Located 50 miles east of the Mississippi River in 3,200 feet of water, Ram/Powell is one of the largest Deepwater Gulf fields discovered to date. Resources of 300 MMBOE are indicated, not including large unexplored areas. Following Shell's 1985 discovery, eleven wells drilled by Amoco/Exxon and Shell extended the field into a 50-square-mile area. Resource appraisal of this deep-sea fan requires reliance upon predictive geologic models constructed from well, core and 3-D seismic data.

Seismic amplitude associated Miocene pays are stratigraphically trapped between 12,300 and 13,200 feet. Deposition occurred in a passive-margin setting, on an unrestricted slope, overlying Cretaceous source rock. Because they are approximately time equivalent to the 10.5my lowstand event on the Vail-eustatic curve, sands may represent basin-floor fans and slope fans of a lowstand systems tract.

Fanlobe reflectors of varying amplitude have continuous, sometimes mounded, configurations. Amplitude outlines are grossly fan-shaped, but individual reservoirs have elongate lens-shaped geometries which pinch-out updip and laterally into lower-slope-zone shales. The lobes trend northwest-southeast. Closely associated lobes exhibit various overlapping and intersecting relationships. Facies geometries were interpreted from variations of lobe thickness and amplitude. Linear or vaguely sinuous thickness trends, sub-parallel to iobe axes are interpreted as mid-fan channel/levee deposits. These sands are massive to fining-upward, 90% sand, highly permeable, 20-120' thick, moderately to poorly sorted, fine-grained sublitharenites. Thin-bedded levee/overbank deposits are less than 50% sand, but individual laminae are well sorted, very fine-grained sublitharenites with moderate permeability.

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