Anisotropic permeability in fractured reservoirs from frequency-dependent seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data

Attempts have previously been made to predict anisotropic permeability in fractured reservoirs from seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data on the basis of a consistent permeability-stiffness model and the anisotropic Gassmann relations of Brown and Korringa. However, these attempts were not very successful, mainly because the effective stiffness tensor of a fractured porous medium under saturated (drained) conditions is much less sensitive to the aperture of the fractures than the corresponding permeability tensor. We here show that one can obtain information about the fracture aperture as well as the fracture density and orientation (which determines the effective permeability) from frequency-dependent seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data. Our workflow is based on a unified stiffness-permeability model, which takes into account seismic attenuation by wave-induced fluid flow. Synthetic seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data are generated by using a combination of a dynamic effective medium theory with R¨ uger’s approximations for PP reflection coefficients in Horizontally Transversely Isotropic media. A Monte Carlo method is used to perform a Bayesian inversion of these synthetic seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data with respect to the parameters of the fractures. An effective permeability model is then used to construct the corresponding probability density functions for the different components of the effective permeability constants. The results suggest that an improved characterization of fractured reservoirs can indeed be obtained from frequency-dependent seismic Amplitude Versus Angle and Azimuth data, provided that a dynamic effective medium model is used in the inversion process and a priori information about the fracture length is available