The seismic amplitude versus offset (AVO) analysis has become a prominent in the direct hydrocarbon indicator in last decade, aimed to characterizing the fluid content or the lithology of a possible reservoir and reducing the exploration drilling risk. Our research discusses the impact of studying common depth point gathers on Near, Mid and Far-offsets, to verify the credibility of the amplitude response in the prospect evaluation, through analyzing a case study of two exploratory wells; one has already penetrated a gas-bearing sandstone reservoir and the second one is dry sand, but drilled in two different prospects, using the AVO analysis, to understand the reservoir configuration and its relation to the different amplitude response. The results show that the missing of the short-offset data is the reason of the false anomaly encountered in the dry sand, due to some urban surface obstacles during acquiring the seismic data in the field, especially the study area is located in El Mansoura city, which it is a highly cultivated terrain, with multiple channels and many large orchards on the edge of the river, and sugar cane and rice fields. Several lessons have been learned, which how to differentiate between the gas reservoirs and non-reservoirs, by understanding the relation between the Near and Far-offset traces, to reduce the amplitude anomalies to their right justification, where missing of Near-offset data led to a pseudo-amplitude anomaly. The results led to a high success of exploration ratio as the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.

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Several seismological and paloseismolgical studies and historical reports have indicated that Gulf of Aqaba is characterized by higher seismicity than any other seismogenic sources around Egypt. Accordingly, surrounding areas have been impacted by several destructive earthquakes (AD 1068, AD 1212, AD 1229, AD 1458, and AD 1995). Cities situated around the Gulf of Aqaba have experienced different damage levels due to historical and instrumental earthquakes resulting in considerable fatalities. The Aqaba earthquake which occurred on November 22, 1995 (Moment magnitude (Mw) = 7.3) was the largest recorded earthquake along with the Dead Sea Fault System, strongly felt at Eastern Mediterranean region. Many seismic sequences have ocuuerd in the Gulf of Aqaba in the last decades and some of them continued for almost two years. This paper applies a spectral decomposition method based on a reference site to correct the source spectra from the path and site effects by employing Iterative Least Square analysis. The obtained displacement source spectra are modulated with Brune’s omega square type spectrum. The dynamic earthquakes parameters are computed using the S-wave window for the significant Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes. 50 earthquakes have been used in this study with Ml 3.0 to 6. The calculated seismic moments range spans from 1.48E+19 to 2.193E+22 dyne-cm, and the corner frequency range spans from 4.1 to 8.5 Hz. The source radii span which range from 84.3 m to 173.4 meters. The observed stress drops vary from 0.3 to 371.7 megapascal (Mpa).

This case study showing the usefulness of the Common Depth Point (CDP's) analysis to assess the amplitude response which is similar at two cases (gas-bearing and dry sands) after stack, using the Amplitude Versus Offset (AVO) analysis and the pre-stack inversion to understand the reservoir configuration and its relationship to the different amplitude response. The results led to a high success of exploration ratio as the positives vastly outweigh the negatives. Several lessons have been learned, which how to differentiate between the similar amplitude responses for two dry and gas discovery wells-by understanding the relationship between the near traces (near offset) and the far traces (far offset) from the CDP gathers in order to reduce the amplitude anomalies to their right justification. Consequently, a variation in the reflectivity strength is observed, which is controlled by the mechanical properties of the rocks: compression wave (VP), shear wave (Vs) and density. These properties are affected by litho logy and fluid contents. The analysis of the CDP's gathers and the inversion results help in validating the prospects before drilling and in determining the response of the seismic amplitude deviation with the offset, so it is possible to confirm the amplitude anomaly if it is related to hydrocarbon or not.

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