Using orthorhombic depth imaging

to image fractures in tight

reservoirs of the RDG Field, Barmer
Basin, India
Maheswara Phani 1, Sushobhan Dutta 1, Kondal Reddy 1, and Sreedurga
Somasundaram 1
1
Cairn Oil and Gas, a vertical of Vedanta Limited. E-
mail: maheswara.phani@cairnindia.com; sushobhan.dutta@cairnindia.co
m; kondal.reddy@cairnindia.com; sreedurga.somasundaram@cairnindia
.com.

https://doi.org/10.1190/tle38040268.1.

Abstract
Raageshwari Deep Gas (RDG) Field is situated in the southern part of the
Barmer Basin in Rajasthan, India, at a depth of 3000 m. With both clastic and
volcanic lithologies, the main reservoirs are tight, and hydraulic fracturing is
required to enhance productivity, especially to improve permeability through
interaction of induced fractures with natural fractures. Therefore, optimal
development of the RDG Field reservoirs requires characterization of faults
and natural fractures. To address this challenge, a wide-azimuth 3D seismic
data set over the RDG Field was processed to sharply define faults and
capture anisotropy related to open natural fractures. Anisotropy was indicated
by the characteristic sinusoidal nature of gather reflection events processed
using conventional tilted transverse imaging (TTI); accordingly, we used
orthorhombic imaging to correct for these, to quantify fracture-related
anisotropy, and to yield a more correct subsurface image. During prestack
depth migration (PSDM) processing of the RDG data, TTI and orthorhombic
velocity modeling was done with azimuthal sectoring of reflection arrivals. The
resultant PSDM data using this velocity model show substantial improvement
in image quality and vertical resolution at the reservoir level compared to
vintage seismic data. The improved data quality enabled analysis of
specialized seismic attributes like curvature and thinned fault likelihood for
more reliable characterization of faults and fractures. These attributes
delineate the location and distribution of probable fracture networks within the
volcanic reservoirs. Interpreted subtle faults, associated with fracture zones,
were validated with microseismic, production, and image log data.

Introduction
The Raageshwari Deep Gas (RDG) Field is situated in the RJ-ON-90/1 block
in the southern part of the onshore Barmer Basin in the state of Rajasthan,
India (Figure 1). The area is covered by a wide-azimuth 3D seismic survey
acquired in 2014 and initially processed through conventional prestack time
migration and prestack depth migration (PSDM). The field contains stacked
gas-condensate-bearing reservoirs with excellent gas quality.
Stratigraphically, the reservoir section is composed of clastic Fatehgarh
Formation, overlying a volcanic complex comprising basic lava flows (basalts)
and stacked silicic pyroclastic flows (felsics) interbedded with older basalt
layers. These are low-permeability reservoirs, requiring characterization of
reservoirs, faults, and natural fractures for optimized field development.

The RDG Field is in its early development phase, with 30 wells that were
drilled and hydraulically fractured before being put into production. RDG
reservoirs are tight, and hydraulic fracturing is required to enhance fluid flow.
Open natural fractures are known from well data to occur in the reservoirs,
and flow pathways would be maximized if induced fractures connected with
the natural fractures. Therefore, understanding the distribution, intensity, and
orientation of natural fractures, and of stress distribution within the reservoirs,
is a key objective for optimal design of the hydrofracturing program. This in
turn would be enabled by calculating an orthorhombic seismic velocity model
for imaging that captures fracture-related anisotropic parameters. Accordingly,
in 2016 the wide-azimuth 3D seismic data covering the field were reprocessed
with full-azimuth PSDM driven by an orthorhombic velocity model. The
resultant improved seismic image quality made it possible to perform
specialized seismic attribute studies to identify subtle faults and associated
fracture zones that were validated with microseismic, production, and image
log data.
Regional geology
The Barmer Basin, located in the state of Rajasthan in northwestern India, is
an intracratonic north-northwest–south-southeast-oriented rift formed as a
narrow extension of the Cambay or Kutch rift basins (Figure 1). The basin
contains depositional fill of Jurassic to recent age, overlying Proterozoic
basement (Das Gupta, 1975; Pareek, 1981; Mishra et al., 1993). Rifting
originated owing to the breakup of the Indian craton in the Late Cretaceous–
Early Paleocene period.

The Barmer Basin has been subjected to multiple phases of rifting, followed
by tectonic inversion, resulting in the tilting of the basin from north to south.
Rifting during the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) is interpreted to have
initiated in the south of the basin where thick Deccan-equivalent strata of the
Raageshwari Volcanic Complex are encountered. The RDG Field is located at
the northern end of the Central Basin High (CBH) in the Barmer Basin (Figure
1). The CBH is a 40 km long composite structural high with north–south-
oriented fault terraces, arranged en-echelon within the southern part of the
basin.

Figure 2 is a schematic cross section of the RDG Field, showing the

Raageshwari volcanics within the stratigraphic succession. The RDG Field is
contained within a horst block bounded by major north–south and northwest–
southeast-trending faults. Key sequential depositional and tectonic events
extending from Late Cretaceous to Early Paleocene age are:

 episodic eruption of basic and acidic lava flows with associated

deposition of volcanoclastic sediments
 tilting and erosion of volcanic deposits driven by movement on east-
northeast–west-southwest-trending faults
 onlap of Paleocene Fatehgarh fluvial and lacustrine sediments onto the
volcanic high during syn-rift faulting, dominantly in north–south direction
 subsequent deposition of silts and muds of the Barmer Hill and Dharvi
Dungar formations creating a regional seal (Somasundaram et al., 2017)

Stratigraphically, the reservoir section in RDG Field (Figure 2) is composed of

clastics of the Fatehgarh Formation overlying a volcanic complex containing
basic lava flows (basalts) atop stacked silicic pyroclastic flows (felsics)
interbedded with basalts. Seismic data suggest the volcanic sequence has a
layered internal structure, presumably due to cyclic emplacement of basic and
acidic lava during the Late Cretaceous–Lower Paleocene period of Deccan
volcanism (Somasundaram et al., 2017).

Variability in mineralogy, lithofacies, thickness of reservoir subunits, and areal

distribution of pores and fractures results in marked reservoir heterogeneity.
Volcanic reservoirs of the RDG Field contain approximately 70% of the total
gas in place, with gross thickness up to 700 m. Owing to the geologic
complexities of the volcanic reservoirs, field development planning
encountered many challenges such as vintage seismic data quality limitations
that affected reliable mapping of the deeper reservoirs (approximately 2.5–3.5
s), understanding of reservoir heterogeneity, and characterization of natural
fractures (Somasundaram et al., 2017).

Seismic data processing for fracture detection

The study area is covered by two vintages of 3D seismic data — one acquired
in 2001 and a wide-azimuth survey acquired in 2014. Poor data quality of the
older survey acquired using 25 × 25 m bin size, with a maximum offset of
3000 m and with limited azimuthal coverage in the cross-line direction, limited
reliable mapping of faults and the volcanic section despite being reprocessed
through PSDM. The 2014 wide-azimuth seismic survey, with a bin size of 12.5
× 12.5 m and maximum inline offset and crossline offset of 4500 and 3800 m,
respectively, was processed in 2016 through full-azimuth PSDM using an
orthorhombic velocity model. The processing flow was designed to preserve
amplitude and phase.

Orthorhombic PSDM workflow

Anisotropy modeling with a transverse isotropy assumption has been the
standard for seismic imaging workflows for most of the last decade. However,
the process assumes a symmetry axis perpendicular to bedding, which limits
its ability to model traveltime slowness across fractures.
Orthorhombic media on the other hand, with three mutually orthogonal planes
of mirror symmetry (Tsvankin, 1997), captures azimuthal velocity variation
associated with fractures. In orthorhombic model building, we expect velocity
to be faster parallel to bedding and to fractures. Anisotropy varies through
more than one plane. Figure 3 compares a tilted transverse isotropic (TTI)
medium (Figure 3a) with one symmetry axis defined by dip (θ) and azimuth
(φ) against a tilted orthorhombic medium (Figure 3b) with three symmetry
planes defined by α, θ, φ, and five new parameters (Figure 3c).

Opens in modal lightbox

i
Viewable Image - a figure map showing location of the barmer
Image Caption
Figure 1. (a) Map showing location of the Barmer Basin in India and (b) map
showing the main structural elements within the RJ-ON-90/1 block in Barmer
Basin, along with the location of RDG Field in the northern culmination of the
CBH (blue outline) (Somasundaram et al., 2017).
Opens in modal lightbox
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Viewable Image - a figure a schematic cross section
Image Caption
Figure 2. A schematic cross section of the RDG Field. The reservoir section is
composed of clastic Fatehgarh Formation sediments overlying a volcanic
complex with basalt and felsic lithology (Somasundaram et al., 2017).
Opens in modal lightbox
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Viewable Image - a figure comparison of tti
Image Caption
Figure 3. Comparison of (a) TTI and (b) tilted orthorhombic media (Li et al.,
2012), and (c) orthorhombic symmetry planes (Tsvankin, 1997).

 ε — the parameter ε in the symmetry plane [x1, x3] normal to the x2 axis
 δ — the parameter δ in the [x1, x3] plane responsible for near-vertical P-
wave velocity variations
 ε1 — the parameter ε in the [x2, x3] plane
 δ1 — the parameter δ in the [x2, x3] plane
 δ3 — the parameter δ in the [x1, x2] plane

The vertical transverse isotropic case can be considered a special case of

orthorhombic where ε1 = ε2 = ε and δ1 = δ2 = δ.

During orthorhombic PSDM processing we implemented a multisectored

workflow that uses TTI models generated from tomography runs at different
azimuths. The input data consist of one wide-azimuth survey, which yields
four azimuth sectors by azimuthal-offset binning around receiver direction and
shot direction (Figure 4a).
Data in these four azimuth sectors were migrated to produce common-image
gathers (CIGs) for tomographic update. We started with five iterations of TTI
tomography to solve the conflicting residual moveout observed on CIGs. As
shown in Figure 4a, the first two panels (receiver-direction CIGs) exhibit over-
corrected residual moveout, requiring a faster velocity to flatten the gathers.
However, the last two CIGs (along the shot direction) exhibit lesser moveout,
this difference suggesting anisotropy. Further, the common azimuth–common
offset (COCA) gathers in the left panel of Figure 4b display the characteristic
wavy reflection pattern indicative of orthorhombic anisotropy, supported by
geologic expectation of fractures in the brittle reservoir rocks of RDG Field.

With the results of the TTI update, we generated separate models for each
azimuthal sector that describe the anisotropy along the azimuths of those
sectors. These models were then input to a sectored orthorhombic workflow to
derive a single orthorhombic model appropriate for all azimuth sectors. This
initial estimate of the orthorhombic velocity model can be described as a least-
squares problem in which we determine a best-fit orthorhombic model that
explains the variation seen in each azimuth sector. After running the tilted
orthorhombic update, improvement in gather flatness and reduction in
sinusoidal character are achieved, as seen in Figure 4b. On the stacked
PSDM image shown in Figure 5, we observe that tilted orthorhombic PSDM
imaging improves the focusing of steeply dipping events, the fold structure,
and fault positions.
Opens in modal lightbox
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Viewable Image - a figure cigs along different azimuth directions
Image Caption
Figure 4. (a) CIGs along different azimuth directions (first two panels along
receiver direction, and last two panels along shot direction), showing
conflicting residual moveout at top Fatehgarh marked in dotted yellow. (b)
Comparison of COCA gathers before (left) and after (right) tilted orthorhombic
PSDM. Orthorhombic PSDM accounted for anisotropy in different symmetrical
axes to achieve the flat gathers.
Opens in modal lightbox
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Viewable Image - a figure comparison of vintage psdm
Image Caption
Figure 5. Comparison of (a) vintage PSDM and (b) orthorhombic PSDM
seismic image quality along a traverse passing through different wells, and in
a time slice at 2600 ms. Red arrows show specific areas of imaging
improvement after orthorhombic PSDM.
Opens in modal lightbox
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Viewable Image - a figure attributes extracted at top basalt
Image Caption
Figure 6. Attributes extracted at top basalt from orthorhombic PSDM data: (a)
semblance, (b) TFL, (c) most positive curvature, and (d) most negative
curvature.

Characterization of RDG tight reservoirs

Volcanic reservoirs of the RDG Field contain approximately 70% of the total
gas in place, with gross thickness up to 700 m. Understanding the
heterogeneity, orientation, intensity, connectivity, and other characteristics of
natural fractures of the RDG reservoirs is critical for optimizing infill well
placement in the ongoing RDG field development program. Production data
show that natural fractures and faults in the low-permeability reservoirs have
significant influence on fluid flow and hence on production. Orthorhombic
PSDM significantly improved image quality in the reservoir section, which has
helped to improve the reliability of seismic interpretation.

Interpreted surfaces representing the top Fatehgarh, top basalt, top felsic, and
base felsic (base volcanic) were used to generate the reservoir structural
framework. To enhance fault detection, maps of various seismic attributes
such as semblance/coherency, most positive curvature, most negative
curvature, and thinned fault likelihood (TFL) were generated (Figure 6). The
TFL attribute was also used to generate fracture proximity and fracture density
volumes. Several calibration methods were applied to validate fracture zones
identified from these specialized attributes; the methods used image data,
production data, and microseismic measurements.

Microseismic data acquired during hydraulic fracturing in well W-A1 (Figure 7)

show the majority of microseismic events (yellow circles) to occur along a fault
seen in the most negative curvature attribute data, located close to the well.
These microseismic events preferentially extend upward along the dip of the
seismically interpreted fault. Additionally, the nuclear magnetic resonance
porosity log filtered to seismic bandwidth (orange curve in Figures 7a and 7b)
that is displayed along the track of well W-A1 indicates increased porosity in
areas of larger magnitude curvature values, indicating possible better
reservoir quality near the fault. The instantaneous frequency attribute cross
section along the track of well W-A1 (Figure 7b) shows the area proximal to
and along the fault plane to be associated with anomalously lower frequencies
(blue color), lower even than the 23 Hz dominant frequency of the seismic
data. Such localized attenuation of high frequencies has been demonstrated
in volcanic, brittle mudstones, and carbonate settings to be caused by wave
scattering from fracture zones, vugs, cavities, etc. (Glaser et al., 2013).
For further validation, and to investigate if the presence of faults and
associated natural fractures improves permeability, production data for well
W-A4 were compared against the curvature attributes. Figure 8 shows the
most positive curvature section along well W-A4. This well is seen in the
seismic data to intersect a fault in the upper basalt reservoir interval
associated with higher magnitude curvature values where, as highlighted by
the blue circle in Figure 8a, a greater contribution to production is observed.
The lower part of the well encountered lower magnitude curvature values
indicating lesser fracture intensity and corresponding lower production
contribution. This validation provides confidence that areas proximal to subtle
faults (and associated fracture presence) have enhanced permeability and,
together with better reservoir quality, would contribute to higher production.
Opens in modal lightbox
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Viewable Image - a figure seismic attribute cross section containing
Image Caption
Figure 7. Seismic attribute cross section containing well W-A1: (a) most
negative curvature and (b) instantaneous frequency.
Opens in modal lightbox
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Viewable Image - a figure most positive curvature attribute
Image Caption
Figure 8. (a) Most positive curvature attribute section through well W-A4
shows the best producing zone is associated with high values (blue oval) and
(b) map of most positive curvature extracted along the top basalt.
Opens in modal lightbox
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Viewable Image - a figure orientation of fracture strike
Image Caption
Figure 9. Orientation of fracture strike from TFL data (time slices in middle
panel) show reasonable comparison with FMI data from well W-1 (rose
diagram, left panel) and with FMI fracture density values along the well
trajectory (right panel).
We also estimated the orientations of the fault/fracture lineaments in the
fracture density volume using the TFL attribute. TFL displays around well W-1
were compared with the lineaments and fracture density data obtained from
formation microimager (FMI) logs. The northwest–southeast orientation of the
fracture population obtained from FMI logs shows a reasonable match with
those seen in time slices of the fracture density volume extracted at 2380 and
2468 ms (Figure 9). Additionally, FMI fracture density log data plotted along
the well W-1 track show a reasonable match with corresponding fracture
density volume values extracted using the TFL attribute, as seen in the red
ovals in Figure 9.

Conclusions
Development of the brittle, tight reservoirs of the RDG Field in the Barmer
Basin would be improved greatly by identification of fractures to optimize
design of a hydrofracturing program. Toward this end, we processed data
from a wideazimuth 3D seismic survey acquired over the RDG Field using a
tilted orthorhombic anisotropy model-building workflow. This achieved
consistent residual moveouts in CIGs across different azimuths, which in turn
provided better focusing of structural events in comparison to conventional
TTI. The resultant improved stack seismic image quality enabled the use of
specialized seismic attribute studies to identify subtle faults and associated
fracture zones that were subsequently validated with microseismic,
production, and image log data. This validation provided confidence that areas
proximal to subtle faults (and associated fractures) are associated with
enhanced permeability and, together with better reservoir quality, would
contribute to higher production. Accordingly, future development wells are
planned to be placed using information derived from the reprocessed data.

Acknowledgments
The authors thank Cairn Oil and Gas, Vedanta Limited, and its joint venture
partner ONGC Ltd. for permission to publish this work.

Data and materials availability

Data associated with this research are confidential and cannot be released.

Corresponding author: maheswara.phani@cairnindia.com

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