Channel detection using seismic attributes on the Central Basin Platform, west Texas
Charles H. Blumentritt*, E. Charlotte Sullivan, and Kurt J. Marfurt, Allied Geophysical
Laboratories, University of Houston
Summary
The Devonian Thirtyone Formation is a prolific producer
on the Central Basin Platform in west Texas having
produced over 750 MMBBL from chert reservoirs and
containing as much as 650 MMBBL remaining reserves.
One of the play concepts for this reservoir is laminated
beds deposited as turbidites in a deep sea environment.
The locations of the lobes and channels and their feeder
channels cannot uniquely be determined from well control
and 2-D seismic.
Three dimensional seismic data offers a better method of
establishing lateral relationships of geologic features by
virtue of time slices. However, time slices of conventional
amplitude data do not always display the information in the
most effective manner. Modern seismic attributes,
including coherence and Edge Preserving Smoothing
(EPS), often display data in a manner more conducive to
these kinds of stratigraphic features.
Introduction
The Devonian Thirtyone Formation has produced some 750
MMBBL from chert reservoirs on the Central Basin
Platform (Figure 1) in west Texas. Accumulations occur in
two types of reservoirs: a so-called proximal reservoir
composed of relatively thick bedded facies deposited in
platform/slope environment in the north and a distal
reservoir composed of thinly laminated layers deposited as
turbidites in a more basinal environment in the south
(Ruppel and Barnaby, 2001). (See Figure 2.) Such a
relationship of environments suggests that the source of the
channels is to the north.
The model for the distal deposition consists of channels
leading to lobes (Figure 3). Prospective sands may occur in
stacked channels or in distributary lobes. The sands within
these environments tend to be thin and below seismic
resolution.
Method
Delineation of the channels and detection of the lobes
would be beneficial to exploration and production, but they
are not generally visible on conventional amplitude display
seismic traces. Coherence technology (Marfurt et al., 1998
and Gersztenkorn and Marfurt, 1999) measures the
similarity of a trace to its neighbors and displays of data so
processed make discontinuities, such as faults and channels
more easily interpretable. Edge Preserving Smoothing
(Luo et al., 2002) improves reflection continuity and
sharpens discontinuities by selectively averaging a trace
with it more similar neighbors. This provides an improved
image for input to coherence technology.
Example
For this study, the data set was flattened along the top of
the Devonian Thirtyone formation and horizon slices
parallel to this top were analyzed. Figure 4 shows the
conventional amplitude data along a horizon slice within
the chert interval, parallel to and 90 ms below the top of the
formation. Figure 5 shows the same area and horizon
slice, but with EPS and coherence processing applied.
Numerous linear channel-like features appear on the
section in Figure 5 that are not apparent in Figure 4. Figure
6 shows an interpretation of many of these features. Two
of them, indicated by yellow and green lines, appear to be
bifurcating channels which have a source to the southwest.
A third narrow channel, indicated by a magenta line,
appears to be substantially longer, but is more consistent
with the inferred northerly source direction. A fourth, and
much broader channel, is indicated by blue shading. This
channel, which also shows left lateral strike-slip offset, also
appears have a source in the south. The channels are depth
limited and different channels appear along different
horizon slices.
Figure 7 shows a panel of north-south trending seismic
lines flattened on the top of Devonian horizon. The top of
the chert interval is shown in blue and the horizon slice
shown in Figures 4, 5, and 6 is shown as a dashed red line.
These seismic lines illustrate the southwest sourced
channels indicated by the yellow and green lines on Figure
6.
The more northerly channel, indicated by yellow, lies under
the solid yellow arrow on Section U-U’ and appears as a
slight depression and an amplitude increase. Section V-V’
shows this same channel after bifurcation. The northern
branch is indicated by a dashed yellow arrow and appears
as a n amplitude increase. The southern branch, shown by
a dotted yellow arrow, corresponds to an amplitude dipout
along a moderately weak reflector. The northern branch
continues to Section W-W’ where it appears as a small
valley under a strong horizon.
The southerly bifurcating channel is illustrated by green
arrows and appears on Section V-V’ as a strong peak
 Channel detection using seismic attributes on the Central Basin Platform, West Texas

located along a discontinuous reflection. On Section W-

W’, the bifurcations are apparent as a pair of valleys lying
under a strong reflection.

Conclusions

Coherence and Edge Preserving Smoothing have been

shown to be useful to delineate multiple channel like
features in an area known to be characterized by turbidite
deposition. To our knowledge, this is the first published
application of the technology to thin bedded chert deposits.
The results suggest that the previous point source turbidite
system can be replaced by a depositional model with
multiple sediment sources from many directions. Future
work remains to be done in the area of using additional
attributes to identify lobes which may be related to these
channels.

References

Gerstzenkorn, A., and Marfurt, K. J., 1999, Eigenstructure-

based coherence computations as an aid to 3-D structural
and stratigraphic mapping: Geophysics, 64, 1468-1475

Luo, Y., Marhoon, M., al Dossary, S., and Alfaraj, M.,

2002, Edge-preserving smoothing and applications: The
Leading Edge, 22, 136, 138, 140-141-158
Figure 1. Central Basin Platform (after Saller et al.,
2001)
Marfurt, K. J., Kirlin, R. L., Farmer, S. L., and Bahorich,
M. S., 3-D seismic attributes using a semblance-based
choherency algorithm: Geophysics, 63, 1150-1165

Ruppel, S. C., and Barnaby, R. J., 2001, Contrasting styles

of reservoir development in proximal and distal chert
facies: Devonian Thirtyone Formation, Texas: AAPG
Bulletin, 85, 7-33 Proximal
Saller, A., Ball, B., Robertson, S., McPherson, B., Wene, Reservoir
C., Nims, R., and Gogas, J, 2001, Reservoir characteristics New Mexico
of Devonian cherts and their control on oil recovery: Texas
Dollarhide field, west Texas: AAPG Bulletin, 85, 35-50
Study
Area
Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Oxy Permian for the data set
used in this study and to the State of Texas Advanced
Technology Program for funding to carry it out.

Distal
Reservoir Fi
gure 2. Distribution of Proximal and Distal reservoir
types. (modified from Ruppel and Barnaby, 2001)

Figure 3. Depositional models for a distal reservoir.

 Channel detection using seismic attributes on the Central Basin Platform, West Texas

Figure 4. Amplitude display of horizon slice within the Figure 5. Data from same slice as Figure 4 with Edge
chert reservoir level. Preserving Smoothing and Coherence applied. Note
appearance of channel like features. See Figure 6 for
interpreted section

Figure 6.
Interpreted
version of
Figure 5.
 Channel detection using seismic attributes on the Central Basin Platform, West Texas

Figure 7. Panel of seismic lines running North-South. See Figure 6 for locations. Yellow and green arrows indicate
locations of channels. See text for explanation