--> Abstract: The Carbonate Analogs Through Time (CATT) Hypothesis: A Systematic and Predictive Look at Phanerozoic Carbonate Reservoirs, by James R. Markello, Richard B. Koepnick, and Lowell E. Waite; #90039 (2005)
[First Hit]

Datapages, Inc.Print this page

The Carbonate Analogs Through Time (CATT) Hypothesis: A Systematic and Previous HitPredictiveNext Hit Look at Phanerozoic Carbonate Reservoirs

James R. Markello1, Richard B. Koepnick2, and Lowell E. Waite3
1 ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston, TX
2 Qatar Petroleum, Doha, Qatar
3 Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Inc, Irving, TX

The Carbonate Analogs Through Time (CATT) Hypothesis defines an approach for developing systematic evaluations and Previous HitpredictiveNext Hit models of Phanerozoic carbonate systems and reservoirs. Simply stated, “insightful, high-confidence, age-specific Previous HitpredictiveTop models for carbonate system and reservoir occurrence, composition, stratal attributes, and reservoir properties can be developed by summing the ambient conditions of the carbonate processes and Earth processes at any geologic age.” We term these models age-sensitive patterns or themes. This hypothesis is built upon the cumulative body of knowledge that demonstrates carbonate and Earth processes have differentially varied throughout Phanerozoic time. These carbonate and Earth processes include: 1) ecologic, oceanographic, sedimentologic process-based controls on carbonate factory development; 2) stratigraphic and accommodation process-based controls on carbonate stratal architecture; 3) secular trends of evolution, grain mineralogy, tectonics, climate, eustasy, ocean circulation, and ocean chemistry; 4) the stratigraphic hierarchy and the constraint that first- and second-order Phanerozoic stratigraphic successions (Sloss Sequences) are age-fixed in geologic time (mybp). Two key products of this research are a global atlas containing 29 present-day and paleogeographic map pairs with details of known Phanerozoic carbonate systems/reservoirs with age-based carbonate themes, and a poster compilation of secular varying geologic controls synchronized to the time-scale.

This research idea was conceived in 1991 at Mobil Research. The purpose was to provide a new methodology for appropriate reservoir analog selection and simulation-input for carbonate fields at any business stage, and to provide tools for strategic geotechnical decision-making. The project completed in late 1999 at time of the ExxonMobil merger in 2000.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90039©2005 AAPG Calgary, Alberta, June 16-19, 2005