Reducing the risk of low saturation gas using controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) in K-Field, Central Luconia: a forward modeling case study

Abstract

Abstract The application of controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) in hydrocarbon exploration significantly facilitates the detection of economic hydrocarbon. The method captures anomalies through the resistivity contrast between the overburdens and hydrocarbon-bearing lithologies. In most cases, the resistivity contrast is only prominent when there is sufficient hydrocarbon saturation. K-Field is situated on the continental shelf of Sarawak Basin, a sub-mature area for oil and gas in the Central Luconia province. Despite the low saturation of the gas in the Cycle VI sand, the seismic data shows a strong amplitude in the shallow section. Therefore, this study is conducted to assess the change of resistivity and CSEM response to the gas saturation and thickness variations of thin-gas sand in the K-Field. 3D resistivity models and three exploration wells are provided and two main methods are implemented in this study comprising the resistivity and CSEM forward modelings. The resistivity modeling is conducted using the Indonesia water saturation equation for different gas saturation scenarios and subsequently, the modeled resistivity is inputted in 1D and 2.5D CSEM forward modeling. The modeled CSEM response analysis is done by normalizing the modeled CSEM amplitude to the background or also known as normalized amplitude response (NAR). In gas saturation variation, the modeled resistivity showed an insignificant resistivity increase from 0.45Ωm to 0.55Ωm from wet case to 5% of gas and strongly increases to 35Ωm at 90% of gas saturation. The 1D CSEM NAR shows a very weak response of less than a 3% increase for 5% of gas and up to 230% increase for 90% of gas. In gas thickness variation, the CSEM NAR is weak and less than a 15% cutoff for all the tested thicknesses for 5% and 45% of in-situ gas. At 70% of gas, 25m is the minimum detected gas thickness with a 17.5% response increase, and at 90% of gas, the response is already strong at a minimum 5m thickness with a 35% increase. The modeled 2D CSEM responses also show that only 70% and 90% of gas sand layers in the K-field were delineated distinctively by the inline receivers with a 40% and 200% response increase respectively.