A new approach to three- dimensional inverse modeling of gravity data for exploration of hydrocarbon traps in Tabas area

Moradzadeh, A.; Doulati, A., F.; Agah, A.; Tabatabaie, S. H.

doi:10.22059/jesphys.2005.79991

A new approach to three- dimensional inverse modeling of gravity data for exploration of hydrocarbon traps in Tabas area

Authors

A. Moradzadeh ¹

F. Doulati, A. ¹

A. Agah ¹

S. H. Tabatabaie ²

¹ Faculty of Mining and Geophysics, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran, P.O. Box 316

² NIOC 8th Buildings Yaghma Alley Jumhoori Ave. Tehran, P.O. Box 1863

10.22059/jesphys.2005.79991

Abstract

A gravity survey including 1115 stations incorporating 28 profiles has been performed in order to determine the subsurface geological structures in the Tabas sedimentary basin as a part of a petroleum exploration program. After making a few corrections on the observed data, and eliminating the gravity effects arising from the basement considered as regional effects, a gravity residual anomaly map of the area was then prepared. The residual map indicated some anticline structures, which are of interest in petroleum exploration. One of the most important tasks in the interpretation of gravity data quantitatively is to determine the physical properties such as density and the geometrical parameters of oil traps, including depth, shape as well as surficial extension.
To achieve this goal, a commercial computer-based software called Modelvison Pro was used to perform a three-dimensional inverse modeling for the indicated anomalies. The results of modeling indicate the presence a few anticlines and synclines. Among them anticline E which is located at an estimated depth of 5196 m, and has the largest surficial extension, can be considered as an important traps for hydrocarbon resources.

Keywords

Parametric inverse modeling

Two and three-dimensional anomalies

Gravity survey

Geometrical parameters