Print this pageAAPG ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
Making the Next Giant Leap in Geosciences
April 10-13, 2011, Houston, Texas, USA
The Use of a Source-to-Sink Methodology in Petroleum Exploration – Examples from the Mesozoic of the North Sea
(1) The University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
(2) Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
(3) Statoil, Bergen, Norway.
A robust understanding of ancient, subsurface sediment transport systems often requires decades of data gathering and subsequent interpretation. Consequently, such information is often not available in many petroleum-bearing basins, and is especially rare in under-explored areas. One way of increasing our understanding of such ancient systems is by applying a source-to-sink methodology. This methodology uses relationships between morphological and sedimentological parameters observed in modern systems, which are then applied in an inverse sense to estimate similar parameters for ancient systems. This operation is possible because various segments of the source-to-sink system are intimately linked in time and space, both in terms of morphology and sediment dynamics.
Here we use data from the Norwegian margin to show how a source-to-sink methodology can be a useful in petroleum exploration. We will demonstrate the applicability of the method at two scales; (i) regional scale, which is important in unexplored frontier basins where little data is available, and; (ii) local scale, in areas where data is relatively abundant due to previous exploration activities.
At the regional scale we will show how a source-to-sink approach can be used to improve the understanding of the paleotopograpy of sediment source areas. The source area is important because it is a first-order control on sediment routing between onshore source areas and offshore depositional basins. Also, paleotopography is an important control on the spacing of sediment input-points and, therefore, the spacing of potential, genetically-linked shallow- and deep-marine reservoirs. At the local scale we will show how a source-to-sink approach is important when assessing the importance of tectonics in controlling the location of sediment input-points to the basin at the km-scale, and how this may provide valuable information on the location of individual reservoir sandbodies. Understanding the complete paleo-supply system may provide information on crucial reservoir parameters such as sandstone connectivity, stratigraphic architecture and internal sandbody organization, sediment maturity, and sediment composition and grain-size calibre.
In summary, a robust understanding of ancient subsurface petroleum systems will benefit from a first-order analysis of the entire source-to-sink system. This may give valuable information on anything from regional sediment routing to local reservoir characteristics.