Outcrop to Subsurface Reservoir Characterization of the Lower Mesaverde Group, Red Wash Field, Uinta Basin and Douglas Creek Arch, Utah and Colorado
Fenn Chelsea
University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Geological Sciences
Boulder, Colorado, USA
[email protected]
The study of tight-gas sandstones of the Mesaverde Group within the Uinta Basin is integral to our understanding of unconventional hydrocarbon plays. During the late Cretaceous, the Uinta Basin was near the western shoreline of the Western Interior seaway, filling the basin with marine and continental sediments shed from the Sevier highlands. These deposits, called the Mesaverde Group, outcrop along the Douglas Creek Arch, west of Dinosaur, Colorado on the Utah-Colorado border. A successful reservoir characterization study of the lower Mesaverde Group in Red Wash Field will involve strategic integration of outcrop observations, well data, core descriptions, and appropriate modeling methods. Field descriptions, hand-help gamma-ray detector response, and measured section of lower Mesaverde outcrops near Dinosaur, Colorado will aid in correlation of the subsurface. Mapping and documenting abundance, stratigraphic position, and dimensions of sandstone bodies in the field will be essential to object-based modeling of the subsurface at Red Wash Field. Detailed descriptions from available core in Red Wash Field and surrounding areas will help determine facies associations and architectural elements present within the subsurface. Well-log based electrofacies can then be estimated using core-log calibrations to evaluate lithologies and architectural elements in non-cored wells. Three-dimensional models of lithology, architectural elements, porosity, and permeability will be generated using Petrel (Schlumberger) and will honor outcrop derived data, core, well data, and production trends. These models will then be used to evaluate the spatial distribution of fluvial deposits and how static sandstone connectivity varies across the field and stratigraphically within the interval.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90183©2013 AAPG Foundation 2013 Grants-in-Aid Projects