Estimating probability of hydrocarbon content from seismic amplitude anomalies

A new technique for validating amplitude anomalies uses well data to estimate the probability that a seismic amplitude anomaly indicates a hydrocarbon accumulation. Near-neighbor sand and shale properties measured in nearby wells are used to estimate the statistical distribution of reflection amplitudes due to reflections from water-filled and hydrocarbon-filled sands. This gives a direct estimate of the probability that a reflection of a given amplitude relative to the background is due to hydrocarbons.