Abstract

The Perdido Fold Belt in Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is a relatively new frontier for exploration of hydrocarbons, witnessing substantial exploration activities and discoveries. The exploration targets in the area are reservoir lithology of clastic and carbonates in the Miocene/Oligocene at target depths of 4000m-8000m and deeper sections. This area has been found to contain high saturation gas hydrates in the hydrates stability zone (GHSZ) which is within about 600ms two-way time from the water bottom. Several wells have been drilled in the area and at least one of them has penetrated naturally occurring gas hydrates in high concentration (> 70 %). We have recently completed a detailed study of seismically characterizing gas hydrates in the Perdido Fold Belt area. In this presentation we emphasize seismic data processing, rock physics modeling, 3D prestack inversion, and integrated interpretation for gas hydrates saturation studies in the area.