Detection of gas and water using HHT by analyzing P- and S-wave attenuation in tight sandstone gas reservoirs

• Distinguishing results of gas and water in seismic sections are analyzed.
• HHT is used to better measure attenuation associated with gas saturation.
• The formation absorption section is defined to compute the values of attenuation.
• The seismic attenuation of P- and S-waves are quantitative computed.
• Gas and water detection in tight sandstone gas reservoir shows the effects.

A direct detection of hydrocarbons is used by connecting increased attenuation of seismic waves with oil and gas fields. This study analyzes the seismic attenuation of P- and S-waves in one tight sandstone gas reservoir and attempts to give the quantitative distinguishing results of gas and water by the characteristics of the seismic attenuation of P- and S-waves. The Hilbert–Huang Transform (HHT) is used to better measure attenuation associated with gas saturation. A formation absorption section is defined to compute the values of attenuation using the common frequency sections obtained by the HHT method. Values of attenuation have been extracted from three seismic sections intersecting three different wells: one gas-saturated well, one fully water-saturated well, and one gas- and water- saturated well. For the seismic data from the Sulige gas field located in northwest Ordos Basin, China, we observed that in the gas-saturated media the S-wave attenuation was very low and much lower than the P-wave attenuation. In the fully water-saturated media the S-wave attenuation was higher than the P-wave attenuation. We suggest that the joint application of P- and S-wave attenuation can improve the direct detection between gas and water in seismic sections. This study is hoped to be useful in seismic exploration as an aid for distinguishing gas and water from gas- and water-bearing formations.