Summary Identifying and mapping faults and fracture systems in petroleum reservoirs is necessary for understanding their geological definitions and hydrodynamic properties. 3D seismic data provide the basic information for mapping large faults. However, the sub-seismic faults and fractures also need to be characterized for effective hydrocarbon recovery from reservoirs.
Aligned vertical faults and fractures cause azimuthal variations in seismic properties. Conventional standard 3D processing sequences typically stack all azimuths and thus obliterate the azimuthal variation of moveout and amplitude. In this paper, we discuss a methodology for detecting faults and fractures in 3D seismic data by taking advantage of the azimuthal variation of seismic signatures and coherence.