Azimuthally anisotropic elastic impedance inversion for fluid indicator driven by rock physics

Abstract

The normal-to-tangential fracture compliance ratio is usually used as a fracture fluid indicator (FFI) for fluid identification in fractured reservoirs. With a new parameterization for fracture weaknesses, we have defined a new FFI based on azimuthally anisotropic elastic impedance (EI) inversion and fractured anisotropic rock-physics models. First, we derived a new azimuthally anisotropic EI equation with a similar expression for the isotropic and anisotropic EI parts to remove the exponential correction of EI that is attributable to weak anisotropy. Then, we built a fractured anisotropic rock-physics model used for the estimation of well-log parameters for the normal and tangential fracture weaknesses, which built the initial background low-frequency trend of fracture weaknesses. Finally, based on the azimuthally anisotropic EI inversion method with the Cauchy-sparse and low-frequency information regularization, we estimated an FFI applied to fluid identification in fractured reservoirs. Tests on the synthetic and real data demonstrate that the anisotropic parameters related to fracture weaknesses can be estimated reasonably and stably and that our method appears to provide an alternative available for fluid identification in fractured reservoirs.