The possibilities offered by the use of variational mode decomposition‐based Hilbert marginal spectrum and the differential cepstrum for gas‐bearing detection is studies in this paper. We propose a novel variational mode decomposition‐based Hilbert marginal differential cepstrum for hydrocarbon detection. Variational mode decomposition‐based Hilbert marginal spectrum is first computed. Then discrete cosine transform is carried out to the differential logarithmic variational mode decomposition‐based Hilbert marginal spectrum to obtain the variational mode decomposition‐based Hilbert marginal differential cepstrum. For hydrocarbon detection, the seismic amplitude anomaly section is generated by extracting the first and second common quefrency sections. Compared with the traditional Fourier‐based cepstrum, the wavelet‐based cepstrum and Berthil cepstrum, it has the ability to effectively reveal more detailed frequency‐dependent amplitude anomalies with high accuracy and resolution. Model tests and field data applications from a carbonate reservoir in China show that the variational mode decomposition‐based Hilbert marginal differential cepstrum can provide a better gas‐prone interpretation. The proposed method can be a complementary approach to current cepstrum‐based hydrocarbon detection methods and the spectrum decomposition methods.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved