Seismic Reprocessing Overcomes Uncertainty in Offshore Egyptian Field
Authors: Carpenter Chris 
Published: February 2024

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This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 214066, “Seismic Reprocessing Leads to New Breakthroughs—A Successful Case in the ASH Field, AG Basin in Egypt,” by Mohamed Elokr and Ahmed Lotfy, Kuwait Energy Egypt, and Wei Xing, United Energy Group, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

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The ASH oil field is in the eastern portion of the AG Basin in Egypt. The Lower Cretaceous Alam El Bueib is the main oil-producing formation. Because of the high heterogeneity of the Abu Roash succession, in addition to the influence of thick limestone of the Upper Cretaceous and the influence of multiple complex faults, the quality of seismic data is very poor, requiring seismic reprocessing. Two key techniques were used to achieve the goal: New vertical seismic profile (VSP) well data were acquired to adjust the velocity model, and common reflection angle migration (CRAM) prestack depth migration (PSDM) was used for reprocessing.

Introduction

The ASH field produces oil from the Aptian Lower Cretaceous reservoir. The ASH structure is interpreted as an elongated east-northeast/west-southwest anticline with intensive breaching on the downthrown side of northwest/southeast to west-northwest/east-southeast-oriented normal faults with obvious signature of synsedimentary activities. The entire area was subject to a series of tectonic events affecting the Western Desert, which led to a complex fault regime clearly recognized in the ASH structure by a series of horizontal displacement across the northwest/southeast faults. Strike/slip to oblique-slip faults also are observed from thicknesses of the cretaceous formations, creating significant difficulty in fault definition. The 3D seismic data acquired in 2007 suffered from losing amplitude of the Lower Cretaceous and deep Jurassic reflectors because of the complex structure. The strong carbonate markers disappear north of the field, where high, dense fault intersection is present closing from the main bounding fault. Loss of seismic amplitude could have severe effects on of the future economics of the field.

The seismic survey was reprocessed two times without significant enhancement of the fault imaging. PSDM was run without velocity control, resulting in an uncertain velocity model with inaccurate fault imaging and a mismatching between actual and prognosed depths of the drilled wells of greater than 50 m. This contradiction in reservoir mapping meant that the northern portion of the field remained unexplored.

Acquiring VSP in the recently drilled well encouraged reprocessing of the 3D seismic survey using well velocity as a control point in adjusting the seismic velocity model, and application of CRAM technology to improve fault imaging and appraise the uncertain area of the ASH field.

CRAM Methodology

CRAM was developed as a type of beam migration. Asymptotic ray tracing is performed, assuming that one-way diffraction rays from the subsurface image point to the surface sources and receivers. The takeoff angles from the image point are measured around a given local normal to a background reflection surface for each source ray and receiver ray. A system of source and receiver ray pairs is formed, and the recorded seismic data can be mapped into a local angle domain based on the reflection angles at the subsurface image points.​​​​