Occurrence of Free-Gas Associated with Methane-Hydrate-Bearing Formations in the MITI Nankai Trough Wells, Offshore Tokai, Japan

Abstract. The MITI Nankai Trough wells were drilled for exploration of methane-hydrate-bearing sediments in association with seismic inferred bottom simulating reflectors (BSRs). In this project, log data showed low velocity compressional-wave (P-wave) layers below methane-hydrate-bearing formations. Dipole shear sonic acoustic tools (DSI) could not acquire accurate compres-sional velocity in this zone, thus it was not possible to accurately correlate between logging, VSP and surface seismic profiles.
Small amount of gas was presumed to cause the problem in obtaining the low velocity P-wave data. VSP interval velocity data was used to assess the DSI inferred low-velocity layer, which showed lower values than the velocity of the drilling muds. Synthetic seismogram was created by VSP-compensated velocity to compare against corridor stack of VSP. As a result, the depths above and below the methane-hydrate-bearing interval were correlated with synthetic seismograms and reflectivity events on the VSP profiles. By using this correlation technique, distribution of methane-hydrate-bearing formations and free-gas-bearing formations can be determined.