Q and viscosity - recent progress

Fereidoon Vasheghani, Laurence R. Lines

The estimation of seismic viscosity is crucial in simulating production history in heavy oil fields. While viscosity of heavy oil can be estimated at the borehole by using viscosity meters or by geochemical measurements, we wish to estimate viscosity variation between boreholes. Seismic data analysis provides such a possibility. Recent studies have shown that measurements of seismic absorption (or inverse-Q values) can be related to viscosity. In particular, Vasheghani and Lines (2008) showed that Zener's model describes rock physics observations. It is further shown that VSP measurements could possibly define the Q variations accurately enough to give viscosity estimates.