PP and PS joint AVO inversion and fluid prediction

Abstract The technique of amplitude variation with offset or angle (AVO or AVA) can be used to extract fluid and lithology information from prestack seismic data. Based on three-term AVO equations, three elastic parameters can be inverted for by linear AVO inversion. However, many theoretical and numerical studies have demonstrated that by using offset limited data, a three-term AVO inversion may have problems of instability and inaccuracy while inverting for the density term. We have searched for an elastic parameter that contains density information and inverted this parameter in a more stable manner using offset limited data. First, we test the sensitivity of elastic parameters to hydrocarbon reservoirs and select the optimal fluid factor ( ρf ) that contains density information and has an excellent performance as an inversion parameter used to detect hydrocarbons. Then, we derive approximate PP and PS reflection coefficient equations in terms of the fluid factor. The derived equations allow us to directly estimate the fluid factor of the reservoir. Finally, we apply these equations to synthetic data by employing a joint AVO inversion technique. The results show that the method is stable and unambiguous.