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Seismic attributes in reservoir characterization: an overview

Article in Arabian Journal of Geosciences · March 2021

DOI: 10.1007/s12517-021-06626-1

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Arabian Journal of Geosciences (2021) 14:402
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-06626-1

REVIEW PAPER

Seismic attributes in reservoir characterization: an overview

Sanda Oumarou 1,2 & Djeddi Mabrouk 3 & Tabod Charles Tabod 4,5 & Jean Marcel 1,4 & Simon Ngos III 6 &
Jean Marcel Abate Essi 7 & Joseph Kamguia 1

Received: 31 May 2019 / Accepted: 23 January 2021

# Saudi Society for Geosciences 2021

Abstract
The present study focuses on a literature review using seismic attributes in the characterization of hydrocarbon reservoirs. This
work consists of examining the contribution of seismic attributes in the characterization of reservoirs. With this, it is necessary to
identify and list the attributes involved in analyzing the reservoirs and their degree of involvement in the characterization of the
hydrocarbon accumulation zones. The approach used is to classify attributes according to their levels of intervention as the
attributes that circumscribe hydrocarbon accumulation zones such as instantaneous frequencies. Thus, the attributes which make
it possible to analyze the seismic facies must be enumerated to determine the type of hydrocarbons. The aim of this work is not
only to review the literature on the use of seismic attributes in the characterization of reservoirs but also to expose the limitations
of these attributes in the study of reservoirs to search for the most adapted attributes that have never been used in reservoir
analysis. As a result, several seismic attributes used in reservoir characterization will be evaluated while demonstrating their
strengths and limitations to consider either the combination of certain attributes or the experimentation of new attributes in
deepening the knowledge on the study of reservoirs. This work will contribute to a more sophisticated study in this domain.

Keywords Seismic attributes . Characterization . Reservoir . Hydrocarbon

Introduction

In general, there are two types of reservoir characteriza-

tions, namely static characterization and dynamic charac-
Responsible Editor: Narasimman Sundararajan
terization. The static characterization is to determine the
properties of reservoir rocks in a given area. This is an
* Sanda Oumarou
oumarousanda22@yahoo.fr
important step to understand the spatial distribution of
reservoir layer parameters and their environments.
1
Dynamic characterization involves performing an evolu-
National Institute of Cartography, P.O. Box 157, tionary analysis of reservoir properties to evaluate
Yaounde, Cameroon
2
existing fluids over time. This approach is mainly used
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Maroua, to plan and control production. This article focuses main-
P.O. Box 814, Maroua, Cameroon
3
ly on static characterization, which will review the work
Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Hydrocarbons and Chemistry, done on the use of seismic attributes in the analysis of
M’Hamed Bougara University of Boumerdes, P.O. Box 3500,
Boumerdes, Algeria reservoir properties. Thus, seismic attributes are special
4 measures of kinematic, dynamic, geometric, or statistical
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Yaounde 1,
P.O. Box 812, Yaounde, Cameroon characteristics obtained from seismic data and which con-
5 tribute to structural, stratigraphic, and petrophysical inter-
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Bamenda,
P.O. Box 39, Bambili, Cameroon pretation (Djeddi 2016). In recent years, several attributes
6 have been used in reservoir characterization to improve
Department of Exploration, Faculty of Mining and Petroleum
Industries, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 46, Maroua, Cameroon the understanding of reservoir characteristics. The intro-
7 duction of a multitude of attributes has revolutionized oil
Institute for Geological and Mining Research, P.O. Box 4110,
Yaounde, Cameroon exploration and has extended the application of the
 402 Page 2 of 15
attributes in the reservoir analysis. It begins with the lo-
cation of trap structures, then follows the determination of
accumulation zone parameters, and ends up with the de-
tection of hydrocarbon indicators.
Reminders of reservoir characteristics
Reservoir characterization consists of analyzing the different
reservoir parameters such as porosity, permeability, water sat-
uration, reservoir lithology, and sometimes its size. Reservoirs
are defined in this work as rocks with interconnected voids
that promote the circulation and accumulation of fluids. If we
find the hydrocarbons (oil and/or gas) are found within among
these fluids, reservoirs are called hydrocarbons. The complic-
ity of reservoirs sometimes makes it difficult to better under-
stand these reservoir rocks to the spatial and even temporal
variation of the criteria which conditions the existence of res-
ervoir rocks. Nevertheless, reservoirs can be defined accord-
ing to the petrophysical and geological characteristics.
Petrophysical characteristics
Petrophysics is the study of the physical and chemical charac-
teristics of rocks. According to Cossé (1988), a rock consti-
tutes a reservoir if and only if it has a storage capacity
(porosity) and that fluids can circulate (permeability). The
petrophysical characteristics of the reservoirs are closely de-
pendent on the rock-fluid relations and in particular the inter-
faces between rocks and their contents (fluids). There are two
types of petrophysical properties, namely conventional
petrophysical properties and those derived from rock mechan-
ics (Neau 2009).
Conventional petrophysical properties
It is necessary to take a look at the elements that characterize
the reservoirs notably the porosity, permeability, fluid satura-
tion, and volume of clay.
The porosity (Φ) of a rock is its property to have voids,
pores, or cracks. It is expressed quantitatively by the percent-
age of the pore volume in relation to the total volume of the
rock. Consider a rock sample with its apparent volume or total
volume VT consisting of a solid volume VS and a pore volume
V
VP. The porosity Φ is presented in the equation: Φ = Void−space
V Total ,
expressed in %.
Reservoir specialists are interested in porosity allowing the
circulation of fluids in the pores. Φe is the effective porosity
which corresponds to the pores connected to each other and
the outside. Thus, we define the total porosity Φt correspond-
ing to all the pores, whether or not related to each other, and
the residual porosity Φr which considers only isolated pores.
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402
The pore structure varies depending on the type of reservoir
rock because the pore system of the carbonate reservoir rock is
different and irregular. Thus, the pore structure has an impact
on the elastic wave velocities. Sun (2004) demonstrates that
by considering the resolution of Zoeppritz’s exact equations
and elastic finite element modeling, it is possible to detect
variations in pore structure in reservoir rocks from seismic
data via an amplitude variation analysis with offset (AVO).
Permeability is a measure of the capacity for fluid move-
ment in porous or fractured media (Rubino et al. 2012). If the
fluid is homogeneous and has no significant action on the
surrounding medium, the permeability is said to be ab-
solute. The unit of measurement of the permeability is
the darcy, and in most cases, the millidarcy is used
(with 1 mD = 10−15m2). The permeability is good if
its value is between 200 and 500 mD.
Saturation can be defined as impregnation of interstitial
voids of a porous or cracked medium by infiltration of fluid
(oil, gas, or water). Thus, the saturation of oil, water, and gas is
defined as the ratio of each of the volume of the fluids to the
total volume and they are denoted as SW, SO and SG for the
water saturation, oil, and gas respectively (1).
VW VO VG
SW ¼ ; SO ¼ ; SG ¼ ð1Þ
VP VP VP
where VP is the pore volume, VW is the volume of water, VO is
the volume of oil, and VG is the volume of gas. In the petro-
leum domain, knowledge of the oil and gas volumes requires
knowledge of saturation at all points or at least a satisfactory
approach (Cossé 1988).
Volume of clay The volume of clay is very important for the
study of reservoir rocks. So, we consider the case of simple
clay formations that are formed from a matrix rock sandstone,
limestone, or dolomite, mixed with clay. They contain inter-
stitial fluids such as water, oil, or gas. The distribution of the
clay usually gives dispersed, laminated, and structural clays.
The clay volume VCL comprises bound water ɸB but some-
times the clay index (ICL or Ish) is used instead of clay volume
because of its relation to the effect of the clay only to its
volume. In fact, Vsh consists of clay and the impurities asso-
ciated with it that are silt, limestone, and anhydrite while VCL
is considered as the volume of the pure clay. It is this pure clay
that intervenes during the interpretation.
Petrophysical properties derived from rock mechanics
The indirect or derived petrophysical properties from mechan-
ic rocks are basically related to elastic modules
(incompressibility, shear modulus, Young’s modulus,
Poisson’s ratio). The reservoir is assumed to be a porous iso-
tropic and linearly elastic medium. Thus, the velocities of the
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402
P and S waves are entirely characterized by three parameters,
namely the isostatic modulus of elasticity (bulk modulus), the
shear modulus (shear modulus), and bulk density which is in
grams per cubic centimeter. The rock contains a solid
component and porous component saturated with differ-
ent fluids that represent a continuous real medium with
average elastic properties.
Geological characteristics
Geological characteristics are important in the determination
of layers that constitute accumulation zones. Thus, reservoir
rocks can be grouped into two main types, namely detrital
reservoirs and carbonate reservoirs.
Detrital reservoirs (also known as sandstone reservoirs)
Detrital reservoirs are generally composed of stable elements,
having a fairly homogeneous porosity and permeability, of
intergranular type, controlled by the grain size and the degree
of cementation. The relationships between porosity and per-
meability are generally good and decrease with landfill that
are regular and function with temperature.
Carbonate reservoirs
Carbonated reservoirs are characterized by a very large het-
erogeneity of porosity and permeability. They are often mas-
sive, large pore, and fissured in the case of reefs, finely strat-
ified and laminated in the reef and shoal deposits. They consist
mainly of dolomites and limestones.
Characterization of reservoirs by seismic
attributes
The characterization of the reservoirs by the analysis of the
seismic attributes (Oyeyemi and Aizebeokhai 2015) enables
to build from these attributes so as to make a precise study of
the reservoirs to determine the different models of the reser-
voirs which are precisely geological, stratigraphic, and
petrophysical models. The seismic attributes make it possible
to estimate the permeability, porosity, hydrocarbon indicators,
fluid movement, thickness, lithology, and the monitoring
of hydrocarbon production. This study does not enumer-
ate exhaustively all the attributes used in reservoir char-
acterization but highlights some relevant seismic attri-
butes best suited for reservoir location, property analy-
sis, and hydrocarbon zone detection.
Page 3 of 15 402
Location of reservoir
Nowadays, there are attributes that can circumscribe areas of
hydrocarbon accumulations. This localization takes place thanks
to the structures that define the delimitation and the location of
the reservoirs because it involves identifying trap structures.
There are summarily three types of traps: structural traps (faults,
anticlines, and synclines); stratigraphic traps (sandstone body,
carbonate reef, and permeability bevel); and mixed traps (salt
dome). Several seismic attributes such as similarity, thinned fault
likelihood, semblance, fault enhancement filter, ridge enhance-
ment filter, curvature, variance, azimuthal AVO, inversion to
anisotropic parameters, fault extraction, instantaneous amplitude,
sweetness attribute, coherence, gradients, and dips are used to
determine the structures for locating the reservoirs. But the cur-
vature, coherence, gradient, and dip are mainly dedicated to the
determination of channel, faults, anticlines, synclines, and salt
dome. To do this, it would be necessary to highlight the most
important attributes in the detection of traps such as coherence,
variance, amplitude gradients, dip azimuth measurements, and
curvature. Coherence attribute can be defined as a measurement
of the lateral continuity of the seismic signal (Backé et al. 2012).
The identification of faults by coherence (Xia et al. 2015) is
undoubtedly a topic that interests specialists in oil exploration
based on publications in this domain (Fig. 1). But the first pub-
lications (Bahorich and Farmer 1995; Marfurt et al. 1998;
Garsztenkorn and Marfurt 1999) played a decisive role in the
use of this method, because it was in their work to highlight
a cross-correlation of the seismic traces, then to conduct a
study of multitrace and finally to implement the algorithm
of similarity obtained thanks to the eigenvalues of a matrix
of covariance on a window of seismic data. For example,
several studies (Roberts 2001; Sigismondi and Soldo 2003;
Chopra and Marfurt 2007a) were conducted to improve
fault detection. With coherence, the location of reservoirs
becomes easy by providing for the determination of geolog-
ical structures (Rezvandehy et al. 2011; Bahorich and
Farmer 1995). Coherence attribute is the method used in
calculating the similarity between seismic traces and is also
the best determinant of anticline structures, faults, deltas,
river channels, dikes, and other stratigraphic anomalies
(Rezvandehy et al. 2011). The identification of faults and
fracture zones by the coherence attribute was first illustrated
by the works of Bahorich and Farmer (1995) on the cross-
correlation of seismic traces, then by a study on a multitrace
semblance of Marfurt et al. (1998) and finally by the analy-
sis of Garsztenkorn and Marfurt (1999) based on the simi-
larity algorithm obtained thanks to the eigenvalues of a co-
variance matrix on a window of the seismic data. Thus, the
detection of faults by the coherence attribute has improved
considerably thanks to the research conducted in recent
years (Randen et al. 2001; Pedersen et al. 2002; Aqrawi
and Boe 2011; Dorn et al. 2012).
 402 Page 4 of 15 Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402

Fig. 1 Fault detection by complex spectral coherence. (f) 18 Hz Eighteen respectively. The dotted lines indicate the faults. (a) shows vertical
and (g), and (h) 38 Hz component coherence volumes while (b) and (c) sections, (d) spectral magnitude components at 38 Hz, and (e)
indicate the seismic amplitude with frequencies 18 and 25 Hz broadband (modified from Fangyu and Wenkai 2014)

Curvature attributes Curvature is an excellent attribute for Thus, there are several types of curvature attributes such as
detecting fractures and even faults. It is calculated using a very mean curvature (km), Gaussian curvature (kg), maximum cur-
simple formula (2): vature (kmax), minimum curvature (Kmin), intaglio curvature
(Kd), curvature of strike (Ks), contour curvature (kc), and most
1 2π dw d 2 y=dx2 positive and negative curvatures (K+ and K−) (Fig. 4). The
K¼ ¼ ¼ ¼ 3 =2 ; ð2Þ
R 2πR dS utility of curvatures in reservoir analysis varies according to
1 þ ðdy=dxÞ2
the structures they emphasize. It is in this sense that the max-
which is also the inverse of the osculating circle with seismic imum curvature is very effective in detecting faults. Similarly,
horizons. According to Roberts (2001), curvature is a 2D property curvature measurements such as the most positive curvatures
of a curve and describes how bent a curve is at a particular point on and the most negative curvatures are increasingly used by
the curve, i.e., how much the curve deviates from a straight line at specialists because of their significant results in terms of struc-
this point (Fig. 2). Therefore, positive or negative curvature values tural analysis. Thus, the positive curvatures show anticlinal
indicate anticlinal or synclinal structures respectively (Fig. 3). structures and raised fault blocks, while the most negative

Fig. 2 Mathematical definition of

curvature. For a particular point P
on a curve, the curvature can be
defined in terms of the radius of
curvature; R of the osculating
circle with a tangent T with the
curve. N is the vector normal to
the curve at point P, which
defines the local dip angle θ. The
curvature at point P is defined as
the reciprocal of the radius of
curvature (modified from Roberts
2001)
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402 Page 5 of 15 402

Fig. 3 Sign convention adopted

for curvature values (modified
from Sigismondi and Soldo 2003)

curvatures indicate the synclinal and rejected fault blocks
(Chopra and Marfurt 2007). In addition to their effectiveness,
the determination of traps makes it possible to highlight strat-
igraphic characteristics such as channels, lifts, and bars.
The first step in the reservoir study is to locate reservoir
rocks by identifying structures capable of accumulating hy-
drocarbons. To do this, the structural attributes define the oil
system by highlighting the pitfalls that constitute the essential
element in the location of reservoirs. The attributes of curva-
ture, similarity, and spectral decomposition play a large role in
the location of oil deposits. Thus, studies have been conducted
to find out the location of reservoirs (AlBinHassan and
Marfurt 2003; Cohen et al. 2006; Fomel 2007).
Attributes such as instantaneous amplitude, spectral de-
composition, curvature, and coherence enable to deter-
mine geological structures that constitute the zones
where hydrocarbons are trapped. It is clear that these
attributes expose structural, stratigraphic, and even
mixed traps defining the hydrocarbon accumulation
zones. Knowing these areas, it is necessary to make
an analysis of the properties of reservoirs by seismic
attributes

Fig. 4 The use of curvature in the detection of faults. (a) Horizon time surface. (b) Coherence. (c) Mean curvature. (d) Gaussian curvature. (e) Dip
curvature. (f) Strike curvature. (g) Shape index. (h) Most positive curvature. (i) Most negative curvature (modified from Chopra and Marfurt 2007a)
 402 Page 6 of 15
Determination reservoir properties
The analysis of reservoir properties is the major step in its char-
acterization. Thus, several attributes analyze reservoir properties
such as lithology, porosity, permeability, thickness, and delimi-
tation of layer. In this case, the analysis of the reservoir parame-
ters is performed using the seismic attributes, mainly accompa-
nied by good data to improve the quality of results. Thus, the
instantaneous amplitude, the instantaneous frequency, the spec-
tral decomposition, the rate of variation of the envelope, the
acoustic impedance, the shear impedance, the shear modulus,
and the instantaneous phase are applied to extract information
relating to lithology, thickness estimation, sequence delineation,
porosity, and permeability. The instantaneous amplitude is wide-
ly used to accurately determine the location of reservoirs through
anomalies such as bright spot, flat spot, and dim spot (Fig. 5).
Thickness and delimitation of layers
The delimitation of layers is carried out by attributes such as
the instantaneous amplitude and the instantaneous phase.
These two attributes highlight the sequences that exist with-
in the reservoir. By referring to regional geology, it
Fig. 5 Illustration of bright spot
detection. (a) Instantaneous
amplitude of inline 230. (b) The
three components of 3D seismic
data which are inline, crossline,
and z-slice to show the extent of
the reservoir in space. (c) The
hydrocarbon reservoir seen by z-
slice 524 (modified from Sanda
et al. 2020)
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402
becomes easy to deduce from these sequences the different
layers that constitute the reservoir. After determining the
different layers, it is necessary to estimate the thickness of
the layers of the reservoir. To do this, the instantaneous
frequency and the spectral decomposition are seismic
attributes that make it possible to estimate the thickness
of a layer. Sometimes, the combination of attributes
provides better results in estimating thicknesses (Asim
et al. 2016). It is in this sense that Zhao et al. (2008)
have shown that the association of maximum amplitude
and acoustic impedance illustrates the estimation of
thicknesses (Fig. 6). Spectral decomposition (Castagna
et al. 2003; Naseer et al. 2017; Naseer and Asim
2018) is a seismic attribute that highlights a spectrum
that describes the abnormal low- and high-frequency
effects responsible of seismic traces to change (Fig. 7).
It delineates the reservoir and is very important in the
stratigraphic analysis of reservoirs. It promotes a better
understanding of reservoir heterogeneities and their implica-
tions by analyzing parameters such as seismic geomorpholo-
gy, thickness estimation, lithology, and even direct hydrocar-
bon detection. It is widely used to estimate thickness (Liu and
Marfurt 2006; Dezfoolian et al. 2013; Li et al. 2019).
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402 Page 7 of 15 402

Fig. 6 Predicted sand thicknesses in three zones of 3D forward model. (a) zone 3 by fusing RMS amplitude of zone 2 and zone 3. The distribution of
Predicted sand thickness in zone 1 by fusing RMS amplitude of zone 1 sand thickness between training wells can be regarded as cross-validated
and zone 2. (b) Predicted sand thickness in zone 2 by fusing RMS data (Li et al. 2019)
amplitude of zone 1, zone 2, and zone 3. (c) Predicted sand thickness in

Fig. 7 Illustration of spectral decomposition, showing the discrimination of the porous reservoir (red arrows) and non-porous shales (white arrows), and
the faults (green-dashed surfaces) (modified from Naseer and Asim 2018)
 402 Page 8 of 15 Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402

Fig. 8 Cross-plot of λρ and μρ

from well logs color coded by
Vshale (modified from Adeoti
et al. 2017)

Fig. 9 (a) Estimation of brine

saturation from joint inversion.
(b) Comparison to well log data.
(c) Saturation STD associated
with the MAP estimator
(modified from Bachrach 2006)
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402
Lithology
It is very important in the characterization of the reser-
voirs because of the information it contains on the ac-
cumulation zones (Wang and Huang 2016). The nature
of the layers is a determining factor in the quality of the
reservoir. The instantaneous amplitude, instantaneous
frequency, the rate of variation of the envelope, and
the shear modulus are attributes that determine the lith-
ological parameters of reservoirs. The instantaneous at-
tributes (Khan and Akhter 2016) such as amplitude,
frequency, and rate of change of the envelope, through
a good visualization, provide highlight of the different
layers. To do this, it is important to have enough
knowledge of the geology of the study area to better
highlight the different layers. The extraction of the λρ
and μρ attributes of the seismic data provides quality
information on the nature of the rocks and even on
the fluids of the reservoir (Fig. 8). By crossing these
two attributes, the identification of different lithologies
becomes easy. It is the same that the crossing of the
ratio of velocities Vp/Vs by μρ offers good lithological
discrimination. A cross-plot of the natural log of acous-
tic impedance versus Poisson’s ratio is often used for
the identification of layer lithology (Hilterman et al.
1998).
Fig. 10 a Estimation of porosity from joint inversion. b Comparison to well log data. c Porosity STD associated with the MAP estimator (modified from
Bachrach 2006)
Page 9 of 15 402
Porosity and permeability
In the study of reservoirs, porosity and permeability are the
most important properties. It is clear that a good knowledge of
these parameters leads to a good understanding of the quality
of the study area but their determination remains difficult.
Thus, the approach used by the seismic (Pride et al. 2003;
Rubino et al. 2012; Naeem et al. 2015) and more precisely
by the seismic attributes would allow the estimation of the
porosity and the permeability through the variation of the
impedance contrast obtained thanks to the reflectivity of the
P and S waves on the reservoir. Thus, Bachrach (2006) uses
three seismic attributes, namely acoustic impedance, shear
impedance, and density, to make a joint estimate of porosity
and saturation (Figs. 9 and 10). Attributes deduced from im-
pedances such as λρ, μρ, and Vp/Vs are widely used to predict
porosity. Similarly, the crossing of the two AVO (amplitude
variation with offset) attributes, namely the gradient and the
intercept, makes it possible to estimate the porosity. Thus,
porosity estimation is most often done using attributes such
as deterministic inversion, neural networks, and rock property
prediction. As regards permeability, the use of the
instantaneous frequency would make it possible to provide
information on the mobility of the fluids. Using linear
regression, Corbeanu et al. (2002) demonstrate that permeabil-
ity is predicted from instantaneous amplitude and frequency at
 402 Page 10 of 15 Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402

Fig. 11 Illustration of the

determination of permeability by
amplitude. The 3D predicted
permeability cube with slices for
comparing GPR amplitudes with
permeabilities. The measured
permeability curves are plotted in
magenta at holes B, C, and D for
comparison. The color bar is
logarithmic to emphasize the low
permeability values that dominate
the cube (modified from
Corbeanu et al. 2002)

each point in the data volume (Fig. 11). Thus, Goloshubin
et al. (2006) conducted a study that uses low frequencies to
estimate fluid content and map highly permeable production
zones in reservoirs.
Identifying areas of hydrocarbons
The identification of hydrocarbons through seismic data be-
gan a long time ago when several works have been devoted to
the study of the amplitude of seismic waves in the detection of
areas of hydrocarbon accumulations (O’Doherty and Anstey
1971; Sheriff 1974; Barry and Shugart 1974; Hilterman
1975). Thus, the work of Anstey (1972, 1973a, 1973b) marks
the birth of the seismic attributes which over time have be-
come precious tools of the petroleum industry. For him, the
force of reflection which is a measure of amplitude was the
main attribute for the analysis of bright spots. Afterwards,
researchers’ interest in the notion of attributes is justified by
studies carried out in this domain (Taner et al. 1979;
Robertson and Fisher 1988; Taner et al. 1994; Chen and
Sidney 1997; Barnes 2001; Chopra and Marfurt 2005;
Zhang et al. 2015; Wang et al. 2019). In the literature, several
attributes make it possible to detect hydrocarbons on a volume
or a seismic section (Li and Liu 2018; Negm et al. 2020). The

Fig. 12 a–c Illustration of the

detection of hydrocarbons by the
instantaneous frequency
(modified from Castagna et al.
2003)
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402 Page 11 of 15 402

Fig. 13 (a) Illustration of the hydrocarbon detection using the cross-plotting of acoustic impedance and Vp/Vs ratio. (b) Different classes of AVO and
their meanings (modified from Avseth et al. 2008)

most common are the AVO attributes, frequency attenuation, frequency, gas chimneys, three-term inversion, neural net-
energy, sweetness, fluid contact finder, seismic feature en- work classification, spectral decomposition, and the apparent
hancement, instantaneous amplitude, instantaneous polarity. Thus, the works of Tahir et al. (2016) distinguished
 402 Page 12 of 15
the gas and non-gas zones on the basis of regression analysis
with attributes such as average instantaneous frequency, peak
spectral frequency, average instantaneous phase, and sweet-
ness attributes. The direct detection of hydrocarbons (bright
spot, flat spot, and dim spot) by the instantaneous amplitude
and the instantaneous frequency is not always effective (Fig.
12). Attenuation is defined as any decrease in amplitude of the
wavefront during its propagation and is associated or not with
the velocity dispersion, depending on the physical mechanism
at the origin of the decrease in amplitude (Yao 2013). Also
called the inverse of the quality factor, seismic attenuation is
an attribute sensitive to hydrocarbon accumulation, fluid-
saturated fractures, and roughness (Walls et al. 2003). The
usefulness of this attribute in the characterization of reservoirs
is great because the ratio between compression and shear at-
tenuations is used as an indicator of hydrocarbons for good
data. Also, the variation of frequencies is an indicator of
the detection of hydrocarbons. This is how low frequen-
cies highlight the presence of reservoirs (Castagna et al.
2003). To avoid this doubt, the use of AVO attributes
appears to be a solution in the detection of hydrocarbons.
The AVO attributes as demonstrated by Smith and
Guidlow (1987), Rutherford and Williams (1989),
Hilterman (1990), Castagna and Smith (1994), Castagna
et al. (1998), Disiena et al. (1995), Avseth et al. (2014),
Xiao et al. (2019), and Farfour and Foster (2020) are
involved in all stages of oil exploitation, exploration,
development, and production. On the basis of the
normal incidence reflection coefficient, Rutherford and
Williams (1989) suggest three classes of AVO: I, II, and
III (Fig. 13). The class I refers to sands characterized by
high impedance compared to overlying shales with a pos-
itive intercept (a) and a negative gradient (b). The class II
is composed of sands with low normal incidence reflec-
tivity and the class III is represented by sands with lower
impedance than overlying shales and increasing amplitude
of reflection with offset (intercept (a) and gradient (b) are
negative). The class IV is considered when the reflection
coefficients change more and more from negative sign to
positive sign with an increasing offset (Castagna et al.
1998). Hilterman et al. (2000) demonstrated that class
III and IV anomalies are better at recognizing amplitude
bright spots on seismic data, while class II anomalies are
needed simply to identify potential reservoirs. To do this,
petrophysical parameters such as impedance, P and S
wave velocities, energy conversion elasticity modules,
and wave conversion are extracted to estimate the fluid
content of the diagrams of these parameters. The use of
these attributes for hydrocarbon identification and recog-
nition is very effective. The detection of hydrocarbons by
AVO attributes is a topic of interest to specialists of this
field (e.g., Smith and Guidlow 1987; Fatti et al. 1994;
Veeken and Rauch-Davies 2006).
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402
Discussion
The characterization of reservoirs by seismic attributes is an
interesting technique that provides quality results which al-
lows firstly to locate the accumulation zones, then to analyze
the characteristics of reservoirs, and finally to determine the
distribution of hydrocarbons. The use of seismic attributes to
characterize reservoirs provides information on reservoir char-
acteristics such as porosity, thickness, lithology, direct hydro-
carbon indicators (bright spot, flat spot, and dim spot), and
traps (faults, anticlines, synclines, and salt domes). It should
be emphasized that this approach can be improved by com-
bining it with other methods such as log analysis, seismic
sampling, neural networks, and statistical analysis. However,
the characterization of the reservoirs becomes a multidisci-
plinary study because it integrates geostatistics, geophysics,
petrophysics, seismic coring, and geology.
By associating seismic attributes with good logs, all
petrophysical properties (porosity, permeability, water saturation,
clay volume, and/or shale volume) are taken into account. This
approach provides precise information on the property values of
reservoirs (Sofolabo and Onyia 2017). It becomes very easy to
interpolate the well data with the seismic attributes to know the
distribution of the properties over the whole extent of the reser-
voir. In addition, gamma ray and resistivity logs provide valuable
information on reservoir characteristics (Eshimokhai and
Akhirevbulu 2012). The integration of good logs with seismic
data provides more accurate seismic attributes in the analysis of
hydrocarbon reservoir characteristics.
The statistical approach to reservoir characterization is an
important tool in the analysis of the petrophysical properties of
reservoirs in that it allows the values of each characteristic to
be calculated. As this approach provides local information, it
is important to use the seismic attributes derived from the
integration of statistical data with seismic data. This leads to
a joint analysis of several attributes called multiattribute
(MA). To do this, the multiattribute analysis highlights three
approaches, namely the co-kriging technique, the neural net-
works (Aminzadeha et al. 2000), and the covariance matrix.
These three statistical methods make it possible to predict a
property by using several attributes in order to improve the
results obtained with an attribute.
Conclusion
By revisiting the work related to the application of seismic
attributes in the characterization of reservoirs, it appears that
each attribute gives a particular function and explanation for
the understanding of geological structures and hydrocarbon po-
tentials. This contribution of the attributes is manifested by the
quality of the results obtained and which has been improved
thanks to the combination of several attributes in order to
Arab J Geosci (2021) 14:402
extract the best information. The variation of inclination and
azimuth provides a rapid and reliable estimation of the conver-
gence, divergence, parallelism, or disorder of the reflectors,
which are the basis of stratigraphic or structural interpretations.
So, the variation of the seismic trace is the consequence of the
change of structures, stratigraphy, porosity, permeability, and
presence of hydrocarbons in geological layers. Despite the
multifunctionality, each attribute is very effective in a specific
field of reservoir characterization. It is therefore important to
specify that the instantaneous amplitude and frequency are
good indicators of the presence of gas. The instantaneous phase
is very effective to determine the configuration of the continuity
of lateral reflector and bedding. The spectral decomposition is
important in estimating bed thickness and finally coherence
while curvature is the best attribute for detecting faults, frac-
tures, and lateral stratigraphic discontinuities. Seismic attributes
play a very important role in identifying potential hydrocarbon
zones. Sometimes, these attributes directly detect hydrocarbons
and refer to direct indicator of hydrocarbons. Among these
attributes, the AVO attribute explains the lithology as well as
the presence of the fluids on a seismic volume (Welsh et al.
2008). This analysis shows that the attributes most commonly
used in the detection of hydrocarbons are those related to the
amplitudes and frequencies of seismic traces.
Single attribute analysis uses a linear or non-linear relation-
ship between a seismic attribute and a property using a single
trace parameter (Guerrero et al. 2010). Generally, it is impor-
tant to combine several attributes in order to improve the qual-
ity of the results obtained during the analysis of reservoirs,
hence the emergence of the notion of multiattributes which
integrates within it all the geostatic methods that use the attri-
butes to characterize the reservoirs. Thus, among these attri-
butes, there is the co-kriging, the neural networks, and the
covariance matrix.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no competing
interests.
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