--> Large Scale Stratigraphic Modeling of Deepwater Reservoirs in the Laboratory, Pirmez, Carlos; Cantelli, Alessandro; Hempton, Mark; Maestri, Rogerio; Ducker, Richard E.; Ferreira, Pedro L.; Oliva, George, #90100 (2009)

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Large Scale Stratigraphic Modeling of Deepwater Reservoirs in the Laboratory

Pirmez, Carlos1
 Cantelli, Alessandro1
 Hempton, Mark1
 Maestri, Rogerio2
 Ducker, Richard E.2
 Ferreira, Pedro L.2
 Oliva, George3

1Shell International E&P, Houston, TX.
2
Universidade Federal do
Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
3
Shell Brasil E&P,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Deepwater reservoirs are expensive to develop and reservoir complexity presents a key risk in many offshore projects. To obtain information on reservoir geometry and connectivity, geoscientists have conducted detailed studies of outcrops and near-seafloor analogues. Unfortunately, investigation of large-scale 3D architecture is impossible in most outcrops, and data from shallow analogue systems tend to have limited resolution or penetration. Innovative experimental techniques, including new materials and measurement devices now allow for building turbidite reservoirs at reduced scale in flume tanks and measuring and analyzing these synthetic reservoirs in 3-D in unprecedented detail.

Shell together with the Universidade Federal do
Rio Grande do Sul is building a new experimental facility in Porto Alegre at the UFRGS campus, that will house one of the largest flume tanks ever built for turbidity current experiments. The tank will be 35 m long, 7 m wide and 4 m deep, and will be equipped with state of the art equipment for measuring the flows and properties of resulting deposits.

This new facility will enable the generation of scaled models that were not possible before in smaller flume tanks. While perfect scaling is never possible for a turbidity current experiment, small scale experiments are severely limited, particularly if one is interested in examining the stratigraphic architecture of the deposits. The new tank will improve the scaling because much larger models can be created with respect to presently available flume tanks. For instance, a typical submarine channel a few hundred meters wide could be modeled at a scale of the order of 1:100, whereas typical experiments published to date were conducted at 1:1000 or smaller.

Engineers have historically used reduced scaled models to investigate the interaction of structures with the environment in expensive construction projects, such as dams, harbors and offshore platforms. This new facility is a step towards a new approach to reservoir modeling, by providing yet one more tool for geologists and engineers to optimize field appraisal and development.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90100©2009 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition 15-18 November 2009, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil