Vp-Vs relationship and amplitude variation with offset modelling of glauconitic greensand

ABSTRACT The relationship between Vp and Vs may be used to predict Vs where only Vp is known. Vp/Vs is also used to identify pore fluids from seismic data and amplitude variation with offset analysis. Theoretical, physical, as well as statistical empirical Vp‐Vs relationships have been proposed for reservoir characterization when shear‐wave data are not available. In published work, the focus is primarily on the Vp‐Vs relationship of quartzitic sandstone. In order to broaden the picture we present Vp‐Vs relationships of greensand composed of quartz and glauconite by using data from the Paleocene greensand Nini oil field in the North Sea. A Vp‐Vs relationship derived from modelling is compared with empirical Vp‐Vs regressions from laboratory data as well as from log data. The accuracy of Vs prediction is quantified in terms of root‐mean‐square error. We find that the Vp‐Vs relationship derived from modelling works well for greensand shear‐wave velocity prediction. We model the seismic response of glauconitic greensand by using laboratory data from the Nini field. Our studies here reveal that brine‐saturated glauconitic greensand can have a similar seismic response to that from oil‐saturated quartzitic sandstone and that oil‐saturated strongly cemented greensand can have a similar amplitude variation with offset response to that from brine‐saturated weakly cemented greensand.