Quantitative Prediction of Braided Sandbodies Based on Probability Fusion and Multi-Point Geostatistics

Predicting the spatial distribution of braided fluvial facies reservoirs is of paramount significance for oil and gas exploration and development. Given that seismic materials enjoy an advantage in dense spatial sampling, many methods have been proposed to predict the reservoir distribution based on different seismic attributes. Nevertheless, different seismic attributes have different sensitivities to the reservoirs, and informational redundancy between them makes it difficult to combine them effectively. Regarding reservoir modeling, multi-point geostatistics represents the distribution characteristics of the braided fluvial facies reservoirs effectively. Despite this, it is very difficult to build high-quality training images. Hence, this paper proposes a three-step method of predicting braided fluvial facies reservoirs based on probability fusion and multi-point geostatistics. Firstly, similar statistical data of modern sedimentation and field paleo-outcrops were processed under the guidance of the sedimentation pattern to construct reservoir training images suitable for the target stratum in the research area. Secondly, each linear combination of selected seismic attributes was demarcated to calculate the principal component value and work out the elementary conditional probability. Lastly, the PR probability integration approach was employed to combine all conditional probabilities and calculate the joint probability. Then the joint probability was combined with training images to build a reservoir distribution model through multi-point geostatistics. We illustrated the detailed workflow of our new method by applying it to a braided fluvial reservoir modeling case in the Bohai Bay Basin, East China. The new method reduced the error of prediction results by 32% and 46% respectively, and the error of water content by 36.5% and 60.3%. This method is a potentially effective technique to predict and characterize the reservoir spatial distribution and modeling in other oil fields with the same geological background.