--> Abstract: What Controls Hydrocarbon Production from Shallow Marine Reservoirs? by John A. Howell, Tom Manzocchi, and Saigup Consortium; #90039 (2005)

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What Controls Hydrocarbon Production from Shallow Marine Reservoirs?

John A. Howell1, Tom Manzocchi2, and Saigup Consortium3
1 University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
2 University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
3 European Union,

Shallow marine deposits comprise a significant proportion of the world's clastic hydrocarbon reservoirs. The SAIGUP project was designed to test the sensitivity of such reservoir systems to sedimentological and structural heterogeneity. This was achieved by building c.20,000 synthetic reservoir models with systematically varied inputs. Eighty-one different sedimentological models were built, covering a range of systems from shoreface to fluvial-dominated deltas. Nine different structural configurations were placed on to each of the sedimentological models based upon different fault density and fault seal-potential scenarios. All of the 729 models were upscaled, populated with standard, facies-related petrophsyics and simulated with 4 field developments scenarios. A key challenge within SAIGUP was to capture the wide array of possible sedimentological configurations within a workable framework. Geometeric, thickness and other data were collected from 42 modern and ancient systems which represented a wide array of settings. From this the experimental design for the sedimentological studies involved varying 4 key factors at 3 different levels: 1. Type of shoreline system, from shoreface to fluvial dominated delta. 2. Shoreface trajectory. 3. Progradation direction, relative to water flood direction. 4. The degree of coverage on a series of barriers. This talk outlines the collection of the model parameters, their interdependencies and the model building procedure. Multi-variant statistical analysis of the results indicates that the key sedimentological controls on reservoir behavior are aggradation angle and the orientation of sedimentological dip. The shoreline type was an important but secondary factor and the cemented parasequence boundaries had a negligible effect on production.

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