Article from SEG's The Leading Edge

4D seismic monitoring of the miscible CO2 flood of Hall-Gurney Field, Kansas

Abdelmoneam E. Raef, Richard D. Miller, Alan P. Byrnes, and William E. Harrison, Kansas Geological Survey

Introduction

Time-lapse seismic monitoring of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programs has been described by several authors over the last 15 years. Advances in equalization techniques have allowed legacy data (in some cases 15 years prior to a monitoring survey) to be used as a baseline. Sensitivity of seismic data to subtle changes in pore composition has been notably improved with the development of dozens of new attribute analysis techniques in the last several years.

Unique to our application is the use of nonamplitude, noninversion attributes for monitoring the effectiveness of EOR in thin, shallow (less than 1000 m) carbonates. Considering the very thin (< 5 m) reservoir interval, this first-time, high-resolution 4D survey needed to be highly repeatable, low-cost, high signal-to-noise, and include several repeat surveys prior to breakthrough. Development of a highly accurate map of CO2 progression through this field was complicated by difficulties propagating high-frequency signal in this near-surface setting, maintaining uniform fold coverage throughout the optimum offset range, vulnerability of signal to contamination by ground roll and aircoupled wave within the noise cone, weak fluid effects due to high carbonate stiffness, and complexity in porosity distribution.

Citation

Raef, A.E., R.D. Miller, A.P. Byrnes, and W.E. Harrison, 2004, 4D seismic monitoring of the miscible CO2 flood of Hall-Gurney Field, Kansas: Leading Edge, v. 23, n. 11, p. 1171-1176.

Full Article

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