Towards quantitative evaluation of gas injection using time-lapse seismic data

Of particular concern in the monitoring of gas injection for the purposes of storage, disposal or improved oil recovery is the exact spatial distribution of the gas volumes in the subsurface. In principle this requirement is addressed by the use of 4D seismic data, although it is recognized that the seismic response still largely provides a qualitative estimate of moved subsurface fluids. Exact quantitative evaluation of fluid distributions and associated saturations remains a challenge to be solved. Here, an attempt has been made to produce mapped quantitative estimates of the gas volume injected into a clastic reservoir. Despite good results using three accurately repeated seismic surveys, time-delay and amplitude attributes reveal fine-scale differences though large-scale agreement in the estimated fluid movement. These differences indicate disparities in the nature of the two attributes themselves, which can be explained by several possible causes. Of most impact are the effects of processing and migration, wave interference effects and noise from non-repeatability of the seismic surveys. This subject highlights the need for a more careful consideration in 4D acquisition, amplitude processing and use of true amplitude preserving attributes in quantitative interpretation. © 2010 European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers.