Reservoir characterization and delineation are critical in early prospect evaluation and field development. Reservoirs dominated by thin-bedded deposits with subordinate channels are particularly problematic because logs and conventional 3-D seismic cannot resolve the detailed reservoir architectures and rock properties that are necessary for accurate reservoir evaluation and simulation. Reservoirs of this type have been penetrated as both primary and secondary objectives throughout the Gulf of Mexico. In particular, the Viosca Knoll Area in the eastern Gulf of Mexico contains multiple Miocene and Pliocene thin-bedded reservoirs.

The approach used to model these reservoirs, where there is limited "hard data to help resolve reservoir internal features and continuity, involves: 1) detailed core and high-resolution log evaluations to establish stacking patterns, permeability and porosity distributions, and net/gross; 2) analog outcrop studies and high-resolution seismic data over a shallowly buried channel-levee system to establish conceptual models of deposition, specific information on vertical and lateral facies relationships, and bed length distributions; 3) use of deterministic and probabilistic techniques to construct the reservoir architecture and then to assign detailed rock properties from core to individual layers and; 4) detailed simulations for well test design and production performance predictions that preserve the geologic and petrophysical detail. Analog studies, depositional models, core data, architectural models, and comparison of predicted and actual field results are presented. Tahoe Field and the Ram/ Powell prospect in Viosca Knoll will be briefly described to illustrate the method, predictions, and reservoir potential.

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