Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Reservoir Development
Exploration and Geological Model Development in Fluvial Reservoirs (Southern Pyrenees, Spain)
Format and Duration:
4 days
This field-based course integrates fluvial sedimentology with applied exploration and field development, using case studies from Southern Pyrenees, Spain. There are extensive outcrops of the deposits of both externally draining systems from the Eocene and Miocene deposits of an internally draining Distributive Fluvial System. Variations in fluvial architecture are considered in terms of proximal to distal settings within the depositional systems and the impact of the architecture on field developments are considered. Business Impact: the area provides analogues for fluvial reservoirs at a variety of scales and settings, proving input on the development of reservoir models.
Feedback
I learnt more about modelling than I thought would be possible on a field course. Great!
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
A four-day field course in the foreland basins of the Southern Pyrenees. The course focusses on the examination of fluvial facies at different scales in outcrops and provides opportunities to consider inputs to reservoir models
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Evaluate the sedimentology and basin fill architecture of internally and externally draining fluvial systems.
- Predict significant changes in sedimentology and stratigraphic architecture, both laterally and up or down dip in fluvial reservoir systems.
- Integrate the interactions of extrinsic and intrinsic controls on fluvial architecture.
- Assess the impact of fluvial architectures, flow zones and sedimentary heterogeneity on potential recovery in different hydrocarbon fluid and development scenarios.
- Evaluate and rate different modelling options for different architectures, fluids and development scenarios.
- Consider the issues of up-scaling in heterogenous fluvial systems and select appropriate techniques to use in different scenarios.
Course Content
Hydrocarbon reservoirs within fluvial depositional settings are challenging environments for geoscientists to interpret and develop. Significant changes in stratigraphic architecture occur over short distances, both laterally and up or down dip, and strongly impact production performance. An understanding of the issues involved in developing different fluvial architectures and the decisions required to model these complex heterogenous reservoirs are critical to predicting the long term production behaviour. Chronostratigraphic control is often poor and sandstone body correlation is difficult because of the multi-scale heterogeneity of fluvial deposits. Predictive models of fluvial systems are the subject of much academic discussion, with sea level controlled models only applicable in coastal regions. Many fluvial systems preserved in the rock record are generated in internally draining basins or far upstream of sea level influence and are subject to different control mechanisms. Observations from modern and ancient analogues suggest that fluvial facies have a wide range of architectures, supported in the subsurface by different production behaviours from similar facies.
The foreland basins of the Southern Pyrenees in northern Spain formed south of the Pyrenean orogenic belt, which developed in the Cenozoic as a result of crustal shortening between the Eurasian plate and the Iberian sub-plate. Examples of deposits of both externally-draining fluvial systems and internally-draining Distributive Fluvial Systems are considered. Exposures allow fluvial channel and overbank facies to be examined at reservoir scale and for correlation over tens of kilometres up and down flow. During the course, the differences that might be expected in analogue fluvial systems under different conditions of tectonic setting, climate and sediment supply will be emphasised.
Predictive facies models will be discussed and their application to understanding the controls on the architectures developed and preserved in the rock record, from both an exploration and development perspective. Understanding the controls on fluid flow behaviour within the reservoir is key to determining how to model it for different development scenarios. The course will examine production challenges posed by different sedimentary stacking and sedimentary depositional structures. Questions of scale, from core to log to outcrop to simulation model and then how to upscale in complex heterogenous environments will be discussed in the field and classroom.
Day 0
Arrival in Barcelona and transfer to hotel
Evening course safety brief and introductory lecture, followed by group dinner in the hotel
Day 1
The Eocene Tremp-Graus Basin
Basin introduction and the Castissent Sandstone unit
Fieldwork at several locations in the basin along an east-west transect
Hotel in Huesca for the remainder of the course
Day 2
The Miocene Ebro Basin and the Huesca Distributive Fluvial System
Series of locations examined in a down-system transect across the basin
Day 3
The Miocene Ebro Basin and the Huesca Distributive Fluvial System
Continuation of examination of proximal-distal variations
Locations which allow detailed consideration of fluvial architecture
Day 4
Facies at the margin of the foreland basin
Transfer to Barcelona and departure
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
The course is aimed at exploration and development geoscientists, petrophysicists and reservoir engineers who are keen to better understand fluvial systems and the practical application of that knowledge in the generation of reservoir models. Participants are expected to be familiar with the basic concepts of generating reservoir models and have a basic understanding of fluvial sedimentology.
Instructors
Philip Hirst
Background
Phil left BP after 32 years working as a sedimentologist, latterly as the global discipline lead for sedimentology, stratigraphy, and reservoir quality. He is now an independent consultant focusing on clastic reservoir challenges and geoscience training. He is also involved in delivering lectures and supporting fieldwork for the Royal Holloway Petroleum Geoscience MSc.
Phil completed a PhD on the structural controls and alluvial architecture of Tertiary sediments in the Ebro Basin, Spain. Following this, he began work as a continental sedimentologist. As a sedimentologist in BP, Phil worked across the BP international portfolio from Argentina to Alaska and Australia to Sakhalin and many points between. He has contributed to the reservoir descriptions in access, exploration, and development ventures with frontier field work being an important component; this has included field work in Turkey, Yemen, Sakhalin, Algeria, Jordan/Saudi Arabia and Brazil.
Phil has evaluated many of the more complex depositional and diagenetic issues in BP, such as opaline deposits, tuffaceous sandstones, and the role of chlorite in sandstones. However, it is the glacial reservoirs of North Africa and the Middle East that have been a particular favourite area of study. He co-edited the Geological Society, London 2016 Special Volume No 436 "The Value of Outcrop Studies in Reducing Subsurface Uncertainty".
Affiliations and Accreditation
Visiting Lecturer, Royal Holloway UoL
PhD University of Cambridge
BA Oxford University
Geological Society, London
International Association of Sedimentologists
SEPM, the Society for Sedimentary Geology
Courses Taught
N530: Shore to Shelf Depositional Systems (Virtual Outcrops)
N533: Deepwater Depositional Systems (Virtual Outcrops)
N534: Delta Plain to Base of Slope Reservoir Systems: Outcrop, Seismic, and Production Analogues in a Sequence Stratigraphic
N544: Source to Sink: Provenance, Sediment Routing and Reservoir Characterisation (Southern Pyrenees, Spain)
N387: Exploration and Development in Fluvio-Lacustrine Systems
N713: Reservoir Characterisation for Reservoir Modelling
Stephanie Kape
Background
Dr. Stephanie Kape has over 26 years of experience in the Oil and Gas Industry and is currently an independent consultant geologist at Salar Geoscience Ltd.
After graduating, Stephanie spent 5 years working as a consultant structural geologist with Midland Valley in Glasgow, working on a range of exploration and development projects worldwide. In 2001, Stephanie joined Amerada Hess Ltd as a production geologist based in Aberdeen. She moved to Canadian Natural Resources in 2003 as a Development Geologist and worked the mature North Sea portfolio. In 2005, Stephanie joined BG Group in Reading working the HPHT exploration, development and appraisal portfolio of the UK Central North Sea. In this role she developed a number of models for fluvial reservoirs, working on the issues and predicting reservoir deliverability. In 2008 Stephanie joined the Subsurface Assurance Team in BG, as part of an internal technical auditor, reviewing the company’s exploration, appraisal and development projects worldwide. Later roles included developments work on carbonates, exploration team lead roles in UK and Norway and in Global New Ventures.
Since 2017 Stephanie has worked as an independent consultant, working on varied projects worldwide. These have included M&A work, exploration in North Africa, appraisal projects in Norway and UK, and developments in fractured carbonates in the Middle East.
Throughout her career as a development geologist, Stephanie has worked with reservoir models and has acted as an internal focus for Reservoir Modelling. She has maintained an interest in fluvial sedimentology and the integration of this with other disciplines to build effective predictive models, publishing and presenting at conferences.
Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD University of Birmingham - Geology
BSc University of Manchester - Geology
C.Geol - Chartered Geologist
PESGB
Geological Society
Courses Taught
N530: Shore to Shelf Depositional Systems (Virtual Outcrops)
N534: Delta Plain to Base of Slope Reservoir Systems: Outcrop, Seismic, and Production Analogues in a Sequence Stratigraphic Context
N108: Exploration and Geological Model Development in Fluvial Reservoirs
N412: A Critical Guide to Reservoir Appraisal and Development
N415: Reservoir Characterisation for Appraisal and Development
N432: Clastic Reservoir Characterisation for Appraisal and Development (Southern Pyrenees, Spain)
Gary Nichols
Background
Gary is Head of Technical Development for RPS Training and is responsible for developing learning and development strategies, new energy subject areas, and different modes of delivery.
Before joining RPS Energy to work with the Nautilus Training Alliance, Gary taught at Royal Holloway University of London and the University Centre on Svalbard covering undergraduate and MSc courses in Sedimentology, Sequence Stratigraphy, Petroleum Geology and Sedimentary Basins plus MSc Petroleum Geoscience courses in Clastic sedimentology, Sequence Stratigraphy and Sedimentary Basin models.
Key research topics include clastic sedimentology and sedimentary basin analysis; climatic and tectonic controls on sedimentation; fluvial sedimentology; basin-scale patterns of sedimentation and the architecture of basin-fill successions; endorheic basins. Field studies have been carried out in flexural basins in Spain, Greece, USA and Spitsbergen, extensional basins in Madagascar, Greece, northern Thailand, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and in arc-related settings in Antarctica, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. Detailed sedimentological studies include alluvial fan and fluvial sedimentation in continental basins and the reservoir characteristics of fluvial successions. Gary has published over 100 scientific papers and a widely-used textbook 'Sedimentology and Stratigraphy'. He is currently President of the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM).
Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD University of Cambridge
BSc London University, Honors
C.Geol - Chartered Geologist
Courses Taught
N108: Exploration and Geological Model Development in Fluvial Reservoirs (Pyrenees, Spain)
N155: Introduction to Clastic Depositional Systems: a Petroleum Perspective
N269: Sequence Stratigraphy and Subsurface Prediction: Methods, Limitations and New Developments (Isle of Wight, UK)
N387: Exploration and Development in Fluvio-Lacustrine Systems
N403: Reservoir Sedimentology of Fluvial - Shallow Marine Facies (Isle of Wight, UK)
N418: Tectonics, Sedimentology and Stratigraphy of Coal-Bearing Basins
N432: Clastic Reservoir Characterisation for Appraisal and Development (Southern Pyrenees, Spain)
N544: Source to Sink: Provenance, Sediment Routing and Reservoir Characterisation (Southern Pyrenees, Spain)
W017: North Sea Reservoirs Series - Triassic Reservoirs Overview
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 4 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 40 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.