Business context
Deepwater E&P projects are typically high cost / high risk / high reward projects. To mitigate and manage the technical and economic risks of deepwater projects it is essential for all staff involved in such projects to have a sound understanding of the key characteristics of deepwater hydrocarbon accumulations.
Who should attend
Designed for practicing subsurface professionals who need to acquire a sound understanding of deepwater reservoir systems. Geoscientists and other subsurface engineers who have recently joined (or are about to join) an FDP team tasked with planning the appraisal and development of a deepwater turbidite hydrocarbon accumulation.
Prerequisites: Awareness of the basics of soft rock geology and/or reservoir engineering including knowledge of subsurface technical workflows.
Course content
This course provides an overview of the geological and reservoir engineering aspects of the field development of deepwater hydrocarbon-accumulations. Though the full range of deepwater oil & gas reservoirs is covered, focus is on providing participants with a sound understanding of clastic turbidite systems. Emphasis in the geology part of this course is on the various controls on reservoir architecture and reservoir properties within a turbidite system. The reservoir engineering part of the course covers the 'why and how' effects on FDP decision-making due to these spatial variations in reservoir architecture and reservoir properties.
Learning, methods and tools
Learning outcomes:
Day by day programme
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Day 1 |
Deepwater petroleum systems & deepwater sedimentation
Course participants will gain a sound understanding of the geological characteristics and depositional origin of deepwater hydrocarbon resources. A clear distinction is made between hydrocarbon reservoirs that originally formed in shallow water environments but which currently occur in deepwater settings and deepwater reservoirs that were deposited in deepwater by mass-flow mechanisms.In deepwater settings a variety of mass-flow sediment transport mechanisms occurs, with debris flows and turbidites most important for the deposition of reservoir quality rocks. Participants will understand the controls on the occurrence and distribution of the different deepwater transport mechanisms. This is important for the prediction and modelling of the spatial variations in reservoir quality. |
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Day 2 |
Deepwater sedimentation(ctnd) Reservoir characterisationof a turbidite deposit
Deepwater carbonate and clastic reservoirs are both similar and very different in their reservoir architecture and reservoir properties. For example clastic turbidites most commonly form during low sea-levels stands, whereas carbonate mass-flow deposits typically form during high sea-level stands. Identifying suitable reservoir analogues for a clastic turbidite reservoir requires a sound understanding of the plate-tectonic setting of the basin in question. Input data for reservoir characterisation requires combining seismic, log, core and sedimentological inputs. |
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Day 3 (morning) |
Case studies
If time allows
Focussing on channelized turbidite deposits a number of case studies will provide course participants with an understanding of how e.g. plate tectonic and sea-level setting, shelf slope or presence or absence of salt substrate, control the deposition and distribution of clastic reservoir rocks. This will include a group exercise in translating input data (seismic / logs / cores / geological concepts) into qualitative statements about reservoir architecture and reservoir property characteristics. |
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Day 3 (afternoon) |
Reservoir dynamics: Field Development Plan
Case study:Deepwater production improvement and reservoir management Topics: K field experience - Early production experience - waterflood optimisation -smart well design -monitoring |
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Day 4 |
Turbidite reservoirs: data integration and model construction
Case study: Integrating data across disciplines Topics: North Sea experience - Integration of disciplines - depositional model scenarios - compartmentalisation - workflow for building sector models - impact of parameter uncertainty - use of Thomas Stieber analysis Well productivity
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Day 5 |
Turbidite well testing and uncertainty handling
Well test options and well test design.
Case study: Complex reservoir architecture validated by well testing: turbidite well test example
Handling uncertainty
Case study: Deep water reservoir uncertainty handling
Summary and close-out
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