Architectural elements in a high-continuity sand-prone turbidite system, late Precambrian Kongsfjord Formation, northern Norway: Application to hydrocarbon reservoir characterization

Quantifying the geometry of high-continuity (relatively unconfined) sand-pr one systems in deep-water sedimentary environments is important both for a better understanding of the intrinsic nature of these systems (volumetrics, stacking patterns, etc.) and for the potential application of this data to modeling the depositional characteristics of such systems for basin analys is and reservoir modeling. A quantitative methodology is presented for defining the geometry of archit ectural elements within sedimentary systems. This methodology is then appli ed to a detailed analysis of sand-rich, deepwater systems, with examples fr om the late Precambrian Kongsfjord Formation, Arctic Norway, and other publ ished outcrop and subsurface data. The efficacy of the scheme is demonstrat ed by its ability to discriminate effectively between reservoir architectur al elements of differing scales within environments (e.g., individual beds, packets of beds) and also between environments (e.g., abyssal plain, outer fan lobe, and submarine channel deposits). This scheme permits a quantitat ive, more objective, means of comparing modern and ancient, including subsu rface, depositional systems. The methodology and analysis presented here provide important geometrical a nd geological information on architectural elements at the subseismic, typi cal interwell scale. The data produced by this methodology should prove use ful for reservoir production and development techniques. This methodology a lso should have applicability in exploration, through its application to ar chitectural elements at the fan and basin scale. In exploration and product ion in deep-water clastic systems, the available data, which are commonly e xtremely expensive to collect, typically consist of seismic data (with high aerial but relatively poor vertical resolution) and generally few wells (w ith high vertical resolution but extremely low aerial resolution). Therefor e, information derived from suitable outcrop analogs on the geometry of fan elements augments significantly the typically sparse available industry da ta from exploration and production. In reservoir development and production, standard industry disciplines such as reservoir engineering and reservoir modeling (both deterministic and st ochastic) should benefit from the approach taken in this article. This is b ecause this article provides additional information on internal reservoir h eterogeneity and architecture that is directly applicable to these discipli nes. The application of standard geostatistical techniques to assess the sp atial continuity of individual elements (such as variogram analysis) has th e potential to further extend the results derived from this methodology and analysis.