Lobate back-barrier sandstones deposited as washover fans and floodtidal deltas are major reservoirs for stratigraphically trapped hydrocarbons on the Gulf Coast. Understanding back-barrier facies relationships can improve the efficiency of exploration and development in three ways: (1) recognition of their irregular to lobate geometry (rather than simply linear parallel to depositional strike) allows more accurate predictive reservoir mapping, (2) detailed correlation and mapping of each individual wedge of reservoir provides more precise determination of the updip pinch-out, and (3) resistive zones on electric logs, representing coals or tight sandstones, can be used as "adjacent clues" to the nearby presence of a back-barrier reservoir. Application of these concepts in south Texas led to extension of the previously abandoned Draper field.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 1464------------