Print this pageDeepwater Reservoir Characterization: From Core Description to 3-D Facies Propagation and Reservoir Modeling
Chen, Jiajie 1; Bastidas, Rodrigo 1;
Laguros, George 1; Petro, David 1; Scott, Erik 1;
Campion, Kirt 1
(1)Marathon Oil Corporation, Houston, TX.
Deepwater depositional processes result in complicated patterns of
facies distribution. The physical properties of the sediments retained in each
facies have significant impact on reservoir quality, connectivity and flow
deliverability. Therefore, properly describing the stratigraphic complexity,
especially the architecture of various facies, is one of the key issues facing
the geoscience community when tackling the tasks in reservoir characterization
and modeling. This paper presents a new methodology in which a number of
processes are built into an integrated workflow for facies analysis and
reservoir modeling. These processes include outcrop 
analog
and development of
conceptual depositional models, whole core description and detailed facies
recognition, Multi-Resolution Graph based Clustering (GRGC) analysis to group
the detailed facies types into fewer number of facies associations, prediction
of facies associations in uncored intervals, propagation of facies associations
in 3D space, and distribution of facies-linked reservoir properties
(net-to-gross, porosity, and so on) in the geological model. The paper also
shows a case study in the Gulf of Mexico to delineate the workflow, and
discusses some necessary details in topics related to facies analysis,
grouping, and reservoir property distribution.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90135©2011 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Milan, Italy, 23-26 October 2011.