Assessment of gas hydrate accumulations using velocities derived from vertical seismic profiles and acoustic log data in Krishna-Godavari Basin, India

The second Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition (NGHP-02) was executed in 2015 in four areas termed as Areas A, B, C and E. During this expedition, twenty five research sites were drilled and/or cored in Krishna-Godavari (KG) and Mahanadi Basins, eastern Indian offshore. During NGHP-02, zero offset vertical seismic profile (VSP) data were acquired at three sites: Sites NGHP-02-17, -19 and -22 in Area B of the KG Basin. In this study, we focus on the three sites in Area B of the KG Basin, where, zero-offset VSP and downhole acoustic log data are used to assess and characterize the gas hydrate deposits. Zero-offset VSP data are correlated with wireline log, surface seismic and synthetic seismic data to characterize and delineate gas hydrate accumulations in the KG Basin. Low velocities ranging from 1500 to 1650 m/s are observed in the unconsolidated shallow sedimentary section above gas hydrate-bearing units, whereas, very high velocities are observed in the acquired acoustic log and VSP data. In the gas hydrate-bearing sedimentary sections, the VSP derived interval velocities range from 2000 to 3000 m/s in the depth interval between 267 and 287 m below sea floor (mbsf) at Site NGHP-02-17, between 1650 and 1750 m/s in the depth interval between 306 and 366 mbsf at Site NGHP-02-19 and between 1700 and 1800 m/s in the depth interval between 198 and 290 mbsf at Site NGHP-02-22. Gas hydrates are distributed both as pore-filling and fracture-filling at all three sites, however, high concentrations are only observed as pore-filling morphology. We estimate the amount of gas hydrate considering both isotropic (pore-filling) and anisotropic (fracture-filling) acoustic reservoir models. Our estimations of gas hydrate saturation match well with the available pressure core data and suggest that high gas hydrate concentrations (to nearly 85% of pore space) are distributed in a load bearing morphology.