| Abstract: | Paleokarst is a major event to complicate carbonate reservoir pore structure. Because of limited data and lack of appropriate study methods, it is a difficulty to characterize subsurface paleokarst 3D distribution and estimate its influences on reservoir heterogeneity. A method by integrated seismic characterization is applied to delineate a complex subsurface paleokarst system in the Upper San Andres Formation, Permian basin, West Texas. Meanwhile, the complex paleokarst system is explained by using a carbonate platform hydrological model, similar to modern marine hydrological environments within carbonate islands. How to evaluate carbonate reservoir permeability heterogeneity from 3D seismic data has been a dream for reservoir geoscientists, which is a key factor to optimize reservoir development strategy and enhance reservoir recovery. A two-step seismic inversions approach by integrating angle-stack seismic data and rock physics model is proposed to characterize pore-types complexity and further to identify the relative high permeability gas-bearing zones in low porosity reservoir (< 5%) using ChangXing super-deep carbonate reservoir as an example. Compared to the conventional permeability calculation method by best-fit function between porosity and permeability, the results in this study demonstrate that gas zones and non-gas zones in low porosity reservoir can be differentiated by using above integrated permeability characterization method. |