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METHODS article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Solid Earth Geophysics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1440729
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances of New Technologies in Seismic Exploration View all 22 articles

Lithofacies Identification of Deep Coalbed Methane Reservoir Based on High-resolution Seismic Inversion

Provisionally accepted
Yu Qi Yu Qi *Kui Wu Kui Wu *Bo Wang Bo Wang *Xiaowen Zheng Xiaowen Zheng *Wenlan Li Wenlan Li *Li Dan Li Dan
  • CNOOC Research Institute Ltd, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    During the exploration and development of deep coalbed methane (CBM), delineating the thickness of coal seam and lithofacies of the roof and floor is one of the major challenging tasks. In past attempts, the prediction methods of these parameters have been limited to the conventional inversion.However, the effect of coal shielding on adjacent reflecting layers restricts the identification of underlying sand effectively by conventional inversion. Also, the depth at which the deep CBM zone is located (1500-2000 m) produces a significant overlap of P-wave impedance and Vp/Vs of sands and shale which increases classification uncertainty between these two lithofacies. We proposed a new workflow for high-precision quantitative seismic interpretation of deep CBM reservoir. Not only P-wave impedance but also GR is selected as the optimized attributes for lithofacies classification.To reduce the effect of strong reflection of coal seam and identifying thin coal layers, the seismic waveform indication inversion method is used to obtain high-resolution results of P-wave impedance and GR. It uses horizontal changes in seismic waveforms to reflect lithological assemblage characteristics for facies-controlled constraints. Then, Bayesian classification theory is used to achieve three-dimensional lithofacies classification with multi-source data. To improve the continuity and accuracy of the interpreted results, a Markov chain is applied in the Bayesian rule as the spatial prior constraint. A well-associated synthetic test and field data application in Ordos Basin demonstrates the accuracy of the proposed workflow. Compared with conventional inversion, the results of proposed workflow showed higher resolution and accuracy. By providing a new solution for the identification of roof and floor lithofacies of deep CBM reservoir, this workflow aims to contribute to the better exploration and development of deep CBM.

    Keywords: deep coalbed methane1, lithofacies identification2, seismic waveform indication inversion3, Bayes classification4, Ordos Basin5

    Received: 29 May 2024; Accepted: 08 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Qi, Wu, Wang, Zheng, Li and Dan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yu Qi, CNOOC Research Institute Ltd, Beijing, China
    Kui Wu, CNOOC Research Institute Ltd, Beijing, China
    Bo Wang, CNOOC Research Institute Ltd, Beijing, China
    Xiaowen Zheng, CNOOC Research Institute Ltd, Beijing, China
    Wenlan Li, CNOOC Research Institute Ltd, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.