Identifying Subtle Fracture Trends in the Mississippian Saline Aquifer Unit Using New 3-D Seismic Attributes

3-D seismic volumetric curvature attributes reveal two main lineament directions, NE and NW, which reflect county-wide structural trends.
NE lineaments may be indicative of shale-filled fractures, which are barriers to fluid flow.
NW lineaments relate to open fractures, which currently serve as conduits into the aquifer.

Conclusions

The Mississippian aquifer unit has the potential to sequester large amounts of CO2.
3-D seismic volumetric curvature attributes highlight subtle fracture-related lineaments that can not be identified by other methods.
Integration of attribute and well information allows the nature of the fractures (fluid conduits vs. fluid barriers ) to be inferred.
Imaging of fractures in an aquifer to be used for CO2 sequestration is invaluable for:

Evaluating seal integrity
Maximizing injection and storage of CO2
Minimizing early breakthrough between wells where CO2 is being used for enhanced oil recovery

Acknowledgements

Grand Mesa Operating Company for providing seismic and well data
Seismic Micro-Technology, Inc. for access to The KINGDOM Suite+ software
GeoPLUS Corporation for access to the PETRA software
Rose diagrams were constructed with GEOrient software, courtesy of Dr. R. J. Holcombe, University of Queensland (http://www.earth.uq.edu.au/~rodh/software/)
US Department of Energy

References

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Gerlach, P., 1998, Pre-Pennsylvanian subcrop map: Kansas Geological Survey, Digital Petroleum Atlas, http://www.kgs.ku.edu/DPA/Plays/ProdMaps/miss_sub_oil.html, posted November 1998.

Jorgensen, D. G., Helgesen, J. O., and Imes, J. L., 1993, Regional aquifers in Kansas, Nebraska, and parts of Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming – Geohydrologic framework, USGS Professional Paper 1414-B, 72 p.

Merriam, D.F., 1963, The geologic history of Kansas: Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin, 162, 317 p.

Sullivan, E. C., Marfurt, K. J., and Blumentritt, C., 2004, Application of volumetric seismic attributes to fractured reservoirs: A potentially important technology for the Appalachian Basin, GSA Combined NE and SE Sections, March 2004.

Dickman Field Summary

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References