Mapping Stratigraphic Plays Using 3D Seismic Data and Attributes in Central Saudi Arabia

Interpretation of 3-D seismic data from Central Saudi Arabia allowed mapping of the Permo-Carboniferous Unayzah formation’s aeolian sand deposits and fluvial channels. These types of depositional environments have been frequently associated with better reservoir-quality sandstones within Saudi Arabia. The depositional setting of the Unayzah reservoirs can be highly variable and range from; glacial, to lacustrine, to meandering fluvial, to aeolian, to braided stream. Seismic amplitude data was instrumental in mapping a truncation of the upper Unayzah reservoir against the overlying Pre-Khuff Unconformity. The use of seismic attributes such as coherence and curvature indicated the existence of faulting and a fluvial channel network at the top of the Unayzah Formation. The integration of well and seismic amplitude data, via acoustic impedance inversion, revealed the direction of potentially higher porosity fairways within the channel system.