World-class training for the modern energy industry

Location: California

Deepwater Clastics: Source-to-Sink Studies in the Exploration of Turbidite Reservoirs, San Diego, California (G103)

Tutor(s)

Zane Jobe: Research Professor, Colorado School of Mines and the Director of the Geology Center of Research Excellence (CoRE).

Overview

The course will visit spectacular outcrops along the California coastline just north of San Diego. Field work will follow a source-to-sink approach and will focus on specific deepwater architectural elements, including canyons, slope channels, channel-lobe-transition-zones and lobes. The course will provide insights into exploration and development themes and challenges in deepwater depositional systems, with direct analogs to Gulf of Mexico reservoirs.

Duration and Logistics

A 6-day field course based in La Jolla, California. Training will take place through in-class presentations, field observations, printed exercises and discussions in the field. Transport will be by coach.

Exertion Level

This class requires a MODERATE exertion level. Access to the coastal cliff outcrops is via sandy beaches with walks no more than 3km (1.9 miles). Field stops are all at approximately sea level and some are tide dependent. There are some steep steps to negotiate to reach some beach sections.

Level and Audience

Intermediate. The course is aimed at geoscientists, engineers, petrophysicists, geophysicists and managers who are working deepwater reservoirs or would like to improve their knowledge of these systems.

Objectives

You will learn to:

  1. Characterize the sedimentary processes and facies of turbidite systems and mass-transport deposits, and the broad nature of submarine depositional architecture.
  2. Evaluate submarine-channel systems, including scales/dimensions, axis-to-margin architecture, evolution, heterogeneity and potential baffles/barriers to flow.
  3. Predict connectivity in channelized systems from their seismic-geomorphic and well-log expression.
  4. Assess submarine canyon forming-and-filling processes, including mass wasting, bypass, sandy and muddy fill, and up-dip trapping mechanisms.
  5. Illustrate the importance of source-to-sink studies in the exploration of turbidite reservoirs.
  6. Evaluate submarine lobe/sheet systems, including scales/dimensions, axis-to-fringe architecture, compensational stacking, hierarchy and heterogeneity (e.g. hybrid-event-beds).
  7. Analyze channel-lobe-transition-zone deposits and supercritical-flow bedforms.
  8. Assess faulting in lobe deposits and impacts on connectivity.
  9. Appraise the facies variability in proximal/axial and distal/fringe lobe deposits, and the implications for connectivity between these sub-environments.

Reservoir Characterization of Deepwater Systems, San Diego, California (G046)

Tutor(s)

Rene Jonk: Director, ACT-Geo Consulting and Training; Honorary Professor, University of Aberdeen.

Overview

Submarine canyons and deepwater channels are the primary conduits for the transfer of coarse sediments from the shelf to deep-water fans and they are today major targets for petroleum exploration. Southern California has had a long and complex geologic history that has involved many episodes of deepwater sedimentation in a variety of settings ranging from the Paleozoic passive margin of the North American craton to Mesozoic forearc and arc settings to Cenozoic transform, pull-apart, and continental borderland basins. These settings feature deep-water deposits in which both large and small submarine channels and fans played major roles as sediment transport routes and sites of sedimentation.

Duration and Logistics

6 days; a mix of outcrop examination and discussion (70%) and supporting classroom lectures (30%).  The field course is conducted in southern California along the coastline north of San Diego.

Level and Audience

Advanced. Geologists, geophysicists, and petroleum engineers working on deep water reservoirs from exploration to production.

Exertion Level

This class requires a MODERATE exertion level. Access to the coastal cliff outcrops is via sandy beaches, with most walks under 2 km. Some shallow wading on a sandy beach is also necessary in order to visit some outcrops.

Objectives

You will learn to:

  1. Review deepwater lithofacies nomenclature and definitions, common lithofacies associations, and interpret lithofacies in outcrops and cores.
  2. Interpret environments of deposition (EoD’s) and related reservoir architecture, lithofacies associations, and diversity.
  3. Interpret sequence stratigraphic surfaces in outcrop, logs, and seismic in DW settings and related to vertical stacking of facies.
  4. Use core and well-logs to interpret EoD’s.
  5. Evaluate reservoir geometry and connectivity in different EoD’s.
  6. Recognise the Do’s and Don’ts of using outcrops as reservoir analogs
  7. Apply outcrop information as analog for reservoir model building
  8. Evaluate seismic response, including geometry, facies, and acoustic response in deepwater EoD’s
  9. Apply the criteria for the identification of Composite Sequences, Sequence Sets, and Depositional Sequences and their components in outcrops, cores, well logs, and seismic
  10. Use interpretation and mapping techniques for cores, well-logs, and seismic lines in deepwater settings, from Exploration to Production business scales
  11. Apply criteria and mapping strategies for play elements in deepwater depositional settings
  12. Identify and map play fairways in deepwater settings.

Modern and Ancient Carbonate Lakes of the Western U.S.: Lessons for Interpreting the Cretaceous Pre-Salt Reservoirs in the South Atlantic, Utah, Nevada and California (G030)

Tutor(s)

Paul Wright: Independent Consultant.

Overview

The pre-salt “microbialite” reservoirs of offshore Brazil and West Africa (such as the Barra Velha Fm of Santos Basin) are highly problematic reservoirs. While there are no modern or ancient analogs for the Barra Velha and its equivalents, the modern rift basin lakes in western U.S. can be used to demonstrate a range of issues relevant to understanding the reservoirs. This course combines field visits with classroom lectures and core examination, and throughout the course comparisons will be made with the pre-salt reservoirs from the South Atlantic to provide a forum for discussion to aid understanding of these reservoirs.

The manual will be provided in digital format and you will be required to bring a laptop or tablet computer to the course.

Duration and Logistics

6 days; a mix of field stops (70%), classroom lectures (15%) and core examination (15%).

The course begins in Salt Lake City, Utah, and ends in Reno, Nevada.

Exertion Level

This class requires an EASY exertion level. The longest walk on the class is approximately 3.2km (2 miles) over fairly flat topography. Outcrops are at elevations of 1200–2000m (4000–6500 ft). Weather conditions in northern Utah and eastern California can vary from cool and dry, to hot and dry, with a late spring and early fall temperature range of 5–27°C (40–80°F). Transport will be in a bus or SUVs on black-top roads.

Level and Audience

Advanced. The course will be of particular interest to individuals evaluating the pre-salt of Brazil and West Africa but will also appeal to geoscientists who wish to expand their knowledge of non-marine reservoirs. A basic familiarity with carbonates depositional systems is assumed.

Objectives

You will learn to:

  1. Examine a range of classical carbonate facies in core, including core from an active microbialite reservoir in the US.
  2. Examine the scale relationship of carbonate deposition in the field across a series of half grabens using the Great Salt Lake, Utah, as an example.
  3. Examine an active petroleum system associated with volcanic-related rift activity and lacustrine carbonates.
  4. Examine many of the key elements of the carbonate facies encountered in arid saline lakes (microbialites, oolites, salt pans, travertines and large spit complexes) including the subtle influence of small faults on facies distribution.
  5. Examine seismic-scale carbonate build-ups associated with faults in an alkaline lake (Pyramid Lake, Nevada), including how sub-lacustrine fault-controlled fluid flows generate large build-ups and the effects of subaerial exposure on such build-ups.
  6. Examine the complex facies architecture of vent-fed sub-lacustrine carbonate systems.
  7. Examine the range of facies associated with vent-fed ridge travertines and evaluate whether such systems can be used as analogs for some pre-salt reservoirs, using outcrops near Bridgeport, California.
  8. Examine carbonate deposition in a highly alkaline lake, Mono Lake in California, very closely associated with volcanic cones, emphasizing the role of volcanic activity in rift basins.