Identifying organic-rich Marcellus Shale lithofacies by support vector machine classifier in the Appalachian basin

Unconventional shale reservoirs as the result of extremely low matrix permeability, higher potential gas productivity requires not only sufficient gas-in-place, but also a high concentration of brittle minerals (silica and/or carbonate) that is amenable to hydraulic fracturing. Shale lithofacies is primarily defined by mineral composition and organic matter richness, and its representation as a 3-D model has advantages in recognizing productive zones of shale-gas reservoirs, designing horizontal wells and stimulation strategy, and aiding in understanding depositional process of organic-rich shale. A challenging and key step is to effectively recognize shale lithofacies from well conventional logs, where the relationship is very complex and nonlinear. In the recognition of shale lithofacies, the application of support vector machine (SVM), which underlies statistical learning theory and structural risk minimization principle, is superior to the traditional empirical risk minimization principle employed by artificial neural network (ANN). We propose SVM classifier combined with learning algorithms, such as grid searching, genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization, and various kernel functions the approach to identify Marcellus Shale lithofacies. Compared with ANN classifiers, the experimental results of SVM classifiers showed higher cross-validation accuracy, better stability and less computational time cost. The SVM classifier with radius basis function as kernel worked best as it is trained by particle swarm optimization. The lithofacies predicted using the SVM classifier are used to build a 3-D Marcellus Shale lithofacies model, which assists in identifying higher productive zones, especially with thermal maturity and natural fractures. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.