Amplitude inversion of fast and slow converted waves for fracture characterization of the Montney Formation in Pouce Coupe field, Alberta, Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The Montney Formation of western Canada is one of the largest economically viable gas resource plays in North America with reserves of 449TCF. As an unconventional tight gas play, the well development costs are high due to the hydraulic stimulations necessary for economic success. The Pouce Coupe research project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between the Reservoir Characterization Project (RCP) and Talisman Energy Inc. with the objective of understanding the reservoir to enable the optimization of well placement and completion design. The work in this thesis focuses on identifying the natural fractures in the reservoir that act as the delivery systems for hydrocarbon flow to the wellbore. Characterization of the Montney Formation at Pouce Coupe is based on time-lapse multicomponent seismic surveys that were acquired before and after the hydraulic stimulation of two horizontal wells. Since shear-wave velocities and amplitudes of the PS-waves are known to be sensitive to near-vertical fractures, I utilize isotropic simultaneous seismic inversions on azimuthally-sectored PS[subscript 1] and PS[subscript 2] data sets to obtain measurements of the fast and slow shear-velocities. Specifically, I analyze two orthogonal azimuths that are parallel and perpendicular to the strike of the dominant fracture system in the field. These volumes are used to approximate the shear-wave splitting parameter that is closely related to crack density. Since crack density has a significant impact on defining the percolation zone, the work presented in this thesis provides information that can be utilized to reduce uncertainty in the reservoirs fracture model. Isotropic AVO inversion of azimuthally limited PS-waves demonstrates sufficient sensitivity to detect contrast between the anisotropic elastic properties of the reservoir and is capable of identifying regions with high crack density. This is supported by integration with spinner production logs, hydraulic stimulation history of the field, and microseismic. Results also show significant fracture network heterogeneity that is not typically accounted for in engineering-driven development despite a strong link to production. The main value of this work lies in the integration of fracture characterization with preceding RCP theses that defined the geomechanical model and composition of the reservoir at Pouce Coupe. Geophysical attributes that relate to the composition and natural fractures enable a more complete understanding of the reservoir and indicate that a successful well is dependent on both the hydrocarbon storage capacity of the matrix and a large permeable network of natural fractures.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".