The efficiency of seismic attributes to differentiate between massive and non-massive carbonate successions for hydrocarbon exploration activity

The present work investigates the efficiency of applying volume seismic attributes to differentiate between massive and non-massive carbonate sedimentary successions on using seismic data. The main objective of this work is to provide a pre-drilling technique to recognize the porous carbonate section (probable hydrocarbon reservoirs) based on seismic data. A case study from the Upper Cretaceous – Eocene carbonate successions of Abu Gharadig Basin, northern Western Desert of Egypt has been tested in this work. The qualitative interpretations of the well-log data of four available wells distributed in the study area, namely; AG-2, AG-5, AG-6 and AG-15 wells, has confirmed that the Upper Cretaceous Khoman A Member represents the massive carbonate section whereas the Eocene Apollonia Formation represents the non-massive carbonate unit. The present work have proved that the most promising seismic attributes capable of differentiating between massive and non-massive carbonate sequences are; Root Mean Square (RMS) Amplitude, Envelope (Reflection Strength), Instantaneous Frequency, Chaos, Local Flatness and Relative Acoustic Impedance.