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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Special Volumes
Abstract
Mitch
Harris, and G. P. Eberli
2004. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
Well Placement, Cost Reduction, and Increased Production Using Reservoir Models Based on Outcrop, Core, Well-log, Seismic Data, and Modern Analogs: Onshore and Offshore Western Trinidad
Grant D. Wach,1 Christopher S. Lolley,2 Donald S. Mims,3 Clyde A. Sellers4
1Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
2ChevronTexaco, San Joaquin Valley Business Unit, Bakersfield, California, U.S.A.
3ChevronTexaco, Exploration and Production Technology Company, Bellaire, Texas, U.S.A.
4ChevronTexaco, Exploration and Production Technology Company, Bellaire, Texas, U.S.A.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Petrotrin and ChevronTexaco for permission to publish this paper. In addition, we would like to acknowledge contributions of Winston Ali (deceased) of Trinmar and Wayne Bertrand of Petrotrin. The Stollmeyer family kindly allowed access to their quarry.
Ray Hierling, Ben Marcum, Carlos Pardos, Bob Skopec, Tim Mashinski, and Joe Vogt of Texaco worked on various components of the Soldado study. LSS (Trinidad) labs completed the routine core analysis and core photography. Laurent de Verteuil assisted in the field in Trinidad and completed palynological analysis. Doug McCarty provided clay mineral analysis. Andy Bishop and Cole Robison provided comments on the source rocks and oil seep. We would like to thank Dave Barnes, John Frampton, Mike Grammer, Mitch Harris, Gary Priddy, and Bill Rapp for their valuable comments and critique.
ABSTRACT
Fluvial-estuarine channel complexes are significant producing reservoirs both onshore and offshore western Trinidad. These channel complexes are notoriously difficult to correlate in the subsurface. Numerous permeability baffles and barriers create complex reservoir heterogeneities that can result in significant bypassed hydrocarbons if the geometry and architecture of the channel bodies are incorrectly identified and not correlated in a rigorous sequence-stratigraphic framework.
Outcrops of tidally influenced nonmarine channel complexes and modern depositional analogs are used
to determine architectural elements and bounding surfaces that impact reservoir continuity and heterogeneity, thus, highlighting subsurface correlation pitfalls. These elements and surfaces that are established from the outcrops are
used
for the examination of cores, well-log, and seismic data of strata deposited in analogous depositional systems.
The subsurface and the outcrop geologic models are used
in two reservoir-modeling scenarios: first, to refine subsurface reservoir models for horizontal well placement, leading to a more effective depletion strategy for the reservoir, and second, the modeling of a field simulation using outcrop exposures of a channel complex as a producing analog. The result of the simulation runs was a similar recovery from the
field
with far fewer wells, showing that substantial cost reductions are possible in drilling and completions, operations, and future well and field abandonment, including the
potential
risk and costs for environmental remediation.
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