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A012 SEISMIC FACIES ANALYSIS FOR FLUVIAL

DEPOSITIONS CHARACTERIZATION, THE
FERGANA VALLEY EXAMPLE
1 2 2 2 2
T.L. BABADZHANOV , R.LARIJANI , G. SHILOV , А. AHVERDIEV AND А. RYKOV
1
OAO Uzbekgeophyzika, Tashkent
2
Fugro-Jason, 125009, Moscow,Tverskayaя, 16 / 2, building1

Abstract
Seismic facies analyses have become an important part of present day exploration and
development of oil and gas plays. A large part of the value of seismic facies analysis
depends however on whether or not local geological factors have been taken into account
correctly. The importance of this is even more dominant when dealing with lithological or
combined structural-lithological traps.
To illustrate such seismic facies analysis this paper presents the results of a study of the
deep oil and gas field in the Fergana Valley, a mega-syncline inside of the Tyan-Shan zone,
Uzbekistan. The main productive formation in this field is consisting of large channel systems
and fluvial plain deposition facies. The channel systems are complicated and show rapid
lateral and vertical variations of sandstone properties both in shale content as well as grain
size composition.
Single stack acoustic or elastic inversion alone could not discriminate between sandstone
and shale. Global Simultaneous AVO Inversion was found to be able to make this
discrimination. As a result of the study the geological model of the productive formation was
refined and a better understanding of the subsurface resulted in a better volumetrics and
connectivity estimation.

Introduction
Geologically, the study area is a faulted anticline where the main fault is reversed and
separates the structure into two parts: the Northern area and the Southern area. The
productive Neogen deposition (a.k.a. KKC2 or red-brick formation) is composed of
continental sediments, mainly paleo river systems sandstones and fluvial plain shales.
In order to delineate the geometry and extent of the channel system, a seismic facies
analysis based on seismic and well data was conducted. During this analysis lithological
composition, effective porosity, hydrocarbon saturation and facial composition as well as
productive formation markers correlation and high-pressure zones have been estimated from
well data penetrating the Neogen formation.
Method
As simple seismic interpretation on post-stack inversion is not able to discriminate between
the producing sandstones and the interbedded shales, the away-from-well information was
developed using a proprietary global Simultaneous AVO Inversion technology. This inversion
technology produces three base volumes: acoustic impedance (Zp), shear impedance (Zs),
and density (ρ). Next to these secondary combined volumes can be developed such as
Poissons ratio (PR), MuRho (µρ) and LambdaRho (λρ).

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An essential aspect to warrant the validity and minimize the uncertainty of the quantitative
information is a sequence of data conditioning, QC and processing steps.
Firstly the seismic 3D data needs to be reprocessed for amplitude preservation. This seismic
data is then cut into partial angle stacks of near (5-12), medium (9-18) and far angles (16-
35). Secondly log editing, log calibration and petrophysics modeling needs to be performed
based on all wells. Vp, Vs and bulk density are then conditioned to rockphysics models in
every well of the project [1]. The log modeling results are used to predict lithofacies, reservoir
lithology and fluids, and to estimate wavelets for each partial angle stack. They also serve as
a basis for the low frequency model used in the inversion. Finally the three partial angle
stacks, the extracted wavelets, the constraints and the well log based low frequency models
are used as input data to a global Simultaneous AVO Inversion.
In the illustrated workflow used in this study seismic facies delineation is based on correlation
relations between seismic inversion attributes (Zp, Zs, ρ, λρ, µρ, etc.) and facies reservoir
properties determined from well, log and core data. A common error is that the correlations
are done without differentiation into separate subsets of different lithofacies. During facies
determination based on log and core data it is necessary to take into account several
geological in-situ factors [2].
For instance for terrigenous deposits the standard facial interpretation workflow of the log
data includes the following steps: log data quality control, lithofacies post-detrital changes
estimation, lithological composition and reservoir properties determination, facial genesis
analysis with help of genetic models of the log facies, and finally paleotectonic analysis.
Log data can be used as well for over-pressured zone delineation. Knowledge of geothermal
conditions and over-pressured zones correlating to productive formations help us determine
diagenetic trends for rock physical properties.
Seismic facies analysis normally should be conducted after structural interpretation is
finished and all structural ambiguities are resolved. With the derived volumes of Zp, Zs, ρ, λρ
and µρ the extent and geometry of key stratigraphic formations and the main fault can be
determined. This loop gives us a refined and geologically correct model of the reservoir.
The quantitative petrophysical interpretation of the Global Simultaneous AVO inversion
results were conducted according to the next workflow:
Reservoir properties evaluation
1. Well data analysis.
Evaluation of the best correlations between seismic inversion attributes (Zp, Zs, ρ,
λρ and µρ) and petrophysical and reservoir properties (porosity, Hsr, shaliness,
Vsilt, Vclst, Vdol, Vlimst, etc.).
2. Averaged seismic inversion attributes analysis in the target intervals.
Evaluation of the best correlation relationship between averaged inversion
attributes and averaged petrophysical and reservoir (elastic) properties.
Seismic Inversion attributes correlation
1. Seismic inversion attributes calibration based on the best-derived correlation
relationships. Mapping of average and RMS values of the seismic inversion
attributes in the target intervals.
2. Correlation of the relationship between averaged seismic inversion attributes and
averaged reservoir properties (hydrocarbon saturated thickness, linear reserves,
Net Pay, effective porosity).
Petrophysical and lithofacies modeling
1. Reservoir properties interpolation based on evaluated and validated correlation
relations between seismic inversion attributes and reservoir properties.
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2. Seismic facies analysis based on seismic inversion attributes crossplots (Zp-Zs,

ρ- Zp).
In general the targeted Neogen interval can be delineated on the majority of the well data.
Particularly, effective porosity has a good correlation (more then 0.7) with Zp, with ρ and with
λρ. From the inverted seismic attributes calibration, averaged in the objective interval, it was
shown that the attribute λρ gives the best correlation to effective porosity (with correlation
coefficient of -0.8,) with relative error 0.017. It was found as well that there is a good
correlation between the lower density values and the higher oil saturated thickness intervals
(with correlation coefficient -0.83).
As an example Figures 1 and 2 show two of these cross plots generated for the formation
Neogen. Figure 1 shows a crossplot of effective porosity at well control versus λρ from
seismic inversion. Figure 2 shows a well log crossplot of ρ versus Zp. The polygon in this
figure may be used to separate the shaley fluvial plain facies from the channel facies.
Based on all the information and relationships as described above a sequence to transform
inverted seismic attributes to reservoir properties was developed. The close relationships
between petrophysical and reservoir properties on the one hand and seismic inverted
attributes on the other hand, as well as lithology and facies-confined characterization of the
reservoir made it possible to conduct seismic facies analysis and to map the different facies.
Figure 3 shows how the lithofacies modeling results in a map discriminating the fluvial plane
facies from the channel facies.

CONCLUSION
It was found that the targeted stratigraphic interval Neogen is composed of medium and
coarse-grained sandstones as well as siltstones that are genetically related to a main and a
secondary paleo river channel system. Oil saturated intervals tend to coincide with low clay
content which in turn corresponds to the intervals of lower values in inverted seismic
impedance and lower density.
3D seismic interpretation results including facies analysis from seismic inversion combined
with log and core data demonstrated that NEOGEN reservoir geobodies were genetically
associated with river channel complex sandstones and siltstones.
Oil pools associated with the above sandstones and siltstones are complicated in nature and
structurally, tectonically and lithologically distinct. Following from this reservoir
characterization process a refined geological model of the study area was built and reserve
estimates were improved.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank OAO UZBEKGEOPHYSIKA for the authorization to publish this
paper.

REFERENCES
[1] S. Xu and R.E. White. A new velocity model for clay-sand mixtures. Geophysical
Prospecting, 1995, 43, pp 91-118.
[2] G.Y. Shilov and I.S. Dgapharov. Genetic models of sedimentary and vulcanogenic
rocks and technology of facial interpretation based on geological and geophysical data,
2001, Moscow.
[3] J. Fowler, M. Bogaards and G.Jenkins. Simultaneous inversion of the Ladybug
prospect and derivation of a lithotype volume. SEG annual meeting, 2000,Calgary.

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Figure.1: Correlation relation between effective porosity from the wells and λρ from inversion averaged
over the NEOGEN interval.

Figure 2: Cross plot of density versus seismic impedance for 9 wells for the NEOGEN formation, color
coded by Vclay. The polygon may be used to discriminate fluvial plain facies (shale) from channel
facies (sand-siltstone).

Figure 3: NEOGEN formation channel facies (green) and fluvial plain facies (red) map based on
lithofacial analysis.