A semi-empirical velocity-porosity-clay model for petrophysical interpretation of P- and S-velocities

We design a velocity-porosity model for sand-shale environments with the emphasis on its application to petrophysical interpretation of compressional and shear velocities. In order to achieve this objective, we extend the velocity-porosity model proposed by Krief et al., to account for the effect of clay content in sandstones, using the published laboratory experiments on rocks and well log data in a wide range of porosities and clay contents. The model of Krief et al. works well for clean compacted rocks. It assumes that compressional and shear velocities in a porous fluid-saturated rock obey Gassmann formulae with the Blot compliance coefficient. In order to use this model for clay-rich rocks, we assume that the bulk and shear moduli of the grain material, and the dependence of the compliance on porosity, are functions of the clay content. Statistical analysis of published laboratory data shows that the moduli of the matrix grain material are best defined by low Hashin-Shtrikman bounds. The parameters of the model include the bulk and shear moduli of the sand and clay mineral components as well as coefficients which define the dependence of the bulk and shear compliance on porosity and clay content. The constants of the model are determined by a multivariate non-linear regression fit for P-and S-velocities as functions of porosity and clay content using the data acquired in the area of interest. In order to demonstrate the potential application of the proposed model to petrophysical interpretation, we design an inversion procedure, which allows us to estimate porosity, saturation and/or clay content from compressional and shear velocities. Testing of the model on laboratory data and a set of well logs from Carnarvon Basin, Australia, shows good agreement between predictions and measurements. This simple velocity-porosity-clay semi-empirical model could be used for more reliable petrophysical interpretation of compressional and shear velocities obtained from well logs or surface seismic data.