LINKING TIME AND GEOMETRY WITH PETROLEUM DISTRIBUTION — APPLIED 4D PETROLEUM SYSTEMS MODELING WITHIN THE ALASKA NORTH SLOPE
LAMPE, Carolyn1, PETERS, Kenneth E.2, MAGOON, Leslie B.2, and BIRD, Kenneth J.2, (1) IES Integrated Exploration Systems GmbH, Ritterstrasse 23, Aachen, 52072, Germany, [email protected], (2) U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, MS 969, Menlo Park, CA 94025
The petroleum province of the Alaskan North Slope comprises seven identified
petroleum systems with complex maturation
, migration and charge histories. We
look at the four major source units in the area within the Paleozoic to Mesozoic
Ellesmerian and Beaufortian Sequences, namely the Kingak Shale, Shublik
Formation, pebble shale unit (PBS) and gamma ray zone (GRZ) source rocks. The
maturation
and expulsion history of these source units depends greatly on both
the present-day and the paleo-basin geometry of the study area. The
paleogeometry of the Ellesmerian and Beaufortian Sequences is mainly controlled
by the diachronous deposition (progradation) of the overlying Brookian sequence
from west to east. This resulted in western and eastern depocenters where the
source rocks became thermally mature at different times.
Accurate basin geometry, temperature, and maturation
history through time are
needed to model the occurrence of multiple petroleum systems and their complex
migration pathways to multiple reservoir rocks. A three-dimensional,
pressure-volume-temperature controlled, multi-component (hydrocarbon fractions),
3-phase (oil, gas, water) petroleum migration model is presented that integrates
changing basin geometry, thermal history,
maturation
, migration and accumulation
through time to account for the petroleum distribution observed today on the
North Slope.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90058©2006 AAPG Pacific Section Meeting, Anchorage, Alaska