Publications

Though carbonate rocks make up only 20% of the sedimentary rock record, yet it holds more than 60% of the worlds proven hydrocarbon reserves and presently account for 40% of the worlds total hydrocarbon production. Therefore, it should be no surprise that presently carbonate reservoirs are very important targets for oil and gas exploration. Seismic applications in carbonate reservoirs are less mature and abundant than those associated with clastic reservoir. This lack of maturity is primarily the result of lower business priorities on carbonate reservoirs in the last two decades. Recent business opportunities in the former Soviet Union and in the Middle East have triggered renewed interest in carbonate reservoirs and carbonate-specific exploration, development, and production technologies. For instance, improper application of many advances seismic processing techniques, such as post and pre-stack inversion, for obtaining physical properties of carbonate rocks would yield misleading results. The unique behaviour of the carbonates mostly induced by the mineralogy-pore shape-fluid effects along with the rapid facies changes and physical-chemical alteration effects. This paper discusses fundamental steps for proper application of seismic methodologies in three steps of carbonate reservoir characterization: facies analysis, porosity derivation and fluid identification. Case examples from Indonesia as well as overseas are given to illustrate the problems and their solution.