Passive seismic survey on the Darquain oil field

Abstract

In the form of passive seismic methods, broadband seismometers have been used in hydrocarbon exploration. The frequency bandwidth typically studied is in the range of 1–6 Hz. The observations on low frequency band of microtremors are used to calculate the spectral ratio of vertical and horizontal components (V/H) and Power Spectral Density (PSD). Attributes based on the V/H ratio and the PSD have been suggested as tools to identify hydrocarbon reservoir location. In this paper, earthquakes and background noise recorded by broadband seismometers are used. We used ambient noise data and a major earthquake data (Nurabad, Iran) that were recorded in a seismographic network with five broadband seismometer stations located at Darquain Oil Field in Khuzestan, Iran. At a station located on top of the reservoir we observe a prominent peak in both V/H and PSD attributes.