--> Abstract: Lidar Characterization of a Jackfork Group Basin Floor Fan Deposit and Implications to Analog Reservoir Modeling and Production, by Brett D. Schlichtemeier; #90124 (2011)

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AAPG ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
Making the Next Giant Leap in Geosciences
April 10-13, 2011, Houston, Texas, USA

Lidar Characterization of a Jackfork Group Basin Floor Fan Deposit and Implications to Analog Reservoir Modeling and Production

Brett D. Schlichtemeier1

(1) University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.

In an age of depleting hydrocarbon reserves and increased field maturity, complex reservoir characterization requires the incorporation of innovative ideas as well as new technological advancements to optimize the science of outcrop-to-reservoir modeling. Laser imaging and ranging (LIDAR) is a 21st century addition to the modern geologist’s toolkit, allowing for streamlined transfer of real outcrop geometries, coordinates, and fracture data to be quickly imported to static and dynamic reservoir modeling software, such as the Schlumberger Petrel® and Eclipse® programs. Strata of the Pennsylvanian Jackfork group exposed at Degray Lake Spillway in the Caddo Valley Area, Arkansas offer an excellent opportunity to study the geometries of deepwater architectural units, patterns in depositional cyclicity (both in allocyclic and autocyclic forms), as well as the correlation of facies present in the ancient outcrops to physical properties (i.e. porosity, permeability) observed in analog fields in the Gulf of Mexico. While Degray Lake Spillway has been well documented in terms of the stratigraphic section, and debated regarding the operative bed scale depositional processes, little work has been done in terms of modeling the entire succession for static and dynamic reservoir simulation. LIDAR scanning of the Degray Spillway section has been undertaken and analyzed for fracture orientation and density data as related to bed thickness and facies type, as well as for the high resolution importation of stratigraphic contacts into Petrel and Eclipse software for facies modeling and flow simulation, utilizing different well placements and orientations. LIDAR data will also be used in concert with detailed photo-mosaics for correlation of stratigraphic units across the open spillway to quantify lateral thickness changes of compensationally stacked beds in the ancient fan system—an observation that has been described qualitatively in the past but will stand to gain from the precision of LIDAR data. Due to the high cost of LIDAR scanning compared to standard measured section work, this research seeks to evaluate the LIDAR method in its overall utility to the science of outcrop-to-reservoir modeling.