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An approach for quantification of the hydrate resources using the effective medium theory and AVO analysis: Examples from the Makran accretionary prism, offshore Iran

BEHNAM HOSSEINI SHOAR1 ,  ABDOLRAHIM JAVAHERIAN1,2 ,  NASSER KESHAVARZ FARAJKHAH3 ,  MOJTABA SEDDIGH ARABANI4
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1 Department of Petroleum Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.,
2 Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Iran. Javaheri@ut.ac.ir,
3 Exploration and Production Research Center, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, Tehran, Iran.,
4 Department of Geophysics, Exploration Directorate, National Iranian Oil Company, Tehran, Iran.,
JSE 2014, 23(1), 65–87;
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

Hosseini Shoar, B., Javaherian, A., Keshavarz Farajkhah, N. and Seddigh Arabani, M., 2014. An approach for quantification of the hydrate resources using the effective medium theory and AVO analysis: Examples from the Makran accretionary prism, offshore Iran. Journal of Seismic Exploration, 23: 65-87. Marine hydrates are globally distributed in deep-sea sediments, such as the Makran accretionary prism, where high operational costs and drilling hazards cause a lack of well data. Although the seismic analyses are efficient methods for detection and delineation of hydrate resources for such unexplored regions, developing a scheme to quantify them would be the ultimate goal. In this study, a quantifying approach is introduced which is called reflectivity template (RT). This approach theoretically calculates normal incident (NI) and Poisson reflectivity (PR) attributes by the effective medium theory (EMT) and creates their intuitive crossplots across a bottom simulating reflector (BSR). By superimposing the attributes derived from amplitude-variation-with- offset (AVO) on RTs, the saturations of the hydrate and free gas near the BSR could be estimated. This technique acts as a quantitative interpretation tool when well log data is not available. It is only needed to make good assumptions about porosity and mineralogical composition of the host sediments. Reliability of this approach was validated by synthetic data and the results showed the RT should be created in a way that it was independent from the velocity ratio assumption. Applying this approach to a 2D marine pre-stack time migrated (PSTM) seismic line have implied geological control over hydrate and free gas saturations in the Makran accretionary prism. Estimated saturations near the BSR were approximately 4-30% for the gas hydrate and 1-7% for the free gas across the seismic line.

Keywords
gas hydrate
BSR
effective medium theory (EMT)
AVO analysis
reflectivity template (RT)
normal incident reflectivity (NI)
Poisson reflectivity (PR)
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Journal of Seismic Exploration, Electronic ISSN: 0963-0651 Print ISSN: 0963-0651, Published by AccScience Publishing
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