Facies‐constrained simultaneous inversion for elastic parameters and fracture weaknesses using azimuthal partially incidence‐angle‐stacked seismic data

Abstract In order to improve the identification and characterization of underground fractured reservoirs, seismic inversion for elastic properties and fracture indicators is required. To improve the accuracy of seismic inversion, model constraints are necessary. Model constraints of P‐ and S‐wave moduli can be provided by well logging data; however, model constraints of fracture weaknesses are often unavailable. To obtain model constraints of fracture weaknesses, we propose a two‐stage inversion method, which is implemented as (1) estimating azimuthal elastic impedance (AEI) and fracture facies using partially incidence‐angle‐stacked seismic data at different azimuths; and (2) using the estimated azimuthal elastic impedance to predict P‐ and S‐wave moduli, density and fracture weaknesses, which is constrained by models constructed using the estimated fracture facies. In the first stage, we use Gaussian mixture prior distribution to obtain azimuthal elastic impedance of different incidence angles and azimuths, and we also predict fracture facies combining the obtained azimuthal elastic impedance and seismic data. In the second stage, we implement the Bayesian maximum a posterior inversion for estimating unknown parameter vectors. We apply the proposed inversion method to noisy synthetic seismic data, which illustrates the inversion method is robust even in the case of a signal‐to‐noise ratio of 1. Tests on real data reveal that reliable results of P‐ and S‐wave moduli and fracture weaknesses are obtained, which verifies that the inversion method is a valuable tool for generating reliable fracture indicators from azimuthal seismic data for identifying underground fractured reservoirs.