Oil and Gas

Participants will learn to:

1. Assess discrete, structurally controlled sediment transport pathways into bathymetrically complex deepwater basins.
2. Evaluate the role of basin initiation and closure as external controls on basin fill and remobilization sequences.
3. Assess the role of relative structural and flow confinement on turbidite reservoir and seal facies, reservoir stacking patterns, and stratigraphic architectures.
4. Characterise different reservoir architectures in a series of mini-basins from proximal, shallow marine, through base of slope to mid and distal basin settings.
5. Characterise the range of bed-scale deposits from low density to high-density turbidites, linked turbidite-debrite deposits, and multiple scales of sediment remobilization.
6. Assess the role of active structures, beneath and within the turbidite basin, on slope instability, and predict impact of seismic-scale reservoir heterogeneity (mass transport complexes) on reservoir performance.
7. Validate and combine established models for structurally confined basins and consider the subsurface implications of the different models for linkage between mini-basins.
8. Predict different basin margin onlaps and assess related stratigraphic trap definition and seal integrity risks.

At all times, participants will make outcrop observations in the context of subsurface data, in plays from deepwater fold and thrust belts, rift and early post-rift settings and salt provinces. As the course progresses, participants will gain an appreciation of the different reservoir architecture within, and between individual sub-basins, and be in a position to predict the factors controlling these differences. This will lead to an improved understanding of the distinctions between partially confined and ponded basins, and the effects of confinement on bed-scale deposits, architecture, reservoir stacking patterns and stratigraphic basin-fill sequences.

Day 0 - Arrival in Nice
Evening course safety brief and introductory talk followed by group dinner.

Day 1
Analysis of the up-dip, basin margin feeder system to the Gres d’Annot basin and its potential impact on sediment delivery to the deepwater system. Location of the principal deepwater sediment transport pathways of the Gres d’Annot and controls on their position.

Day 2
Initiation of the Grès d’Annot basin: brief examination of deformed Cretaceous limestones and base Tertiary unconformity, and the deepening sequence of Calcaire Nummulitique and Marnes Bleues culminating in the deposition of Grès d’Annot turbidites.

Analysis of key localities that define the nature of the proximal Annot sub-basin and its fill succession. Seismic-scale examination of high net:gross architectures followed by closer inspection of onlap facies characteristics. Initial discussion of alternative interpretations of the Annot sub-basin as either a through-going channel complex, or a confined or ponded basin.

Day 3
Sedimentology and depositional architectures of a high net:gross sheet-like system and channels. Examination of late stage extensional faults in Grès d’Annot. Discussion of sheeted seismic facies and its significance in subsurface deepwater systems.

Col de la Cayolle: Termination of the basin phase with Grès d’Annot turbidite deposition halted and eroded into by the Schiste-a-Bloc – a thrust propagated, seismic scale mass transport complex with large scale debris flows, olistoliths on decametre to kilometre scale.

Day 4
Annot: Examination of major syn-depositional fault within the proximal Annot sub-basin. Close inspection of high-density turbidity current deposits within a strongly confined conduit. Onlap surfaces close to the potential spill point between the proximal Annot sub-basin and the medial Grand Coyer sub-basin. Generic discussion of spill point characteristics in subsurface confined basins.

Day 5
Grand Coyer: Analysis of three-dimensional sandstone bodies and stacking pattern characteristics of the turbidite system in the medial Grand Coyer sub-basin; insights into different scales of heterogeneity within a sand-rich turbidite system. Observations on lateral facies variations from sub-basin margin to sub-basin axis, including the effects of gravitational growth faulting.

Day 6
Montagne de Chalufy: Anatomy of onlap surfaces at the margins of a distal sub-basin, axial to lateral changes in depositional elements and sand-bodies, and precise nature of sand-body terminations onto the onlap surface. Discussion of the seismic expression of onlap surfaces and onlap plays in sub-surface confined basins. Deepwater channel architecture and filling styles.

Discussion on the links between the Grès d’Annot proximal, medial and distal sub-basins and relation to ‘fill and spill’ basins.

Day 7 - Departure from Nice

The course is designed for geologists and geophysicists evaluating exploration provinces or fields in deepwater confined basins, within deepwater fold and thrust belts, rift and early post-rift settings and salt provinces. Reservoir engineers can also derive a deeper knowledge of the geological parameter ranges that underpin simulation models.