The Turbidite Paradigm: Lessons Learned from Fifty Years of Integrated Science and Technology Exploring for Deep-Water Sands

Armentrout, John M.
[email protected]

Deposition of sands in deep-water environments by turbulent flow places a potential reservoir rock in close proximity to oil-prone organic-rich rock. Exploration for these deep-water petroleum accumulations continues to be a dominant exploration play in the 21st Century. High-resolution 3D seismic volumes uniquely image these deep-water depositional systems. Calibration of the seismic images using outcrop analogs, laboratory experiments and well data has resulted in highly successful exploration and production programs. This talk briefly reviews the evolution of deep-water depositional models and discusses several lessons learned during the past fifty years, including: ‘Bouma’ facies succession, critical transport conduits, sand-body continuity, stratigraphic trapping and reservoir monitoring. Emphasis is placed on prospecting criteria of provenance, transport conduit and trap, and on subseismic complexity of the reservoir.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90162©2013 Pacific Section AAPG, SPE and SEPM Joint Technical Conference, Monterey, California, April 19-25, 2013