--> Abstract: Deep-Water Slope Channel Fill Sandstones, Laingsburg Formation (Permian), Karoo Basin, South Africa: Confined Deep-Water Reservoirs Dominated by Bars with Reservoir Connectivity Controlled by Lateral Bedform Distribution and Bar Stacking; #90063 (2007)

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Deep-Water Slope Channel Fill Sandstones, Laingsburg Formation (Permian), Karoo Basin, South Africa: Confined Deep-Water Reservoirs Dominated by Bars with Reservoir Connectivity Controlled by Lateral Bedform Distribution and Bar Stacking

 

Sprague, Anthony1, Darren Box2, Matt Grove2, John Ardill3, Lars Seidler4, Maija Schellpeper5, Mike Farrell2, Mark Rosin6, Jonathan Stewart2, Nowell Briedis7, Frank Goulding6, John Snedden1, Donatella Mellere8 (1) ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston, TX (2) ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston, (3) ExxonMobil Exploration Company, Houston, TX (4) Maersk Oil, Copenhagen, Denmark (5) ExxonMobil, (6) ExxonMobil Development Company, Houston, (7) Esso, Stavanger, Norway (8) Statoil, Stavanger, Norway

 

As more deep-water discoveries in confined slope channel reservoirs in West Africa are developed and produced, and as more high-resolution 3D seismic datasets are acquired during field life, there is an urgent need to develop fine-scale lithofacies models to better predict reservoir distribution and fluid flow behavior as established by production data.

 

World-class exposures of deep-water slope channel fill sandstones in the Permian Laingsburg Formation, Karoo Basin, South Africa allow such detailed models to be developed. In these accessible outcrops, shale is exceptionally well exposed, beds can be walked, and the stratigraphic framework can be readily established.

 

Composite sequences, sequence sets, and sequences have been identified and mapped. The distribution of reservoir and non-reservoir lithofacies is determined by the stratal hierarchy within sequences, which include complex, storey set and storey. Confined slope channel fills are comprised of these stratal packages, which can be mapped at outcrop. The storey is the fundamental stratigraphic element and is comprised of bars which stack into bar sets. Bar sets are meter-scale sedimentary bodies, comprised of traction dominated structures that change predictably laterally over distances of meters to hundreds of meters.

 

Recognition of these sedimentary bodies, their stratal organization and lateral lithofacies distribution has lead to better lithofacies models for improved reservoir prediction.

 

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California