HUANG Zhenhua1, 2, 3
1 Key Laboratory of Shale Gas Exploration, Ministry of Land and Resources, Chongqing Institute of Geology and Mineral
Resources, Chongqing 400042, China
2 Chongqing Engineering Research Center for Shale Gas Resource Exploration, Chongqing Institute of Geology and
Mineral Resources, Chongqing 400042, China
3 Chongqing Shale Gas Research Center of State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resource and Prospecting, Chongqing
Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, Chongqing 400042, China

in this area cannot be more than 36 . As the same, the

quality of 0 to 6 data is poorer, and the reflection energy
is very weak compared to the other angles. At last, we
selected the trace gather of the 6 - 36 angle. Then,
levelled the partial trace gather.

Shale gas is mainly gathered in shale in adsorbed and in

free forms [1]. Shale gas reservoirs have the characteristics
of self-generating and self-preserving, low density, low
porosity and low permeability, which make the seismic
prediction difficulty. But the anisotropy of shale gas
reservoir is also 30% - 40% [2]. Based on the prediction
technology of conventional oil and gas, apply pre-stack
simultaneous inversion technique, use different offset
gathers and p-wave and s-wave and density logging data,
then, inverse the elastic parameters such as Poissons ratio,
p-wave impedance, s-wave impedance and density, predict
the brittleness, physical property, lithology of shale gas
reservoir and identify shale gas sweet spot effectively .
The research area is located in the southeast of
Chongqing. The 3d seismic data in the target zone has
strong reflected energy, good continuity, and high signalto-noise ratio. In the 300ms time window up and below
the target layer, the main frequency is 30 Hz, high cut-off
frequency is 73 Hz. This study inversed various elastic
parameters of the shale reservoir and predicted the
lithology using pre-stack simultaneous AVO inversion
technology.

2 Petrophysical analysis of well logging

Rock physics connects the seismic attribute and rock
physical properties. Only one well data collected in this
work area. Through the combination of different elastic
parameters and the cross plots with different colours
calibrated by different logging interpretation in the whole
interval and target interval, the shale with hydrocarbon
shows low density, low p-wave velocity ratio and low pwave impedance, the tight shale shows high density, high
p-wave and s-wave velocity ratio and medium p-wave
impedance, the carbonate shows high density, high pwave and s-wave velocity ratio and high p-wave
impedance.

3 Simultaneous AVO inversion

1 Processing and quality control of seismic

data

We selected the wavelet using the method for linear

phase and established the low-frequency model. In order
to optimize parameters of the absolute inversion, we did
tests using the data of the whole area, especially for
different angles. Among them, the tests using four stacked
bodies of 6-30 angle, three stacked bodies of 6-24
angle and the four stacked bodies of 12-36 angle are
much better.
In general, the credibility of the wave impedance
concluded by the data of wells is quite well, and the
resolution of the wave impedance result is higher, the

First of all, browse the trace gather of the whole region.

The quality of the trace gather is good as the whole, the
signal-to-noise ratio is high and the target lineups are
straight. According to the reflection angle calculated by
the trace gather and the seismic velocity, considering the
target horizon deepest time, the available maximum Angle
* Corresponding author. E-mail: 582374110@qq.com

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ACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (English Edition)

Vol. 89 Supp.

September 2015

Fig.1 The probability distribution of the good shale

data and get the probability density distribution, maximum

probability distribution and the prediction results of the
lithological body.

inversion results of Vp/Vs should be more reliable. But it

is affected by the lower resolution slightly. It makes the
AVO inversion to estimate density possible with enough
information of far angles. Compared the three inversion
results of wave impedance and Vp/Vs, the consistency of
the wave-impedance section is very good, the
characteristics of bedding distribution between horizons is
clear, but the inversion results of Vp/Vs are different. The
solution 3 (6 to 24 ) has good bedding distribution
characteristics, and the low-value areas of the solution 2
(6-30 ) and 1 (12-36 ) cross with the horizons.

5 Conclusion
The typical characteristics of shale gas sweet spot are as
follows: high organic carbon (> 2%), the shale is thick
(more than 30 meters), easy to fracture (high content of
brittle mineral content), high gas content (more than 2
m3 / t), high formation pressure coefficient (greater than
1.2) [3]. This study inversed many kinds of elastic
parameters such as the reservoir density, wave impedance,
the ratio of p-wave and s-wave velocity and so on in the
application of pre-stack seismic simultaneous AVO
inversion technology, predicted the distribution of good
shale through the division of lithology. At the same time,
many evaluation factors such as the brittleness index, the
TOC content of shale reservoir, the distribution of natural
fracture, gas-bearing property etc. can be calculated
through the elastic parameters. Then, the sweet spot of
shale gas can be predicted comprehensively.

4 Lithology prediction
First, establish the lithology template using the logging
data which was corrected. Compared with the results of
foreign successful cases, we define three types of
lithology, as follows:
The first kind, good shale, the content of shale is 0.2 or
higher, TOC 0.02, effective porosity is 0.02 or higher
The second kind, poor shale, the content of shale is 0.2
or higher, TOC 0.02
The third kind, carbonate, the content of carbonate
(dolomite and calcite) is 0.5 or higher, the content of shale
is 0.2 or less
Secondly, establish the probability density function;
using the elastic parameters of AI, VP/VS and RHOB
calculated by the logging lithology curve and data.
Finally, input inversion body such as AI, VP/VS and
RHOB etc., apply probability density function to seismic

References
Zhang Jinchuan etc., Shale Gas and Its Significance for
Exploration, Geoscience, 2008, 22(4):641.
Liu Zhenwu, Sa Liming, Yang Xiao etc., The Geophysical
Technology Requirements of Shale Gas Exploration and
Development, Oil Geophysical Prospecting, 465
Guo Xusheng etc. The Enrichment Mechanism and Exploration
Technology of Shale Gas in Jiaoshiba Block of Fuling area,
Science Press

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