The Intriguing 4D Seismic Signature of Reservoir Pore Collapse in Weakly Cemented Sandstones

Abstract

Time-lapse seismic signals and their relation to variations in reservoir pore pressure and fluid saturations are, in general, well understood. Occasionally time-lapse (4D) seismic data do present some intriguing anomalies that cannot be properly explained by our general well stablished expectations, forcing us to consider less conventional hypotheses. We present one such case, occurring in a weakly cemented sandstone reservoir in the North Sea. This reservoir presents a few 4D seismic softening signals occurring as a response to pore pressure decrease, where no saturation changes are expected. With a detailed multidisciplinary analysis, we assess all possible explanations for this type of signal and show that conventional explanations in terms of fluid saturation changes and/or elastic stress variations fail to explain the full characteristic of the observed anomalies. As an alternative hypothesis, we propose the possibility of pore collapse, an inelastic rock damage process, as an unconventional explanation to the observed anomalies. We show that this hypothesis is the only one that explains all the characteristics of the observed anomalies in terms of their lateral and vertical extents, as well as their magnitude and temporal evolution behaviour. We then conduct a theoretical modelling feasibility study to estimate the critical pressure for initiation of rock damage and estimate the amount of rock damage needed to produce the observed 4D seismic signals. This feasibility study suggests that the reservoir effective pressure achieved during field production is likely not enough to crush grains and cause reservoir compaction. However, they may be enough to cause cement and weak grain cracking, which we estimate through rock physics modelling to be a sufficient mechanism for producing the observed softening anomalies. This makes weakly cemented sandstones more prone to this type of counterintuitive signal, as cement damage occurs at lower effective pressures, more commonly achieved during reservoir production. We also highlight important considerations regarding plans of CO₂ storage into depleted reservoirs, as the possibility of rock damage during production would complicate the monitorability of the injected CO₂ plume.