Abstract: Niger Delta Play Types, Nigeria

Adebayo O. Akinpelu

Exploration databases can be more valuable when sorted by play type. Play specific databases provide a system to organize E & P data used in evaluating the range of values of parameters for reserve estimation and risk assessment. It is important both in focusing the knowledge base and in orienting research effort.

A play in this context is any unique combination of trap, reservoir and source properties with the right dynamics of migration and preservation that results in hydrocarbon accumulation. This definitions helps us to discriminate the subtle differences found with these accumulation settings.

About 20 play types were identified around the Niger Delta oil province in Nigeria. These are grouped into three parts:

-- The proven plays - constituting the bulk of exploration prospects in Nigeria today.

-- The unproven or semi-proven plays usually with some successes recorded in a few tries but where knowledge is still inadequate.

-- The unproven or analogous play concept. These are untested but geologically sound ideas which may or may not have been tried elsewhere.

With classification and sub grouping of these play types into specific databases, intrinsic attributes and uniqueness of each of them with respect to the four major risk elements and the eight parameters for reserve estimation can be better understood.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90956©1995 AAPG International Convention and Exposition Meeting, Nice, France