GARFIELD,TIMOTHY R., DAVID C. JENNETTE, Exxon Production Research Company; FRANKLIN J. GOULDING, and DONALD K. SICKAFOOSE, Exxon Exploration Company, Houston,Texas
Abstract: An Integrated Approach to Deep-Water Reservoir Prediction
Accurate pre-drill
predictions of deep-water reservoir facies, architecture and producibility
are fundamental to the economic success of high-cost exploration and development
projects in deep-water settings. Exxon has improved its success in reservoir
prediction by using an integrated approach that is collaboratively supported
by research and business-unit staff. Key facets of this approach include:
(1) a readily accessible, proprietary global database of subsurface and
outcrop analog studies, (2) experimental and numerical process-response
modeling
, (3)
seismic
and sequence stratigraphic analysis, and (4) 3-D
seismic
attribute and facies analysis.
Underlying the reservoir
prediction effort is a global analog database populated with exploration
and production analogs from a variety of settings and a comprehensive suite
of closely studied outcrops.Analog selection is aided by relating numerical
and experimental models of physical processes and associated depositional
responses to basin-specific controls on reservoir development such as provenance
(sediment texture and volume) transport distance and basin physiography.
Sequence stratigraphy provides a framework for reservoir analysis and can
be used predictively to related inferred changes in shelfal accommodation
and sediment supply to vertical and along slope variations in reservoir
properties on the slope and basin floor. 3-D seismic
attribute analysis
performed within a tightly constrained stratigraphic framework yields a
detailed understanding of vertical and lateral variations in reservoir
properties of genetically related strata.When fully integrated, these data
are the basis for more accurate characterizations of deep-water reservoirs
in the subsurface and provide new insights into the complexities of deep-water
sedimentation.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90923@1999 International Conference and Exhibition, Birmingham, England