A Physical Stratigraphic Hierarchy for Deep-Water Slope System Reservoirs 2: Complexes to Storeys

Anthony Sprague¹, Darren Box¹, David Hodgson², and Steve Flint^2
1ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston, TX
²The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

The deep-water hierarchical approach has been extended from complex scale (slope channel complexes, levee complexes and frontal lobe complexes resolvable on 30 Hz seismic data) down to well log and core scale (individual storeys and storey sets). Detailed characterization of these deposits highlights the dominance of traction processes related to sustained flows, creating well organized small- to medium scale stratigraphic patterns. This scale of self organization controls reservoir fluid flow behavior under production conditions, and is essential to capture in simulation models. Identification of storeys and storey sets is easier away from axial areas of amalgamation. Application of the new hierarchical approach bridges the traditional ‘scale jump’ between seismic and well-based data, allowing early prediction of heterogeneity. Storey sets stack to form complexes, which are organized into complex sets that exhibit characteristic stacking patterns, thus controlling connectivity at the limit of seismic resolution. These hierarchical reservoir building blocks are independent of depositional environment and examples will be discussed from basin floor fan, through high net-to-gross, low gradient slope systems to high gradient systems of both entrenched and Levee-confined styles.

AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa 2008 © AAPG Search and Discovery