--> ABSTRACT: Role of Depositional Facies on Reservoir Development and Distribution, Ordovician Red River Formation, Williston Basin, by K. Lyn Canter, Vincent J. Coringrato, D. B. Stearns, and K. L. Grubbs; #90906(2001)

Datapages, Inc.Print this page

K. Lyn Canter1, Vincent J. Coringrato2, D.B. Stearns3, K.L. Grubbs2

(1) Applied Geoscience, Inc, Boulder, CO
(2) CamWest Inc, Denver, CO
(3) Consultant, Lakewood, CO

ABSTRACT: Role of Depositional Facies on Reservoir Development and Distribution, Ordovician Red River Formation, Williston Basin

Recent oil discoveries in southeastern Saskatchewan and the successful implementation of horizontal drilling applications in the southwestern part of the Williston basin have once again focused attention on the Red River Formation as an exploration and exploitation target. Complex reservoir geometries and petrophysical properties related to dolomitization patterns have challenged exploration and development efforts throughout the history of the play. The low overall success rate for completions in the Red River attests to the difficulty of evaluating and exploiting these reservoirs through utilization of previously available reservoir prediction models, emphasizing the need to better understand field-scale reservoir distribution and heterogeneity and the corresponding effects on reservoir performance.

Based on variations in paleogeographic position within the basin, productive stratigraphic interval, and trap type, 10 representative fields were selected and evaluated as exploration and exploitation analogs. A regional sequence stratigraphic framework was established using high frequency depositional cycles and gross stacking patterns interpreted from detailed facies analysis of over 5,500 feet of core. A predictive model that addressed variations in depositional facies and facies distribution was delineated, on both a field-wide and regional scale. Recognition of these primary depositional attributes is critical to understanding and predicting reservoir development and distribution, since primary depositional fabric is the single most important control on both primary and secondary porosity distribution. Common reservoir facies include: Thalassinoides burrowed dolomite mud/wackestone representing carbonate mud mounds in the lower Red River ("C" and "D" intervals), well-sorted, cross-bedded skeletal-peloidal dolomite pack/grainstones from shoal deposits ("C" interval), and porous peritidal deposits in the upper Red River ("B" interval).

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90906©2001 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado