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Application of frequency-dependent AVO inversion to hydrocarbon detection

SHUANGQUAN CHEN1,2,3 ,  XIANG-YANG LI1,2,3 ,  XIAOYANG WU3
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1 State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, P.R. China.,
2 CNPC Key Laboratory of Geophysical Prospecting, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, P.R. China.,
3 British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, U.K.,
JSE 2014, 23(3), 241–264;
Submitted: 9 June 2025 | Revised: 9 June 2025 | Accepted: 9 June 2025 | Published: 9 June 2025
© 2025 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Chen, S.-Q., Li, X.-Y. and Wu, X.-Y., 2014. Application of frequency-dependent AVO inversion to hydrocarbon detection. Journal of Seismic Exploration, 23: 241-264. Seismic wave dispersion results mainly from fluid flow in a heterogeneous porous medium, and reflectivity at the interface of a dispersive medium is frequency-dependent. In theoretical rock physics, reflectivity can be expressed as a function of velocities which are frequency-dependent, and the expressions of prestack Zoeppritz equations are also frequency-dependent. In this paper, we develop a frequency-dependent AVO inversion (FDAI) method that is based entirely on the frequency-dependent seismic response attributes of prestack seismic data, and apply it to a hydrocarbon detection case study. Analysis of elastic, frequency-dependent media using synthetic methods demonstrates improved hydrocarbon detection by FDAI compared to conventional AVO inversion. Application to a real field seismic dataset indicates that seismic wave dispersion resulting from the hydrocarbon inclusions can be detected using the frequency-dependent inversion method. In particular, for reservoir characterization and hydrocarbon detection, dispersion characteristics due to wave-induced fluid flow in the porous reservoir can be interpreted advantageously using the FDAI method.

Keywords
frequency-dependent
AVO inversion
dispersion
hydrocarbon detecting
time-frequency decomposition
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Journal of Seismic Exploration, Electronic ISSN: 0963-0651 Print ISSN: 0963-0651, Published by AccScience Publishing
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