Process Based Modelling of Deep Marine Reservoir Systems
Aas, Tor
E.1, Ragnar Hauge2, Bjorn
Fjellvoll2, Petter Abrahamsen2,
John Howell1, Stephen Tucker3 (1) University of Bergen,
5020 Bergen, Norway (2) Norwegian Computing Centre, NO-0373 Oslo, Norway (3) Conoco Phillips, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Preserved sedimentary and reservoir
architecture is function of accommodation, sediment supply and depositional
process. Recent advances in numerical, process based modelling
have allowed the recreation of flow and deposition within single turbidity
events. However, such simulations are computationally very expensive and
unsuitable for re-creating reservoirs which are comprised of the results of
hundreds of flow events.
A new method for combining a simplified simulation
of event based sedimentation in turbidites is
presented. Physical processes are simplified while still account for seabed
topography, gravity, fluid friction, kinematics, ocean currents, sedimentation
and erosion rates. Individual events start in a confined feeder channel and
experience a hydraulic jump where the flow stalls and widens into a lobe.
Modeling individual events is very fast and hundreds can be simulated. This
method is combined with stochastic elements to allow reservoir uncertainty modeling
and conditioning to well data.
The basic inputs are paleobathymetry
and well data. Paleobathymetry is derived from
structural restoration and decompaction of key
surfaces. The complete workflow has been tested on two datasets. The Early
Cretaceous Kopervik Sandstone from the Outer Moray
Firth, North Sea comprises a sand-rich, series of fill and spill deposits
sourced from the west. The trend contains a number of important fields and
numerous leads. The second dataset is from the Eocene-Oligocene Peira Cava turbidite system which
crops out the Alpine foreland in southeastern
AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California