High Resolution Reservoir Architecture of Late Jurassic Haynesville Ramp Carbonates in the Gladewater Field, East Texas Salt Basin

R. K. Goldhammer and K. A. McDonald

The East Texas Salt Basin contains numerous gas fields within Upper Jurassic a Haynesville ramp-complex reservoirs. A sequenced-keyed, high-resolution zonation scheme was developed for the Haynesville Formation in Gladewater field by integrating core description, well-log, seismic, porosity and permeability data. The Haynesville at Gladewater represents a high-energy ramp system, localized on paleotopographic highs induced by diapirism of Callovian Age Salt (Louann). Ramp crest grainstones serve as reservoirs. We have mapped the distribution of reservoir facies within a hierarchy of upward-shallowing parasequences grouped into low-frequency sequences. The vertical stacking patterns of parasequences and sequences reflect the interplay of eustasy, sediment accumulation patterns, and local subsidence (including salt movement and compaction). In this study we draw on regional relations from analogous, Jurassic systems in Mexico to constrain the stratigraphic architecture, age model, and facies model. Additionally, salt-cored Holocene, grain-rich shoals from the Persian Gulf provide excellent facies analogs. The result is a new high-resolution analysis of reservoir architecture at a parasequence scale that links reservoir facies to depositional facies. The new stratigraphy scheme demonstrates that different geographic portions of the field have markedly distinct reservoir intervals, both in terms of total pay and the sequence-stratigraphic interval within which it occurs. Results from this study are used to evaluate infill drill well potential, in well planning, for updating reservoir models, and in refining field reserve estimates.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #91019©1996 AAPG Convention and Exhibition 19-22 May 1996, San Diego, California