Porosity prediction of lower cretaceous unconventional resource play,south Indus Basin,Pakistan, using the seismic spectral decomposition technique

Incised-valley shale systems are renowned as the fruitful exploration domains. However, the stratigraphic heterogeneity is significant, and thus, identifying the porous compartments within the thin-bedded and fractured shale system is one of the unconventional stratigraphic challenges. We present an innovative scheme for the exploration of the porous unconventional resources within the south Indus basin, Pakistan. The continuous wavelet transforms (CWT) exclusively detects the porous shales within the complete fractured system as compared to the full spectrum seismic data interpretation tool. The seismic amplitude, instantaneous frequency, and reflection strength tools show some tuning effects due to lithology and fluids. However, the tuning block of 28 Hz envelope sub-bands in conjunction with instantaneous phase tool accurately mark out the shale-plugged pinch out reservoirs. The synthetic wedge model based on the conventional seismic wavelet resolves the shale bed (incised-valley shale-filled lens) of about 23 m thickness, but shows limited imaging capability due to frequency band limitation for the porous shale locale. The acoustic impedance based on instantaneous spectral porosity modeling using the tuning volume of 28 Hz CWT has spectacularly resolved the thin-beds (gas shows) within the porosity range of 20 to 30%, which may have implications for future exploration of unconventional stratigraphic plays.