Reservoir Characterization Using a Synergistic Combination of Geophysical and Geological Data - from Example from the Fractured Tensleep Reservoir, Teapot Dome, Wyoming

Klepacki, Douglas ¹; Black, Brian ²; Anderson, Tom ^2
1 Prism Seismic, Greenwood Village, CO.
² Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center, Casper, WY.

The Teapot Dome is a doubly-plunging anticline on the southwestern margin of the Powder River Basin in Natrona County, Wyoming. The Tensleep reservoir consists of eolian dune sands, interbedded with sabkha and marine dolomite units. Seismic data contributes to the generation of reservoir models in several respects. The horizons and faults interpreted from the 3D seismic volume, using similarity and curvature attributes as well as the conventional amplitude data, are instrumental in producing the structural framework for the reservoir. Inversion and spectral decomposition provide seismic attributes that provide information on rock properties, such as impedance, lithology, and porosity. The seismic attributes are also used to constrain reservoir models derived from the geologic information at the wells, thus synergistically combining the seismic and geologic data. Multiple reservoir attributes derived from both seismic and geologic data are then used to derive a fracture model using the Continuous Fracture Modeling (CFM) technique.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90090©2009 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, June 7-10, 2009