Practices and future research directions of geophysical exploration for normal-pressure shale gas in complex structural areas,southeastern Chongqing
Southern China boasts great potential for normal-pressure shale gas resources,with distribution areas primarily including the peripheral complex structural areas and the extrabasinal fold belts of the Sichuan Basin.These areas exhibit intricate surface and subsur-face geological conditions,leading to poor seismic acquisition quality,low imaging accuracy,and unclear varying patterns of sweet spot parameters.This study systematically summarized the research achievements and technical advances in the seismic acquisition,image processing,and reservoir prediction for normal-pressure shale gas in southeastern Chongqing,including:①The development of variable-density 3D observation system design technique and the seismic excitation and reception technique for complex mountains with limestone surfaces,ensuring sufficient sampling of the reflected wave field in complex subsurface structures and improving data quality and con-struction efficiency;②The optimization of prestack seismic preprocessing technique for complex mountains,imaging techniques for com-plex structures in basin-margin transition zones,and imaging techniques for synclinal structures in extrabasinal fold belts,achieving re-sulting profiles with high signal-to-noise ratios,wide effective frequency bands,and high structural imaging accuracy;③The quantitative prediction of the thickness,formation pressure coefficient,and brittleness of high-quality shales based on research on petrophysical char-acteristics;the quantitative prediction of the organic carbon content,gas content,and porosity of shales based on statistical petrophysics;the quantitative prediction of fractures formed due to the superimposed effect of multi-stage structural modifications based on the paleo-stress field evolution revealed using the finite element simulation technique;and the ascertainment of the distribution patterns of the cur-rent in-situ stress field using the current stress field prediction technique developed using the combined spring model.The above break-throughs have effectively guided the sweet spot prediction,exploration,and production of normal-pressure shale gas,providing a basis for the discovery of the Nanchuan normal-pressure shale gas field.Subsequent research should focus on more scientific and reasonable seis-mic acquisition techniques based on seismic reception using 5G wireless nodes,high-precision automatic image processing technologies for high-steep structures in complex mountains,and integrated geology-engineering-economy seismic evaluation methods for sweet spots.