PROCEEDINGS PIT HAGI 2012
37th HAGI Annual Convention & Exhibition
Palembang, 10-13 September 2012
Spectral decomposition application using CWT to detect hydrocarbon presence and
stratigraphical features in offshore Netherland – a case study
Gigih Helma Wijaya and Wiwit Suryanto, Sudarmadji, Geophysics Sub-Department, Gadjah Mada University
Abstract
Seismic interpreters usually work with amplitude
anomalies which come from post stack data. The anomalies
are based on dominant frequency in the seismic data.
Spectral decomposition aims to display seismic section at
constituent frequency because hydrocarbons having
characteristic low frequency will be displayed clearly at its
accordance frequency. Therefore, it can be used as low-cost
post processing method and as direct hydrocarbon
indicator.
Spectral decomposition has been applied to 3D
offshore seismic data to detect hydrocarbon presence and
stratigraphical features. It used preferably CWT
(Continuous Wavelet Transform). It was applied to certain
seismic section and certain time slice. Stratigraphy
delineation used RGB (Red-Green-Blue) color blending. It
was rather different than conventional spectral
decomposition using individual frequency in its
application. It used three different frequencies obtained by
amplitude spectrum. They were defined by peak frequency
and peak amplitude divided into low, medium and high
then they were blended into single image. CWT applied to
crossline 850 and time slice 825 ms with 10 Hz output
frequency reveals hydrocarbon presence. It’s a shallow
bright spot, the biogenic gas pocket, with diameter more
than 1 km. Another result of spectral decomposition, RGB
color blending applied to time slice 1.125 ms with 20 Hz,
30 Hz, and 50 Hz output frequency reveals meandering
channel, linier channel, and fault. Based on the results,
spectral decomposition has proved as a powerful method to
detect hydrocarbon presence and to delineate both subtle
depositional and structural patterns.
Introduction
Seismic interpreters usually identify the presence of
hydrocarbon directly by bright amplitude anomaly. Bright
spot, the bright amplitude anomaly, will be revealed clearly
in frequency domain. It can be accommodated by spectral
decomposition which converts time-amplitude function into
time-frequency spectrum. In this research, spectral
decomposition used CWT. In the development of spectral
decomposition, there is an advance technique to detect and
enhance stratigraphical features mentioned as RGB color
blending. It corresponds to spectral decomposition.
However, it is rather different because it uses three
different frequencies combined into single image. This
research aims to detect hydrocarbon presence and
stratigraphical features in offshore Netherland.
The use of spectral decomposition as direct
hydrocarbon indicator is developed by John Castagna
(2002). He has identified three distinct spectral
hydrocarbon indicators that are based revealed by proper
spectral decomposition. Those are an abnormal seismic
attenuation, low frequency shadow associated with
hydrocarbon related to bright spot, and difference in tuning
frequency between gas and brine sand (Castagna et al,
2002). In this research, the case is an abnormal seismic
attenuation. It is well established that gas-filled reservoirs
exhibit higher frequency than similar rock fully-saturated
rock with brine (Castagna et al, 2002).
The use of RGB color blending as geological elements
delineation is introduced by Jonathan Henderson (2008).
The principle of color blending is the use of adaptive
neighborhood mean filter as noise attenuation.
Theory
Wavelet transform is the fundamental of CWT. It
accomplishes STFT (Short Time Fourier Transform), the
limits of Fourier transform in non-stationary signal
analysis. In wavelet transform, we don’t need to choose
window-length such in STFT because it uses mother
wavelet approach. Mother wavelet ( ) is dilated and
shifted over the signal so it produces family of wavelet
, ( ). By dilation and shifting process, CWT generates
more detailed window function than STFT.
( )= (1)
, √
Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT)
Spectral decomposition using CWT decomposes
seismic signal into frequency contents. First, it converts
gradually all seismic traces, time-amplitude function, into
time-scale map usually known as scalogram. Then, the
scalogram is converted into time-frequency spectrum
through scale to frequency conversion. The terminology of
CWT is the convolution between seismic signal f(t) and
family of wavelet ( , ).
, then it obtains scalogram
The correlation among them described as the following:
= ( , ) = 〈 ( ), ( )〉
,
= ∫ ( ) (2)
√
PROCEEDINGS PIT HAGI 2012
37th HAGI Annual Convention & Exhibition
Palembang, 10-13 September 2012

which denotes complex conjugate of , is translation
parameter, and is scale parameter. Then, scalogram needs
to be converted into frequency domain. It wields scale tied
to frequency. The following equation is used for scale to
frequency conversion:
sequence stratigraphy, sandwaves, channel, salt dome,
bright spot, and shallow biogenic gas. However, this
research focused in channel, bright spot, sandwaves, and
shallow biogenic gas detection.

= (3)
∆

which is pseudo-frequency corresponding to scale ,

is center frequency of wavelet, and ∆ is sampling period of
the signal.

RGB (Red-Green-Blue) Color Blending

Analysis of RGB images is as affected by noise as

analysis of any other type of image and noise attenuation
can have a significant impact on the ability to delineate
objects from RGB blended images (Henderson, 2008). The
simplest way to accommodate noise attenuation is
averaging process in which the value of current point in the crossline inline
image is replaced by mean value of the points within a
given neighborhood of K point. Considering is RGB
Figure.1 Basic seismic data information
image and ( ) is the RGB image result of the
averaging process by given neighborhood point. It’s an The data processing used Opendetect 4.2. It provides
application with adaptive neighborhood mean filter. The application both spectral decomposition and RGB color
correlation among them described as the following: blending. First, spectral decomposition using CWT was
applied to single trace possibly containing hydrocarbon due
( )= ∑ ℰ ( ) (4) to its amplitude anomaly in crossline 850. The process is
shown in Figure 2. Then, CWT was applied to all traces
crossline 850 and to time slices 825 ms with 10 Hz output
⎡ ∑ ℰ ( )⎤ frequency.
⎢ ( )⎥⎥
( )=⎢ ∑ ℰ (5) Amplitude Frequency
⎢ ⎥
⎣ ∑ ℰ ( )⎦

where , , and indicate the intensity of the red, green,

and blue color components. The mean filter is a special
case of color image filtering as it can be achieved either by
applying the filter to each color component separately or as
an operator that is applied to RGB vector representation
(Henderson, 2008).
Time (ms)

Time (s)

Data and Method

A post stack data set either 3D or 2D from offshore

Netherland is used in this study. It’s a free accessing data
acquired in 1987 and contributed by dGB Earth Sciences
B.V. The basic data information relevant to this study is
provided in Figure 1. By convenience, 0 ms is given as the
starting time of this data volume and 1800 ms as the ending
time. The crossline number will start at 300 and end at
1250. And the range for inline number will be 100 to 750.
Meanwhile, the width of survey is 24x16 km. There are Figure.2 Spectral decomposition result of single trace and
many geological features in this data set such as; seismic its corresponding amplitude spectrum
PROCEEDINGS PIT HAGI 2012
37th HAGI Annual Convention & Exhibition
Palembang, 10-13 September 2012

S N
Spectral decomposition using only single frequency in its
application was rather different with color blending
application. Color blending used three different frequencies
which are successively red for lowest frequency, green for
middle frequency, and blue for highest frequency. Then,
they were blended into single image. The principle of color
blending is frequency sorting of picked horizon by its

Time (s)
amplitude spectrum. The process is shown in Figure 3.
W E
2500 m
Time (s)

(a)
S N

Time (s)

(a)

2500 m

(b)
Figure.4 (a) Crossline 850 with 10 Hz output frequency and (b) 60
Hz output frequency generated by spectral decomposition

Based on Figure 4, hydrocarbon reveals clearly at low

(b)
Figure.3 (a) Picked horizon of inline 300 with specified time
interval and (b) Its amplitude spectrum to be applied color
blending with 20, 30, and 50 Hz output frequency
frequency, 10 Hz. It convinces previous researches about
low frequency as direct hydrocarbon indicator. The
biogenic gas pocket distribution can be displayed laterally
by time slice. It sliced 825 ms then applied spectral
decomposition with 10 Hz.

Result and Discussion

The presence of hydrocarbon can be directly detected
using 2D conventional seismic section with bright spot as
the indicator. However, it will be revealed clearly if it is
displayed at its corresponding frequency of seismic
attenuation due to hydrocarbon presence. Therefore, based
the result in Figure 2, CWT was applied to crossline 850 N
and time slice 825 ms where it contains shallow bright spot,
the biogenic gas, pointed by brown arrow. It was lower
Cretaceous hydrocarbon play with sandstone as reservoir.
Figure.5 Time slice 825 ms with 10 Hz output frequency reveals
Meanwhile, white arrows point deep hydrocarbon presence.
several shallow gas presences
PROCEEDINGS PIT HAGI 2012
37th HAGI Annual Convention & Exhibition
Palembang, 10-13 September 2012

RGB color blending was revealing complex stratigraphical

20 Hz
features where they couldn’t be revealed by single
frequency output. It revealed not only linier channel and
meandering channel which are pointed by red arrows but
also fault pointed by brown arrow. They were Mesozoic
geological features. There was also a sandwaves, yellow
gradation associated with channels, due to turbid current in
deep sea depositional environment.

Conclusions
Spectral decomposition using CWT revealed hydrocarbon
presence at 10 Hz. The higher the output frequency used,
(a)
the more attenuated the hydrocarbon presence. RGB color
30 Hz blending with 20, 30, and 50 Hz output frequency enhanced
both stratigraphical and geological features delineation,
subtle depositional and structural patterns.

References

Castagna, J.P., Sun, S., and Siegfried, R.W., 2002, The Use
of Spectral Decomposition as a Hydrocarbon
Indicator, GasTIPS, 24-27.
Henderson, J., Purves, J.S., Fisher, G., and Leppard, C.,
2008, Delineation of geological elements from
(b) RGB color blending of seismic attribute volumes,
TLE, 25, 342-350.
50 Hz
Jager, D.J., and Geluk, M.C., 2007, Geology of The
Natherlands, Petroleum Geology, 241-264.
Liu, J., 2006, Spectral Decomposition and Its Application
In Mapping Stratigraphy and Hydrocarbons,
Desertation, University of Houston, USA.
Schroot, B.M., and Schüttenhelm, R.T.E., 2003,
Expressions of shallow gas in the Netherlands
North Sea, Netherlands Journal of Geosciences /
Geologie en Mijnbouw, 82, 91-105.
Sinha, S., 2005, Spectral Decomposition of Seismic Data
with Continuous Wavelet Transform, Thesis,
(c) University of Oklahoma, USA.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank to dGB Earth Sciences B.V.
for permission to use the data and as data contributor.

(d)
Figure.6 Time slice 1125 ms through spectral magnitude
components at (a) 20 Hz, (b) 30 Hz, (c) 50 Hz, and (d) RGB
blending result