New Constraints on Gas and Gas Hydrate Estimates in the Bering Sea using an Automated Sediment Physics Modeling Approach

Abstract:

We have developed a technique to invert vertical sound speed profiles, like those obtained from reflection seismic data, for grain and pore fluid properties. We have applied this process to seismic data from the Bering Sea to better constrain gas and gas hydrate concentrations. The inversion is based on iterative forward modeling of the sediment constituents and pressure-temperature (PT) regime to match the observed sound speed profile. Inversion input can be either interval or stacking velocities, and we avoid the assumption that stacking velocities are the same as root mean square average velocities. We use a series of constituent sediment physics models whose inputs are mainly porosity, gas saturation, temperature, pressure, effective pressure and grain type (for calculation of effective elastic moduli). The value of this approach is that every model run in the forward algorithm is geologically consistent. Vast portions of model space are eliminated from searching because, e.g. gas hydrate cannot exist outside its PT stability zone.

Of particular interest in the Bering Sea are large (~5 km wide) anomalies in seismic reflection profiles almost certainly associated with gas accumulation at the base of gas hydrate stability (BGHS). We applied the inversion across one of these anomalies using stacking velocities from finely discretized semblance scans of seismic common midpoint gathers. Preliminary results suggest that little or no gas or gas hydrate need be present in areas away from the anomaly, in order to match the observed velocity profile. Directly over the center of the anomaly, the significantly reduced velocity below the BGHS requires at least 1-2% gas saturation, and the mildly elevated velocity above the BGHS requires 5-15% gas hydrate saturation.