A new reservoir prediction method: PCA value-weighted attribute optimization
Lifeng Liu*, Sam Zandong Sun, Haiyang Wang, Lab for Integration of Geology and Geophysics (LIGG), China
University of Petroleum (Beijing), Haijun Yang, Jianfa Han, Bing Jing, Tarim Oilfield Co., CNPC
Summary
This paper introduces the principle component attribute (PCA)
technology into carbonate reservoir prediction, and a PCA
value-weighted attribute optimization method is proposed
here. As the calculation time-window of the PCA value-
weighted attribute is the same (viz., free of the constraint of
time-window scale), it can effectively avoid the negative
effect of different time-windows on attribute optimization
results. A test area is chosen from Tarim Basin, and the
reservoir information of the known wells is treated as the
training samples. The discriminant model of PCA value-
weighted attribute and reservoir parameters are built.
Through the retrospective test, the total fit rate between the
attribute optimization results and the production results is up
to 94.62%, proving that the discriminant capability of PCA
value-weighted attribute for reservoir quality is significant.
Finally, the proposed method is employed for the integration
prediction of carbonate reservoir in test area. The prediction
results finely exhibiting the distribution of favorable
carbonate reservoir. This paper is aimed at providing a
scientific and practical method for seismic attribute analysis
and reservoir prediction.
Introduction
The attribute optimization technique is the most effective
method to solve the problem of multi-solutions of seismic
attributes (Chen, 1997; Leiphart, 2001; Dorrington, 2004).
However, much attention is paid to the investigation of the
optimization methods and the effectiveness of the seismic
attribute itself is neglected. For instance, the results of
seismic attributes analysis have a close relationship with the
calculation time-window. For different attributes, the
caculation time-windows are different due to the difference
of the algorithms and the meanings. For instances, frequency-
division attributes require relatively larger time-window
while the large time-window for the amplitude attributes will
cause serious average effect. Therefore if these attributes with
different time-windows are used for optimization, the
reliability of the prediction results is queried.
The principle of PCA
PCA (principal components analysis) is one of the data-
digging technologies in the multivariate statistic analysis. It
mainly uses the dimension-reducing idea in mathematics. The
idea is that through reducing the dimension of dataset to
eliminate the correlation between different elements.
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Consequently, the problems in high dimension space are
transformed into those in low dimension space, revealing the
simple structure hiding behind the complex data and
eliminating the noise interruption and redundancy. Finally,
the instability of the calculation results caused by the
correlation among the multi-variables can be avoided
(Tipping, 1999; Gu, 2007).
For one seismic trace, it can be taken as a linear dataset of
waveforms. The original seismic data is a high-dimension
array made up of n dimension waveform variables (Sun,
1999). Using PCA to reduce the dimension of data and
calculate m waveforms (principle components), where n>m.
Through the sum of linear weight for these principle
components, we could realize the reconstruction for any
seismic trace (shown in Figure 1). The most principal
components and waveform features can be recognized from
seismic data, and the seismic data could express the most of
information in the primitive data as well as eliminate some
random noise and interference. Finally, the principle
components are orthogonal and independent to each other.
Assuming seismic data X is a vector containing n columns
(xi(t), i=1,2,…,n; t=1,2,…,t), its covariance is
C = XTX (1)
This covariance matrix must be a positive semidefinite
symmetrical matrix which contains n rows and n columns.
Conduct SVD decomposition to this matrix and we get
C = RλR T (2)
The matrix λ is the eigenvalue of the symmetrical matrix, and
R is the eigenvector corresponding to the eigenvalues. The
orthoganal eigenvetor corresponding to the eigenvalue λii
(sorted from big values to small ones) is the coefficient
vector Ri corresponding to the ith principal element. The
principal component P can be defined as,
P = XRT (3)
Each principal component is the linear combination of
primitive seismic traces, and its dimension is the same to the
primitive seismic trace. The ith column of the principal
component P is the ith principal component, where the first
column contains the most information of seismic data. The
reconstruction to seismic trace is the inverse transformation
of the process above, and
X = PR (4)
The variance contribution rate of the principal component P i
is defined as λi/Σλj, In general the number (m) of the extracted
principal component is needed to satisfy λk/Σλj>0.85. That is
to say, the accumulative contribution rate of the former m
principal components reaches to 85%, which could contain
2024
 PCA weight value attribute optimization

the most information of the primitive seismic data, where Finally, through the sum of linear weight of the top 10
n>m, that is, principle components, the reconstruction of seismic traces
⎡ x11 x12 " x1n ⎤ ⎡ P11 P12 " P1m ⎤ ⎡ r11 r12 " r1n ⎤
(5) can be realized.
⎢x
⎢ 21 x 22 " x2 n ⎥⎥ ⎢⎢ P21 P22 " P2 m ⎥⎥ ⎢⎢ r21 r22 " r2 n ⎥⎥
=
⎢ # # # # ⎥ ⎢ # # # # ⎥⎢ # # # # ⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥
⎣ x t1 xt 2 " xtn ⎦ ⎣ Pt1 Pt 2 " Ptm ⎦ ⎣rm1 rm 2 " rmn ⎦

Figure 2: The time-window of seismic data used for PCA

Figure 1: The principal schematic of the principal component

analysis (PCA) for seismic data

Reconstruction of seismic data

A certain area in Tarim Basin is chosen as the testing area.

According to the principal component theory, the analysis
and test on the field seismic data is performed. The time-
window of the seismic data used for PCA ranges from 20ms
to 160ms below the top of Lianglitage formation, as is shown
in Figure 2.

The seismic data used for testing contain 854532 traces,

which can be taken as the array made up of 854532
waveform variables. The PCA method is employed here to
transform the 854532 waveform variables into 854532
principal components (Y1, Y2,…, Y28623), and each principal
component is orthogonal and independent to each other. That
is to say, every seismic trace could be represented by the sum
of the linear weight of these principal components (shown in
Figure 3). Calculate the eigenvalues and the accumulative
contribution rate of these variance matrixes, as is shown in
Table 1. The contribution rate of the first principal
component is the greatest (65.28%), containing the most of
the information of the primitive seismic trace, followed by
the second principal component. The accumulative
contribution rate of the top 10 principal components reaches
to 95%, reflecting the most important waveform features.
Figure 3: The principal components through the decomposition of
seismic traces in TZ45 area.
Application of PCA value-weighted attribute optimization
method on carbonate reservoir prediction
When using the principal components to reconstruct the
seismic data, the value-weighted of each seismic trace can be
taken as a new attribute, which is called PCA value-weighted
attribute in this paper. The m row vectors in eigenvector
matrix R in Equation 3 can be viewed as m PCA value-
weighted attributes. Since the calculation time-window of the
attribute is the same, it is not controlled by the window scale,
thus effectively avoiding the effect of time-window on
attribute optimization result. The PCA value-weighted

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 PCA weight value attribute optimization

attribute is introduced into the discriminant analysis,
establishing the discriminant model of the attribute and
reservoir parameters, further predicting the spatial
distribution of reservoir.
Firstly, considering the actual situation of reservoir
development in the study area and the sensitivity of seismic
data for reservoir, the carbonate reservoirs can be classified
into three types: hydrocarbon layer, hydrocarbon-showing
layer and non-reservoir layer. The three types of layers are
taken as the classification to establish discriminant model,
and the obtained PCA value-weighted attributes are taken as
the input variables of the discriminant model. Then
reintroduce the various indexes of given training samples into
the built discriminant models. Through calculating the
coincidence rate of reintroducing, thus discriminant ability of
the model can be examined (shown in Figure 4). The figure
shows that the total coincidence rate reaches to 94.62%,
validating the effectiveness of the discriminant model.
Finally, the PCA weight value attribute points are brought
into the established discriminant model, determining the 3D
spatial distribution of the carbonate reservoir in study area.
25000
25000
The predicted HC layer
22813
The predicted HC-showing layer
The predicted Non-reservoir layer
20000
20000
样点数number
seismic attribute optimization (Figure 5d), are not ideal.
However, the PCA method was able to identify the location
of the well clearly (Figure. 5e), proving the higher prediction
accuracy of the PCA value-weighted attribute method
compared with the conventional methods.
Conventional attributes and PCA value-weighted attributes in
the study area were extracted respectively for gain limestone
member of Lianglitage formation. From the comparative
analysis between them, the results of PCA value-weighted
attribute optimization are consistent well with the oil/gas
production situations of various wells (show in Figure 6).
And the fit rate is up to 100%. Meanwhile, compared with the
conventional attribute optimization results, its predictions
show a strong heterogeneity, which accords with the actual
geological conditions, thus more objectively reflecting the
strong heterogeneity characteristics of carbonate reservoir.
We use the three-dimensional visualization technology to
sculpture the results of PCA value-weighted attribute
optimization (show in Figure 7), tracking the carbonate
reservoir in the vertical and lateral directions to reveal the
favorable distribution and geometric shape of dissolution
caved carbonate reservoirs in 3D space. Consequently, the
connectivity between the reservoirs can be clear determined,
further laying a foundation for the accurate classification of
carbonate reservoir flow units and the formulation of

15000
15000 The total coincidence development scenarios.
Rate=94.62%
Samples

94.32%

10000
10000
Conclusions

3769 Principal component analysis (PCA) is introduced into the

5000
5000 2398 discriminant analysis, and a PCA value-weighted attribute
94.56% 112 26 87
96.54%
48 367 1008 optimization method is proposed. Through the establishment
0 of discriminant model of PCA value-weighted attributes and
油气层
The drilling HC layer 油气显示层
The drilling 非储层
HC-showing The drilling non-reservoir
layer layer reservoir parameters, the spatial distribution of the reservoir
Figure 4: The coincident rate of the predicted reservoir types is predicted. Because of the same calculation time window of
compared with the drilling reservoir types the PCA attributes, the optimization is not controlled by time-
window scale, avoiding the negative effect of different time
Reservoir integration prediction and results analysis
windows between different seismic attributes. Moreover,
since the PCA value-weighted attributes are orthogonal, it
Figure 5 shows the comparison of multi prediction result
can effectively avoid the instability of the optimization
sections crossing Well TZ86. The core and FMI logging data
results.
shows that the main storage spaces of the well are dissolution
pores, small-scale caves, and fractures. Dissolution pores and
In the prediction of the carbonate rocks reservoir in the Tarim
caves are connected by fractures, making the reservoir
Basin, the total fit rate is up to 94.62% and the optimization
performance superior. For this type of reservoir, high-
results are consistent well with the actual oil/gas production
yielding oil/gas flow can be obtained by acid fracturing. This
situations of various wells. This method can still identify the
type of reservoir has no large-scale dissolution caves and it is
relative small reservoirs which are not sensitive to the
relatively in small scale and weak heterogeneity. So in the
conventional attributes. To sum up, the PCA value-weighted
seismic profile, it does not show “beaded strong reflection”
attribute optimization method can significantly improve the
with strong heterogeneity, but shows the messy irregular
reservoir prediction accuracy and finely sculpture the
reflection characteristics. Due to the limitations of low
distribution of carbonate reservoir in 3D space. And it can be
resolution for this type of reservoir, the common prediction
taken as a scientific and practical method for seismic attribute
means such as frequency-attenuation gradient (Figure. 5b),
analysis and carbonate reservoir prediction.
tuning-frequency energy (Figure. 5c) and conventional

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 PCA weight value attribute optimization

Figure 5: The compared results of Well TZ86 through a variety of forecasting methods: (a) Seismic data; (b) the gratitude of frequency
attenuation; (c) frequency turning energy; (d) the optimization of the conventional attributes; (e) PCA value-weighted attribute optimization.

Figure 6: Comparison of reservoir prediction for gain limestone member of Lianglitage formation in study area: (a) The results by using
conventional attribute optimization;(b) The results by using PCA value-weighted attribute optimization

ZG17
TZ86
TZ49 TZ452
ZG18
TZ451
ZG16 TZ45 TZ88

TZ63

Figure 7: The predicted spatial distribution of dissolution caved carbonate reservoirs for study area.

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 EDITED REFERENCES
Note: This reference list is a copy-edited version of the reference list submitted by the author. Reference lists for the 2011
SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts have been copy edited so that references provided with the online metadata for
each paper will achieve a high degree of linking to cited sources that appear on the Web.

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