Tertiary Deep-Marine Reservoirs of the North Sea Region
Discovery of the Arbroath, Montrose and Forties fields initiated intensive exploration of the Tertiary deep-marine play in the North Sea region. Subsequent discoveries demonstrated the success of this play and the geological diversity of the depositional systems. The play is now mature and in many areas the remaining exploration potential is likely to be dominated by small, subtle traps with a major component of stratigraphic trapping. Economically marginal discoveries need an in-depth understanding of subsurface uncertainty to mitigate risk with limited appraisal wells. Mature fields require detailed geological understanding in the search for the remaining oil. This volume focuses on the regional depositional setting of these deep-marine systems, providing a stratigraphic and palaeogeographical context for exploration, and development case histories that outline the challenges of producing from these reservoirs. The fields are arranged around the production life cycle, describing the changing needs of geological models as the flow of static and dynamic data refines geological understanding and defines the nature of new opportunities as fields mature.
Reservoir geology of the Paleocene Forties Sandstone Member in the Fram discovery, UK Central North Sea
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Published:January 01, 2015
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CiteCitation
David W. Jones, Samantha Large, Alan McQueen, Ahmed Helmi, 2015. "Reservoir geology of the Paleocene Forties Sandstone Member in the Fram discovery, UK Central North Sea", Tertiary Deep-Marine Reservoirs of the North Sea Region, T. McKie, P. T. S. Rose, A. J. Hartley, D. W. Jones, T. L. Armstrong
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Abstract
The Fram discovery, located in the UK Central North Sea, comprises the Paleocene-aged Forties Sandstone Member with an oil rim and primary gas-cap trapped within a four-way dip closure around a pierced salt diapir. The Forties Sandstone Member reservoir at Fram is characterized by very-fine- to fine-grained sandstones interbedded with shales with post-depositional small-scale slumping and sand injection, interpreted to be the product of high-density turbidity currents and debris flows. Deposition was in an overall distal and marginal, basin-floor lobe environment. The Forties reservoir interval is considered to comprise a series of offset-stacked, turbidite lobes characterized by a systematic variation from axial amalgamated sandstone facies to more distal, marginal and thinner-bedded heterolithic sandstone facies, producing an overall sheet-like reservoir architecture. The Forties reservoir at Fram is thinner and poorer when compared with more proximal parts of the Forties submarine fan system, and reservoir quality is strongly controlled by sedimentary facies. The architecture of the reservoir is expected to result in poorer vertical, but greater lateral, stratigraphic continuity when compared with more channelized Forties reservoirs such as the Nelson and Forties fields further to the north. A key step in understanding and characterizing the Fram reservoir was the appraisal drilling in 2009, which included coring, comprehensive wireline logging, formation pressure data acquisition and a drill stem production test. This paper provides an overview of the Fram reservoir geology and demonstrates how integration of data acquired in the 2009 29/3c-8,8z appraisal wells with 3D seismic datasets, existing E&A wells and analogues has helped to improve reservoir characterization and identify the major subsurface uncertainties needing to be addressed during the field-development planning.
- Atlantic Ocean
- boreholes
- Cenozoic
- clastic rocks
- connectivity
- cores
- depositional environment
- development
- diagenesis
- diapirs
- discoveries
- Europe
- formation evaluation
- geophysical methods
- geophysical profiles
- geophysical surveys
- lithofacies
- marine environment
- North Atlantic
- North Sea
- oil and gas fields
- Paleocene
- Paleogene
- petroleum
- petroleum engineering
- petroleum exploration
- physical properties
- planning
- production
- reflection methods
- reservoir properties
- reservoir rocks
- salt domes
- sandstone
- sedimentary rocks
- seismic methods
- seismic profiles
- shale
- stacking
- stratigraphy
- submarine fans
- surveys
- Tertiary
- traps
- turbidite
- uncertainty
- United Kingdom
- well-logging
- Western Europe
- Sele Formation
- Fram Field
- Forties Sandstone Member