Lateral accretion in a straight slope channel system: an example from the Forties Sandstone of the Huntington Field, UK Central North Sea
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Chris Edwards, Sean McQuaid, Stewart Easton, Don Scott, Andrew Couch, Ron Evans, Stephen Hart, 2018. "Lateral accretion in a straight slope channel system: an example from the Forties Sandstone of the Huntington Field, UK Central North Sea", Petroleum Geology of NW Europe: 50 Years of Learning – Proceedings of the 8th Petroleum Geology Conference, M. Bowman, B. Levell
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Abstract
A rich dataset of core, well logs and 3D seismic data has been integrated to establish a depositional hierarchy of a Paleocene-aged, Forties slope channel system of the Huntington Field, Block 22/14b of the Central North Sea. The reservoir consists of a mix of high-concentration turbidites and muddy and sandy debrites deposited as a series of laterally offset, slope channel fills. Seismic data reveal that the channels were remarkably straight and devoid of meander bends, more commonly associated with sinuous slope channel networks. Paradoxically, the internal offlapping architecture draws close comparisons with lateral accretion packages that are widely accepted to be the products of secondary flow circulation around sinuous channel bends. The straight nature of the Huntington channels precludes such an interpretation but can be explained as a consequence of Coriolis effects acting upon suspension-dominated flows in Northern Hemisphere high latitudes, resulting in the preferential accretion of sediment along the right-hand bank (when viewed downstream) and leading to the eventual lateral avulsion of the channel. The observed architecture has been incorporated into a reservoir model in order to characterize the static connectivity of the field that will in turn serve as a basis for understanding production behaviour.
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Contents
Petroleum Geology of NW Europe: 50 Years of Learning – Proceedings of the 8th Petroleum Geology Conference
CONTAINS OPEN ACCESS
GeoRef
- Atlantic Ocean
- Central Graben
- channels
- deep-water environment
- Europe
- geophysical methods
- natural gas
- North Atlantic
- North Sea
- petroleum
- petroleum exploration
- reservoir properties
- seismic methods
- three-dimensional models
- United Kingdom
- well-logging
- Western Europe
- Sele Formation
- central North Sea
- Forties Sandstone Member
- Huntington Field