Can hydrocarbon saturation be estimated using density contrast parameter?

The density contrast parameter may reveal important and crucial information about the presence and saturation of hydrocarbon. In this paper, we demonstrate the relation between density contrast and gas saturation and one method for extracting these parameters from seismic data. We use a reparameterization of the Knott-Zoeppritz equation without any approximation in terms of a background and three contrast parameters: P-velocity, S-velocity and density contrasts. Synthetic and real data examples show that a reliable estimation of the density contrast is possible by using data with higher angles of incidence and performing a nonlinear inversion. Density contrast appears to be indicative of gas saturation.