--> Abstract: A Sleeping Giant; #90063 (2007)

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A Sleeping Giant? Reinvigorating Exploration in the Pre- to Post-Rift Succession of the South Viking Graben, North Sea

 

Larsen, Eirik1, Christopher Jackson2, Karla Kane3, Rachel Kieft3, Anne Elise Tjemsland4, Unni Sjursen1, Sigmund Hanslien1, Inga Wirowski5, Ellen Marie Kollen1, Helge Sognnes1, Elisabeth Bjerkebæk1, Anna Sofia Gregerson1, Elisabeth Bøhle Sletten6, Inger Winsvold1, Rhoar Lindanger1, Per Varhaug5, Lars Jan Jaarvik1 (1) Statoil ASA, Stavanger, Norway (2) Imperial College, (3) Imperial College, London, United Kingdom (4) Statoil, Stavanger, (5) Statoil, Stavanger, Norway (6) Statoil ASA,

 

The South Viking Graben (SVG) is a mature petroleum basin that still offers commercially significant exploration and field-development opportunities. In addition to existing producing fields, there are several discoveries ready for development and numerous exploration targets within several diverse plays. As such, the SVG is a core commercial area for Statoil. Currently the majority of production comes from Middle Jurassic reservoirs in the Greater Sleipner area. Although the Middle Jurassic play is now mature, Triassic, Cretaceous and Palaeogene reservoirs are less explored, and the Upper Jurassic in particular, can be considered grossly under-explored when compared to UK side of the basin where the prolific Brae fields are located.

 

Within an extensional basin such as the SVG it is a major challenge to predict reservoir distribution and quality within the syn-rift interval. To meet this challenge a multidisciplinary, regional geological study was initiated in 2005. The integrated use of biostratigraphy, sedimentology, sequence-stratigraphy, seismic-stratigraphy, structural geology, seismic inversion and analysis of fluid and pressure data has resulted in a revised regional geological framework for this mature basin. Several exploration targets have been identified in the less-explored stratigraphic intervals in addition to the better known Middle Jurassic section . Geological predictions and risk evaluation have benefited greatly from this improved regional understanding, which in addition provides support for investment decisions related to both exploration and field-development.

 

This study demonstrates how an integrated multidisciplinary study can generate new opportunities in a mature basin that has been explored for more than 30 years.

 

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California