Quantitative seismic inversion for transitional shale gas resources in the Da Ning-Ji Xian area of the Ordos Basin faces formidable challenges due to a complex coal-measure stratigraphy and rapid lithological variations, which result in ambiguous seismic responses. This ambiguity is compounded by severe signal attenuation from a thick loess cover and numerous coal seams, leading to a significant loss of vertical resolution that undermines the reliability of quantitative predictions. This study presents a robust inversion scheme designed to overcome these limitations by systematically compensating for seismic attenuation prior to inversion. Our workflow commences with the data-driven estimation of the quality factor (Q) using the local centroid frequency shift (LCFS) method, followed by the application of pre-stack inverse Q filtering to correct for amplitude decay and phase dispersion, thereby broadening the seismic bandwidth. High-fidelity shale gas evaluation parameters, including Total Organic Carbon (TOC), are then derived through pre-stack simultaneous inversion of the compensated dataset. Validation on a field dataset from the area confirms the efficacy of our proposed scheme, with the resulting inverted volumes revealing substantially improved detail, clearer delineation of stratigraphic features, and more distinct lithological boundaries. This attenuation-compensated inversion strategy offers a powerful and effective pathway for exploring and developing unconventional resources in regions plagued by poor seismic data quality.
Yang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.