Patent ID: 7177765

Claim:
A seismic elastic inversion method for predicting rock porosity and fluid type in sediments having water and gas therein, the inversion method using seismic data from an oil and gas exploration area of interest, the method steps comprising: generating ψS pseudo shear reflectivity data and P compressional reflectivity data from the seismic data using conventional seismic techniques; calculating and producing scaled pseudo shear and compressional velocity data ψVs and ψVp from both the ψS pseudo shear reflectivity data and the P compressional reflectivity data; combining and re-projecting the velocity data ψVs and ψVp and inverting the velocity data ψVs and ψVp and then calibrating the velocity data to well control for producing a fluid volume and a porosity volume of the oil and gas exploration area; and storing the fluid and porosity volume in an electronic storage medium for analysis to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial gas accumulations prior to drilling.