ABSTRACT The structure and stratigraphy of the southeastern San Joaquin basin were reviewed for evidence that would document the impact on the basin of Miocene rotation of the adjacent Tehachapi and San Emigdio Mountains. Outcrops of basement rocks and volcanic intervals at the southeast margin of the basin contain paleomagnetic data indicating up to 59 degrees of clockwise rotation. The study used cross sections and maps of oil fields published by the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. Information extracted included fault age and orientation, and stratigraphic data including gross unit thickness and net sand thickness. The geologic studies of the oil fields contain an abundance of evidence indicating Miocene extension. South of the Kern River, several fields contain numerous faults of early to middle Miocene age that generally fall on NW-SE or NE-SW trends. Fault offsets indicate a large amount of extension and correspond to the down-dropping of the floor of the Tejon embayment and break-up and collapse of the Edison high. Faults of similar age, present in fields north of the Kern River, have a slightly different NNW-SSE strike. Offsets on this latter set of faults are relatively minor and contributed in forming a wide shelf region. Sediments deposited during the middle and late Miocene reflect different styles of structural extension. South of the Kern River, the depositional gradient was very steep, and sand bodies representing deltaic, shallow-marine and deep marine environments are very localized in extent. North of the Kern River, sands deposited on the wide shelf are laterally extensive and represent deltaic and shallow-marine environments deposited at the terminus of a river system. The structural and depositional styles are similar between the Edison high and Tejon embayment area, indicating that the same structural events were responsible. The structural evidence is consistent with the rotation model of Goodman and Malin (1992) . However, if the Edison high block has rotated, then additional faults may be necessary to accommodate slippage against the adjacent Maricopa sub-basin block. The faulting style north of the Kern River is not consistent with rotation; thus rotation is likely limited to south of the Bakersfield arch.

ABSTRACT A multidisciplinary Kern River Geology Team was charged with developing geologically-based reservoir models that improve understanding of the steam flood process and the encroachment of cool water in the Kern River field. The focus of the effort was on investigating reservoir layers, continuity and boundary conditions, as they relate to movement of steam, oil and water through the system. This paper presents the results of a pilot study of steam movement in a localized area in Kern River field known as Project D-159. Sands of the Kern River Formation that serve as reservoir to hydrocarbons in the field were deposited in a set of braided river channels that repeatedly crossed the field area from late Miocene through Pleistocene time. Channel sand deposition within the study area was not continuous through time, but rather was episodic. At times the depositional system changed significantly, such that the channels shifted to another area and the only deposition in the study area was a succession of floodplain silts. Where these silt units are not breached by subsequent rejuvenated river channel systems, they are barriers between successive large sand reservoirs. A spatial “description” of the sand and silt components in the reservoir system was developed using both conventional geologic methods and geostatistical methods. The conventional geologic methods include stratigraphic cross-sections, developing a layering pattern within the reservoir, and expressing that layering pattern on cross-sections and maps. The layering system was based on a set of “rules” that focused on the unconformable bases of the major sand episodes and that included the overlying silts with the sand body with which it was genetically linked. Using GRIDSTAT - proprietary software developed at Texaco - a series of rapidly constructed geostatistical cross-sections were made that closely approximated the conventional cross-sections. A rigorous statistical comparison of the conventional and geostatistical cross-sections indicates that mean rates of differences in lithology assignment on the GRIDSTAT sections, relative to the conventional cross-sections, are less than 3 percent. The average difference in lithology assignment between GRIDSTAT and traditional techniques is approximately the same as would be present between cross-sections generated by different geologists. However, on GRIDSTAT cross-sections approximately 5 percent of the wells have lithology assignment error rates that are in excess of 10 percent. Such difference rates have the potential to produce significant errors in determining sand thickness and are unacceptably high; geological intervention is required. Average total correlation difference between GRIDSTAT sections and traditional cross-sections is 5.5 percent. There is a tendency for GRIDSTAT to fail to find all geologic correlations; this tendency is significant at the 0.95 confidence level. Stratamodel’s program SGM™ was used to model the 3-D inter-well distribution of reservoir properties in Project D-159. A special layering style was used in order to best represent the internal stratigraphic character of the reservoir. A cell thickness of five feet was chosen within each sequence in order to minimize the vertical averaging of well data while keeping the size of the model within reason. Two types of well data have been modeled at D-159 to date—short-normal resistivity (from fifty-four wells) and temperature measurements (monthly profiles from eleven temperature observation (TO) wells for January through November, 1992). Geobodies and model operations are used in evaluating and tracking the rate of heat growth or dissipation. If temperature geobodies are built in a time sequence, growth in the volume of successive geobodies based on specific temperatures would allow calculation of the heat added to the reservoir; while shrinkage would indicate heat dissipation.