N059 Carbonate Systems and Facies Architecture: Exploration and Reservoir Implications (Mallorca & Menorca, Spain)
Course Facts
- Course Code:
- N059
- Duration:
- 5 days
- Type:
- Field
- Physical Demand:
- Moderate
- CEU:
- 4.8 Continuing Education Units
- PDH:
- 48 Professional Development Hours
- Certificate:
- Certificate Issued Upon Completion
Summary
This course provides an in-depth understanding of the controls on the development of carbonate successions using a process-product approach. The dominant influences of biota and sea level change on the facies, architecture, and reservoir characteristics of ramp and reef systems are examined. Participants develop an understanding of the processes driving carbonate systems that helps to reduce uncertainties in the prediction of subsurface facies and porosity distribution.
The key learnings can be applied throughout the E&P life-cycle to better predict carbonate reservoir potential, conduct volumetric assessments with greater confidence, and ultimately create more robust reservoir models.
Duration and Training Method
This is a five-day course, comprising observation, discussion and exercises in the field with some classroom lectures.This course will also make use of Digitial Outcrop Imagery (DOI).
Participants will learn how to:
- Sketch the stratigraphy and evolution of Upper Miocene carbonate ramp to reef sequences in the Balearic Islands (at Basic Application level).
- Evaluate the underlying biological and hydrological controls that determine carbonate deposition in reef and ramp settings.
- Compare and contrast the controls on carbonate versus siliciclastic deposition.
- Evaluate the effects of sea level change on the architecture and geometry of carbonate platforms.
- Assess the relationship between the carbonate factory and accommodation space - in particular examine the effects of the location and volume of sediment production, biological binding and early cementation.
- Characterise the key sedimentological aspects and facies belt distributions in ramp and rimmed shelf carbonate systems and assess likely primary porosity distributions.
- Appraise interpretations of carbonate platforms from seismic data and likely facies distribution.
Excellent exposures of the Upper Miocene platforms along continuous outcrops on the sea cliffs of the Balearic Islands, as well as water-well data, reveal in detail the 3-D facies belts distribution in two types of carbonate platforms - a distally-steepened ramp and a reef-rimmed platform. In these examples, most of the detailed stratigraphic heterogeneities are below the resolution of seismic and well-log analyses. Thus, they could aid in constructing realistic models for distribution, geometry, and volume of porous and permeable units of some shallow-water carbonate reservoirs, as well as models for fluid flow.
Course Itinerary
Day 0 (Menorca Island)
Participants arrive in Menorca.
CLASSROOM (evening):
- Safety brief
- Course introduction
Day 1 (Menorca Island).
FIELD: The Lower Tortonian ramp system. Observation of inner- and middle ramp lithofacies, including:
- Examination of the transition from continental to marine conditions and inner to middle ramp facies.
- Grain size and textures distribution
- Dune bedforms and palaeocurrent directions
- Diagenesis: Fluid flow pathways evidenced by preferential cementation
CLASSROOM:
- Overview on the Llucmajor reef rimmed Platform.
Day 2 (Menorca Island)
FIELD: The Lower Tortonian ramp system. Observation of ramp-slope and outer-ramp lithofacies, including:
- Rhodolithic facies composition and arrangement. Loci of carbonate production
- Toe of slope facies and subaqueous dunes: types and transport direction
- Mass-flow- and turbidity-flow deposits on the ramp slope; channel and levee structures
- Slump scars and backsets and density flows
- Discussion on implications for reservoir potential
Fly to Mallorca and Hotel check-in
Day 3 (Mallorca Island)
FIELD: The upper Tortonian reef rimmed shelf. Observation of a complete set of representative facies, including:
- Open platform and reef slope lithofacies. Changing style of sediment production
- Reef core lithofacies, with representative corel ecological-bathymetric zones, porosity types and diagenesis
- Outer lagoonal lithofacies. Grainy and bioconstructed facies interrelationships
Day 4 (Mallorca Island)
FIELD: The Upper Tortonian reef rimmed shelf. Analysis of the architecture of the Llucmajor shelfand exercises, including:
- Boat trip to view the shelf to basin transition, from Vallgornera - Cala pi to Cap Blanc (9 - 20 stops) (It may change day, depending on sea conditions)
- General architecture, statal geometries and sequence development from the large- to the meso-scale
EXERCISES (in the field):
- Core description exercise on cores drilled from the Miocene platform
- 2D core correlation exercise
- Discussion on 3D core correlation: applications to seismic interpretations
Day 5 (Mallorca Island)
FIELD: Upper Tortonian-Messinian capping series and paleokarst. Analysis of the Santanyi Limestone outcrops and facies succession, including:
- Observation of mangrove deposits, tidal grainstones, thrombolites and stromatolites
- Karst collapse structures, implications for porosity development
- Sequence stratigraphic features and their influence on hydrocarbon exploration and development in carbonate systems
Day 6
Participants depart Mallorca
Who should attend
This course is designed for all subsurface geoscientists who wish to broaden and deepen their knowledge of carbonate plays. Attendance on this course could also benefit reservoir engineers, team leaders and managers looking to better understand carbonate reservoir facies and porosity distribution and how these impact hydrocarbon in-place volumes, as well as production behaviour.
Prerequisites and linking courses
There are no prerequisites for this class although some experience of carbonate systems is an advantage, such as that acquired from Nautilus Training Alliance course N020 (Carbonate Depositional Systems).
Related field courses include N494 (Controls on Carbonate Depositional Systems and Reservoir Characterisation (Oligo-Miocene - Apulia, Italy)) and N091 (Carbonate Reservoir Architecture and Applied Carbonate Sequence Stratigraphy, West Texas & New Mexico).
Carbonate sequence stratigraphy is addressed in classroom course N073 (Workshop in Geological Seismic Interpretation: Carbonate Systems).
This course is graded MODERATE on the Nautilus Training Alliance field grading system. Fieldwork is conducted primarily on coastal sections, involving walking and scrambling over deeply weathered, highly uneven, and sharp carbonates. Many outcrops are adjacent to precipitous sea cliffs, which could cause concern for those with vertigo. Each day typically consists of multiple hikes, each under 2 km (1 mile) in distance, with the longest hike being 4 km (2.5 miles) long. One field stop involves a 500 m (0.3 mile) walk down a zig-zag foot trail with 100 m elevation change from top to bottom and then back up again. Weather conditions are generally warm, but high heat, high humidity, rain, and cool conditions are possible. Transport will be by coach on paved roads.
Click on a name to learn more about the instructor
Guillem Mateu
Guillem Mateu
BackgroundAfter completing his B.Sc. in Biology (2001), Guillem was funded to obtain his doctoral degree supervised by Prof. Luis Pomar (University of the Balearic Islands) and Pamela Hallock (University of South Florida). His PhD research was focused on the paleoecological and sedimentological analyses of the carbonate production on Neogene platforms from the Mediterranean.
He has been a post-doctoral researcher in Germany (MARUM-Universität Bremen) and Italy (University of Rome ‘The Sapienza’), developing projects on modern carbonate systems to obtain analogous to interpret the fossil record. He is currently a tenure-track contract lecturer in the Department of Biology at the University of the Balearic Islands, researcher of the ‘Guillem Colom Casasnovas’ Chair, dedicated to Micropaleontology, Paleoecology and Sedimentology studies. He is also Scientific Director of the Museu Balear de Ciències Naturals, where the micropaleontological legacy of G. Colom is held.
Dr. Mateu-Vicens has been involved in a wide range of projects funded by private and public institutions, focused on Paleogene, Neogene and modern carbonate production. He is currently working on Eocene-Oligocene accumulations of large benthic foraminifera and their relationship with the impact of internal waves; and modern and fossil carbonate production of seagrass-dominated systems.Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD University of the Balearic Islands (Palma de Mallorca)
BSc University of the Balearic Islands (Palma de Mallorca)
Courses Taught
N059: Carbonate Systems and Facies Architecture: Exploration and Reservoir Implications (Mallorca & Menorca, Spain)
Michele Morsilli
Michele Morsilli
Background
Michele Morsilli is an Associate Professor at the University of Ferrara in Italy. His research interests include sedimentology with an emphasis on carbonate and mixed siliciclastic-carbonate depositional systems, facies analysis, depositional architecture and their controls. In recent years Michele has been involved in the research of the role of internal waves in controlling the shape and development of carbonate bodies, spanning in age from Triassic to Miocene, as well as in the recognition of sedimentary structures related to these events.
Field researches on carbonate successions have been conducted in:
• Italy: Apulia Platform (Maiella, Gargano, Murge and Salento), Dolomites, Sardinia, Calabria, Lessini Shelf and Liguria
• Spain: Mallorca, Menorca, Pyrenees (Jaca Basin) and Iberian Basin (Teruel area).
• Carribean: Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire (Netherland Antilles)
• Etiopia: Negele area (Antalo Limestone, Jurassic), close to Somali border
Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD Bologna University - Sedimentology
MSc Bologna University - Geology
Courses Taught
N059: Applied Carbonate Geology: Carbonate Facies and Reservoirs (Mallorca and Menorca, Spain)
N494: Controls on Carbonate Depositional Systems and Reservoir Characterisation (Oligo-Miocene - Apulia, Italy)
Dates for this Course
Related Courses
Related Subjects
“ A very good course - very complicated systems explained in a way even newcomers to carbonates could understand.”
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