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Sheng Xiaofeng, Lin Yaping, Zhang Mingjun, and Kong Linghong, Research institute of petroleum exploration &
development, CNPC
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Russian Petroleum Technology Conference held in Moscow, Russia, 16-18 October 2017.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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Abstract
The exploration in oil and gas of the South Turgay Basin has been carried out for more than 50 years.
During the years of exploration and development, the exploration degree of the basin has reached a very
high level. Almost all the shallow targets for drilling oil and gas in Cretaceous and Middle-Upper Jurassic
formations have been completed. According to the resource evaluation result, the recoverable oil and gas
resource can be found in the J1, J2 formations. And the resources of J1, J2 formations accounts for 55% of the
underexploited, which is the main direction of exploration in the future. In recent years, some oil and gas
have been found in one of layers in J1, called J1ab.However, the J1ab is facing several problems that need to
be solved. The most important one is the prediction of sandstone reservoirs containing coal seams, which
is difficult to predict because of the inundation reaction of coal seams.
In this paper, the wavelet decomposition technique was adopted to eliminate the influence of strong
interface caused by coal seams and to recover the seismic response characteristics of thin sandstone layers.
The thin sand layers were identified by renewed geo-statistical method. The results of reservoir prediction
coincide with the actual well drilling, and the ratio is up to 79%, which solves the problem of predicting
sandstone reservoir in coal bearing strata. This technique was applied in the South Turgay Basin, for the
21 drilled exploration wells, 14 of them were succeed in gaining oil and gas, and the rate was 67%. At the
same time four oil and gas structural belts were found. According to the application of this technology in
this study basin, an additional geological reserve of 22.6 million tons oil was discovered by now. And it
provides a way for sustainable development in this basin.
Introduce
After nearly 50 years of exploration and development, it has entered the stage of high exploration in the
Southern Turgay Basin. In the current, the number of drilled wells is up to 1300, most targets in shallow
formation were drilled, and the next step for exploration, new layers are needed to replace in urgent.
According to the results of the Chinese and the IHS organization resource evaluation, the reserves of
recoverable oil in the Southern Turgay Basin have been found to be nearly 300 million tons1. The amount
of oil recoverable resources is about 360 million tons, the oil and gas can be found in the J1, J2 formations,
2 SPE-187899-MS
which accounts for 55% of the underexploited in the basin. At present, commercial discoveries of oil and
gas have been made in the deep formations such as J1ab layer in this block , therefore, the next step for
exploration is the work on the J1ab layer.
During the J1ab depositional period, the water body is relatively shallow, and most of the sedimentary
environment is delta plain or leading facies. As the lake is silted into the swamp, the coal-gathering
environment is formed, resulting in the formation of lithology for three types as: sandstone, mudstone and
coal. Due to the submerged effect of coal seam reflection on sandstone reservoirs, it is difficult to predict
sandstone reservoirs2.
The South Turgay basin is divided into three sub-tectonic units3, from north to south: the Zhilanchik
depression in the north, the Mynbulak uplift in the middle and the Aryskum depression in the south. The
oil and gas found today are mainly concentrated in the southern Aryskum depression (Fig. 2).
The South Turgay basin is composed of tectonic units (Fig. 3), and the tectonic zoning of the basin
controls the formation and distribution of oil and gas. The lithologies are mainly rivers and lakes clastic
rocks in formation J-K; the source rocks are dark mudstone (coal series) in formation J1-J2, the kerogen is
type II2; the lithologies of reservoir are sandstone in J-K formation, carbonate and metamorphic rocks in
the former Mesozoic formation; The area cap is stabilized mudstone in the lower part of K.
4 SPE-187899-MS
It is mainly composed of lacustrine sediments in the Late Triassic formation. Especially in the early -
Middle Jurassic period, mainly in sedimentary mudstone. The edge of the graben sometimes changes into
a gravel-like fan-like deposition, originating from the uplift of the edge of the graben.
At the end of the Jurassic period, the rift deposits were stopped and the activity was stopped. The whole
basin was transferred to the slow depression and gradually ceased to be deposited, and some areas were
eroded to form the sandstone and conglomerate layer at the bottom of the Cretaceous.
In Cretaceous-Tertiary, it is mainly composed of sand formed by river and lake and alluvial facies.
SPE-187899-MS 5
Figure 6—the content of coal, sandstone and effective reservoir in formation J1ab
Table 1—the statistics of coal and reservoir from drilled wells in this Block
Coal(%) 18 16 10 14 14 13 14 12 7
Sandstone(%) 23 33 36 25 14 15 19 15 30
Effective reservoir(%) 5 3 3 6 5 1 8 5 3
Figure 10—Correspondence diagram of profile and lithologic configuration of reservoir in well section
8 SPE-187899-MS
The interaction type is the difficult to predict the sandstone and coal bed. The main feature of this model
is that the distance between the coal seam and the sandstone is relatively small, and the seismic response
of the coal seam to the sandstone has a flooding effect, which leads to the difficulty of sandstone reservoir
prediction. By attempting a variety of methods, repeated testing and screening, the wavelet decomposition
method is chosen finally. it is to eliminate or weak the strong reflection of the coal seam and highlight
the sandstone reservoir in the seismic section, in order to solve the study area of coal-bearing sandstone
reservoir prediction provided data base.
The prediction process of the interbedded coalbed reservoir is based on the characteristics of the coal
seam distribution, and then the forward modeling is carried out. Then, the wavelet decomposition technique
is used to eliminate the influence of the strong interface of the coal seam, and the seismic response
characteristics of the sandstone reservoir are restored. Third, the wave impedance inversion and physical
inversion are carried out. At last, the coal-bearing sandstone reservoir prediction is completed, which can
guide oil and gas exploration in this study block and the South Turgar basin.
Forward Simulation
Firstly, the model which is march the interaction type is set up by the forward model (Fig. 12). The upper
part of the red line frame in Fig. 12 is the distribution of the coal seam and the sandstone layer. In the seismic
section of the B ' This phenomenon is the actual situation reflected in the seismic section of the study area,
which indicates that the seismic response of the sandstone is submerged by the coal seam, and the seismic
features of the sandstone are not fully reflected in the seismic section.
SPE-187899-MS 9
Figure 12—Coal seam interaction with reservoir: raw well data, 1 ms sampling, 25 Hz wavelet
Wavelet decomposition is a method of eliminating the submerged response of the coal seam to the
sandstone by stripping the components of the coal seam waveform and energy, and to highlight the sandstone
reflection characteristics. It is different from the spectrum decomposition method which is now widely used
in the oil industry to remove the influence of coal seam. The prediction effect will be reflected in the results
of this inversion.
The frequency of the seismic data of the study area is low to 20~25Hz. The wavelet decomposition
technique is used to the target layer J1ab to remove the components representing the coal seam layer by
layer, and finally to reduce the interference of the coal seam to the sandstone. Meanwhile, it highlights the
SPE-187899-MS 11
reflection characteristics of the sandstone reservoir. The foundation of the reservoir prediction work is given.
It can be seen from Fig. 15 that the reflection characteristics of the overlying sandstone formation on the
original seismic profile are highlighted after removal of the coal seam (shown in dotted linesaand c in Fig.
15). In Fig. 15, picture a is the original seismic section of the study area, picture b is the seismic reflection
profile representing the characteristics of the coal seam, and picture c is the sandstone and mudstone seismic
profile after reducing the coal affection.
Figure 15—The area of the coal seam is removed before and after the study area
thickness
thickness Absolute Coincidence
Well from Remark
from well(m) error(%) rate(%)
inversion(m)
Average - - - 79.4
Reservoir inversion results are also well verified in plane prediction. It is obvious from the results of
the physical inversion of the sandstone reservoirs (Fig. 17) and the results of the uncapped coal seam
(Fig. 18). The results of the reservoir inversion are quite different from the sandstone reservoirs predicted
by conventional attributes. In the well areas T-6, T-5 and T-1 showed in Fig. 17, the inversion predicted
sandstone reservoirs are relatively developed and the commercial oil and gas are found, which consists
SPE-187899-MS 13
with the actual wells drilling. But the reservoir prediction of the conventional attributes shows negative
result, there are big differences between the two forecast results. In addition, it shows that there is a large
difference between the results of inversion and the results of attribute prediction in the area of well T-8 in
Fig. 17. Compared with the actual drilled wells and test data, the inversion result after removal of coal seam
is consistent with the actual situation. Hence, the result of inversion of sandstone reservoir after removal of
coal seam is consistent with the actual geological condition.
Figure 18—-15ms RMS amplitude Study plan view of the top surface area J1ab
Therefore, the method of predicting the sandstone reservoir by using the wavelet decomposition
technique is feasible in the study area. The inversion results are proved by the drilled wells and the
application of the prediction results showed in newly drilled wells. It is proved that the method is suitable
for the study area and it has achieved good results. The technology has been widely used in other research
14 SPE-187899-MS
blocks in the south Turgay Basin. In this way, 21 exploration wells have been drilled and 14 of them gain
oil and gas here, with a success rate of 67%.
At the same time, four oil and gas structural zones are found, and the new petroleum geological reserve
is up to 22.6 million tons, which provides important technical support and guarantees for the sustainable
development of oil and gas in the south Turgay basin.
Conclusions
According to the results of resource assessment in the south Turgay basin, the J1ab layer is the main direction
of the exploration of the basin, but the J1ab layer is coal-bearing strata. Itis difficult to predict the sandstone
reservoir due to the submerged effect of the seismic response by coal seam.
According to the practical application, that the technology is effective in this study area by using the
wavelet decomposition to identify the effective reservoir by reducing the coal seam effect to have reservoir
inversion, and it can guide the further exploration of this basin. It solves the bottleneck problem of the
prediction of sandstone reservoirs in the J1ab layer of the southern Turgay basin, which lays the technical
foundation for the deep exploration here.
It is the first time to predict sandstone reservoirs by using wavelet decomposition technology to remove
the affection of coal seams in the south Turgay basin, and it has achieved good results oil and gas exploration.
The success rate of exploration wells reached 67%, the new petroleum geological reserves is up to 22.6
million tons, and the oil geological resources is about 210 million tons. It provides an important guarantee
for oil and gas sustainable development of the basin.
Acknowledgement
The authors woukd like to thank the "Global oil and gas resources assessment and constituencies with
research" to support this study, the fund numbersare 2016ZX05029and 2016D-4301.
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