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Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 98, No. 2 (February 2014), P. 191212.

Copyright copy2014. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI:10.1306/06171312088

Prediction of channel connectivity and fluvial style in the flood-basin successions of the Upper Permian Rangal coal measures (Queensland)

Jennifer Y. Stuart,1 Nigel P. Mountney,2 William D. McCaffrey,3 Simon C. Lang,4 John D. Collinson5

1Fluvial Research Group, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom; [email protected]
2Fluvial Research Group, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom; [email protected]
3Fluvial Research Group, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom; [email protected]
4Chevron Energy Technology Company, 1500 Louisiana Street, Houston, Texas, 77001; [email protected]
5John Collinson Consulting Ltd., Delos, Knowl Wall, Beech, Staffordshire, ST4 8SE, United Kingdom; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Predicting the presence and connectivity of reservoir-quality facies in otherwise mud-prone fluvial overbank successions is important because such sand bodies can potentially provide connectivity between larger neighboring sand bodies. This article addresses minor channelized fluvial elements (crevasse-splay and distributary channels) and attempts to predict the connectivity between such sand bodies in two interseam packages of the Upper Permian Rangal Coal Measures of northeastern Australia. Channel-body percent as measured in well logs was 2% in the upper (Aries-Castor) interseam and 17% in the lower (Castor-Pollux) interseam. Well spacing were too great to allow accurate correlation of channel bodies. The Ob River, Siberia, was used as a modern analog to supply planform geometric measurements of splay and distributary channels so that stochastic modeling of channel bodies was possible. The resulting models demonstrated that (1) channel-body connectivity is more uniform between minor distributary channels than between crevasse-splay channels; (2) relatively good connectivity is seen in proximal positions in splays but decreases distally from the source as channel elements diverge; and (3) connectivity tends to be greater down the axis of splays, with more isolated channel bodies occurring at the margins.

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