LIRO, LOUIS M., TOM BURNETT, WILLIAM C. DAWSON, BARRY J. KATZ, GARY PRIDDY and VAUGHN D. ROBINSON, Texaco EPTD, Houston, Texas

ABSTRACT: A Petroleum System's Lifestyle: Hatter's Pond Field, Mobile County, Alabama

Petroleum system assessment has become a means to establish the temporal and spatial inter-relationships of geologic factors which result in a hydrocarbon accumulation. Understanding of a petroleum system undergoes a series of evolutionary changes from pre-discovery through abandonment phases of a field. Data made available during each stage of a system's lifecycle (i.e., pre-discovery, discovery, development, and abandonment) when integrated with the available geologic model enhances the effectiveness of the exploratory and development programs. The petroleum system evolves from a speculative to either a known or hypothetical system depending on the data which become available. An example of such a lifecycle is presented for the Hatter's Pond field.

The initial exploration concept for Hatter's Pond was based on the Jay

Field of Florida. A structural anomaly was identified. Hydrocarbon source rocks were assumed to be present in the Smackover Formation as a consequence of sequence stratigraphic analysis and "oceanic anoxic events." The extent of hydrocarbon generation and preservation was estimated using numeric modeling. Initially the reservoir was assumed to be regressive, Smackover carbonate grainstones.

Newly acquired data from the Getty Peter Klein 3-14, No. 1, discovery well were merged with the original exploration model. These data confirmed the presence of a source and dramatically altered the understanding of the reservoir by establishing overlying Norphlet sandstones as a primary target. Produced fluids suggested cross-formational flow.

Data obtained during the development phase resulted in continuous refinement of trap geometry, connectivity of pay-zones, and development of porosity and permeability models.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90987©1993 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25-28, 1993.