Fracture Characterization Using Seismic Continuity Analysis - Workflows and Real Case Studies

Multi-attribute seismic analysis has been widely applied to characterize the large scale fracture corridors (close to seismic resolution) affecting Cretaceous and Jurassic carbonate formations in the Middle East region, where a number of reservoirs comprise tight carbonate lithology with bulk of the production from fractures. In such context, fracture swarms/corridors correspond to seismic and sub-seismic faults which extend to tens or hundreds of meters. The method applied for fracture delineation is based on combined use attributes sensitive to discontinuities. Deliverables are fracture index maps/volumes which are calibrated against fracture characteristics observed at wells. These results can be used further as initialization maps for the Discrete Fracture Network. Multi-attribute analysis appears to be an efficient approach for detecting and characterizing fractured zones, even in absence of azimuthal attributes.