Deepwater Stratigraphy: The Current Position and Future Challenge

Stephen Flint¹ and Ole Martinsen^2
1 University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
² Norsk Hydro Research Centre, N-5020 Bergen, Norway

A perennial challenge in exploration and development is prediction of sub-seismic reservoir architecture and hence permeability distribution. In many depositional environments this involves the tying of sedimentary process analysis from modern systems with study of ‘products' in outcrop and core to deduce geometry and architecture. In deepwater settings this link is more tenuous due to the difficulty of working with present day turbidity currents and the challenges of working modern systems in hundreds of metres of water. However, major advances have been made the last few years by better integration of sonar surveys/sampling from modern fans with the increasingly high resolution 3-D seismic from relatively shallow reservoir sections. The third component in this integrated analysis has been the quantified study of large-scale outcrops of deepwater systems and the development of high-resolution sequence stratigraphic frameworks in which to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of architectural elements. The final element is the increasing utilisation of digital data capture technology at outcrop, including LIDAR, digital photogrammetry and virtual reality approaches. The result is likely to be a robust set of generic, exportable models for predicting net:gross and facies architecture in a range of basin floor and slope settings. As more deepwater developments enter production over the next decade these models can and will be tested and further refined via the integration of infill well and fluid production data.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90039©2005 AAPG Calgary, Alberta, June 16-19, 2005