INTERPRETER’S CORNER Coordinated by REBECCA LATIMER

Seismic reservoir characterization of Indonesia’s Southwest

Betara Field
M. N. ALAMSYAH, SIHMAN MARMOSUWITO, WORO SUTJININGSIH, and LAMBOK P. MARPAUNG, PetroChina International Jabung Limited
SIGIT SUKMONO, Institute of Technology Bandung

T he onshore portion of the

Southwest Betara (SWB) Field
is in the Jabung Block of the South
Sumatra Basin, approximately 250
km south of Singapore (Figure 1).
This field, discovered in 2005, is
currently operated by PetroChina
Downloaded from library.seg.org by Seno Dibyo on 08/29/17. For personal use only.

International Jabung in partnership

with Petronas Carigali and PT
Pertamina (Persero).
This article describes a study
whose main objective was seismic
reservoir characterization on the
A-Sand within the Lower Talang
The Leading Edge 2008.27:1598-1607.

Akar Formation (LTAF, Figure 2).

The process qualitatively and quan-
titatively details the character of the
reservoir using primarily seismic
data with a primary focus on defin-
ing the net pay and porosity within
the A-Sand.

Geology of SWB
The target A-Sand onlaps the crest
of the granitic basement and forms
a combination of structural and
stratigraphic traps. Intraformation
shales and claystones of the Lower Figure 1. Location of Southwest Betara Field in the Jabung Block, South Sumatra Basin,
and Upper Talang Akar formations Indonesia. The inset shows the depth structure map, displayed in more detail in Figure 3, of the
serve as the seals. A-Sand.
The A-Sand depth structure
map is shown in Figure 3, and the dip and strike seismic sec- Seismic attributes analysis
tions are shown in Figure 4. At the beginning of the study, Porosity and net pay were the main properties to be derived
the field had only three exploration wells. Wells SWB-1 and from the analysis. In order to determine which attributes
SWB-2 encountered oil while SWB-3 encountered wet sands. were most applicable to SWB rock properties, a series of tests
Figures 3 and 4 show the faulted anticlinal structure of the was performed. A 10-ms window above and below the top
field, originally consisting of a half-graben and subsequently of the A-Sand (the same window used to define net pay) was
slightly inverted during Plio-Pleistocene to its current con- used to compute the seismic-derived attributes. These attri-
dition. This is a common play type in the western Jabung butes were plotted against porosity and net pay derived from
Block. The NW dipping and NE-SW trending normal fault log data of the three existing wells. The results indicated
acts as the western structural boundary of the field. that the best attributes were the sum of negative amplitude
Figure 5 is a cross-section view of the A-Sand through (SNA), instantaneous amplitude, instantaneous frequency,
the three wells, showing sand thickness and oil distribution. and sweetness (Figure 6).
The A-Sand is thickly developed in SWB-1 and SWB-2, and SNA outputs the sum of negative amplitudes within the
very thinly deposited in SWB-3. The A-Sand has reservoir 10-ms window. The A-Sand has low acoustic impedance; thus
pressure of approximately 2100–2300 psia, average net pay for normal-polarity, zero-phase data, the A-Sand is predomi-
of 26 ft, porosity of 22.1%, water saturation of 25.6%, and nantly represented by trough (Figure 7). Figure 6a shows that
permeability of 868 mD. low SNA is associated with large values of net pay and porosity.

1598 The Leading Edge December 2008

 INTERPRETER’S CORNER
Downloaded from library.seg.org by Seno Dibyo on 08/29/17. For personal use only.
The Leading Edge 2008.27:1598-1607.

Figure 2. Stratigraphic column of the Jabung Block. The approximate position of the target A-Sand in Lower Talang Akar Formation (LTAF) is
indicated by the red dashed box.

December 2008 The Leading Edge 1599

 INTERPRETER’S CORNER

Figure 3. The A-Sand depth structure

map and locations of wells SWB 1, 2 and
3. Depth contours are in feet. The structure
in SWB is a faulted anticline with three-
way dip closure. The NW-SE and SW-NE
seismic sections indicated here are displayed
in Figure 4.
Downloaded from library.seg.org by Seno Dibyo on 08/29/17. For personal use only.
The Leading Edge 2008.27:1598-1607.

Figure 4. NW-SE and SW-NE seismic sections across SWB, showing a faulted anticline structure indicating three-way dip closure. The A-Sand
layer is shown as a pink horizon, B-Sand as orange, and C-Sand as green.

1600 The Leading Edge December 2008

 INTERPRETER’S CORNER
Downloaded from library.seg.org by Seno Dibyo on 08/29/17. For personal use only.
The Leading Edge 2008.27:1598-1607.

Figure 5. Cross-section through wells SWB-1, 2, and 3. The A-Sand is thicker in wells SWB-1 and 2 than in SWB-3. SWB-3 is also water wet.

Figure 6. (a) SNA,

(b) instantaneous
amplitude, (c)
instantaneous
frequency, and (d)
sweetness in the
A-Sand interval
plotted against
porosity (blue
lines) and net pay
(red lines) derived
from wells SWB-1,
SWB-2 and SWB-3
over the same target
zone. “Corr” refers
to correlation.

1602 The Leading Edge December 2008

 INTERPRETER’S CORNER
Downloaded from library.seg.org by Seno Dibyo on 08/29/17. For personal use only.
The Leading Edge 2008.27:1598-1607.

Figure 7. Flattened seismic section on top of LTAF (see cross-section on Figure 5) showing shading of the sands from attribute analysis. The
A-Sand is deposited in the channel lows of the LTAF interval. These channels are predominately troughs on the seismic (normal polarity).

Figure 8. Horizon slice at the top

A-Sand, showing SNA overlain on
the depth contour map. The blue
contour line represents the oil-water
contact.

1604 The Leading Edge December 2008

 INTERPRETER’S CORNER

Figure 9. Horizon slice

from the top A-Sand showing
instantaneous amplitude overlain
on the depth contour map. The
blue contour line represents the
oil-water contact.
Downloaded from library.seg.org by Seno Dibyo on 08/29/17. For personal use only.
The Leading Edge 2008.27:1598-1607.

Figure 10. Horizon slice

from top A-Sand showing the
instantaneous frequency overlain
on the depth contour structure
map. The blue contour line
represents the oil-water contact.

December 2008 The Leading Edge 1605

 INTERPRETER’S CORNER

Figure 11. Horizon slice from

top A-Sand showing sweetness
overlain on the depth contour
structure map. The pink circles
represent eight new development
wells. The blue contour line
represents the oil-water contact.
The correlation between low
values of sweetness and high
porosity is .85 (Figure 12).
Downloaded from library.seg.org by Seno Dibyo on 08/29/17. For personal use only.
The Leading Edge 2008.27:1598-1607.

Figure 12. Net pay and porosity plotted against SNA (left axis) and sweetness (right axis) for wells SWB-1 to SWB-10.

1606 The Leading Edge December 2008

 INTERPRETER’S CORNER

Instantaneous amplitude or reflection strength is a com-
plex attribute that measures the total energy of the seismic
signal at a specific instant of time. It can therefore be seen as
amplitude that is independent of phase. It serves as the en-
velope of the seismic trace for every time sample. The values
of instantaneous amplitude are always positive with magni-
tudes close to that of the real data. Sharp changes in instanta-
neous amplitude are often associated with a sharp change in
lithology. This can occur at an unconformity boundary or at
a sharp change in depositional environment. Figure 6b shows
that large instantaneous amplitudes are associated with large
values of net pay and porosity.
Instantaneous frequency, another complex attribute, mea-
sures the time rate of phase changes and
Downloaded from library.seg.org by Seno Dibyo on 08/29/17. For personal use only.
et al. (TLE, 2006). “Application of amplitude, frequency and
other attributes to stratigraphic and hydrocarbon determina-
tion” by Taner and Sheriff (in AAPG Memoir 26, 1977).
Acknowledgments: The authors thank BP MIGAS and Petro-
China International, and our partners, Petronas Carigali and PT
Pertamina (Persero), for permission to publish this paper. We thank
Lu Xiaoguang, I Nyoman Suta, Bambang Wisnu Handono, Brad
Sincock, Budi Tyas Utomo, Fauzy AM, Tedy Satria, Yeni Dasrul,
and Asnovifardi for their support.
Corresponding author: sigit@bdg.centrin.net.id and ssukmono@
pqsc.or.id

provides information on the frequency

of reflector packages. In this case, high
porosity and thicker deposits are associ-
ated with lower instantaneous frequency
(Figure 6c).
The sweetness attribute (instanta-
neous amplitude divided by the square
root of instantaneous frequency) en-
The Leading Edge 2008.27:1598-1607.

hances the contrast between areas having

subtly different net pay and porosity val-
ues when mapped using other attributes.
High values of net pay and porosity are
shown to be associated with lower sweet-
ness values (Figure 6d).
Horizon slices of SNA, instantaneous
amplitude, instantaneous frequency, and
sweetness (Figures 8–11) give similar pat-
terns. The distribution of high net pay
and porosity is constrained to the mid-
dle part of the study area and oriented
NW-SE. As expected, the sweetness map
shows the sharpest contrast between the
high and low values of porosity and net
pay.

Validation and conclusions

Eight development wells (SWB 3ST to
SWB 10) were based on low SNA and
sweetness and on being above the oil-
water contact (Figure 11), and all eight
hit oil or gas. The net pay and poros-
ity values for the A-Sand in these wells
and the three existing wells were plotted
against the SNA and sweetness attri-
butes, and the correlation was high (Fig-
ure 12), confirming the applicability of
SNA and sweetness in mapping net-pay
and porosity of the A-Sand in SWB.

Suggested reading. “Integrating seismic

attributes for reservoir characterization in
Melandong Field, Indonesia” by Sukmono

December 2008 The Leading Edge 1607