Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Reservoir Development
Building the Structural Framework for a Reservoir Model
Format and Duration:
3 days
5 sessions
With the advent of extensive 3D data it is all too easy to determine top reservoir horizon from well picks, autopick the seismic volume and generate a structure map. Despite being fundamental in volumetric determination and prediction of fluid migration, the uncertainty, and inaccuracy, in this structure map is often overlooked. Recent advances of automated fault picking, in part, reduces the time taken to generate structure maps and corresponding fault networks, which can reduce this uncertainty, but the baseline interpretation needs to be QC’d and be valid. Critically, these advances still require the interpreter to understand both fault behaviour and impact on reservoir distribution and integrity, whilst requiring the modeller to appreciate the complexity in a simplified fault model. The central themes of this workshop are the construction of robust structural models, the development of an understanding and appreciation of the uncertainties within them, and how these impact the resultant reservoir model.
Business Impact: The development of a well constrained structural framework is critical for reservoir modelling and requires a balance between capturing structural complexity and modelling feasibility.
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
A classroom or virtual classroom workshop comprising exercises supported by short seminars.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Evaluate the data that are used as inputs to each stage of the process, including the importance of evaluating time versus depth domains.
- Develop an appropriate strategy for seismic data interpretation for model construction and critique existing interpretations.
- Apply conceptual structural models to real data and appreciate the strengths and limitations of such an approach.
- Understand the importance of differentiating between seismic scale and reservoir scale resolutions on interpretation and modelling.
- Consider how geostatistics can be used to predict sub-seismic resolution structures.
- Apply seismic attributes to constrain fault geometry and assess connectivity.
- Have an awareness of the impact of fault zone geometry/composition on fluid flow through a model.
- Be aware of the role of critically stressed faults on the modelling process.
Course Content
The following topics will be addressed during this course:
The interface of seismic interpretation, structural geology, reservoir distribution/integrity and reservoir modelling.
Definition of fault geometry in high confidence areas and application of fault model concepts to aid fault interpretation and modelling.
Application of fault statistics to validate fault interpretation.
Constraining your faults below seismic resolution.
Fault zone characterisation and impact on fluid flow; critically stressed faults.
Discussion on strategy for developing structural framework and pillar gridding in different reservoir settings.
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
Geophysicists, geologists, seismic interpreters, reservoir modelllers, and managers.
Instructors
Douglas Paton
Background
Since 2020, Douglas has led an independent consulting company, TectonKnow, which has a focus on understanding and predicting hydrocarbon prospectivity in complex structural and tectonic settings utilizing the 25 years exposure to margins globally and includes the development of the Reclus database of global structures and tectonics.
Douglas investigated the role of basement structures on continental breakup and fault evolution in Southern Africa for his PhD at the University of Edinburgh and then worked as a Conoco-Phillips funded PDRA looking at the structural controls on fairway deposition in the Zeta area, Northern North Sea.
He then moved to GFZ Potsdam where he applied basin analysis concepts to petroleum system modelling in the Orange Basin and became interested in the long term evolution of margins from inception through to break-up. After Potsdam, he took up a Chevron sponsored Associate Research Professor position at the Colorado School of Mines in a research group focussing on structural controls on deep water clastic deposition.
Initially moving to Leeds as the BHP Billiton Lecturer in Structural Geology, which included research on the structural evolution of the Sinu Accretionary Prism. He subsequently was appointed Chair in Structural Geology and Basin Analysis where he ran an industry facing research consortium with a focus on a global understanding of structural geology, tectonics and basin analysis.
Dr. Paton’s research interests focus on the structural evolution and deformation of sedimentary basins.
Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD - The University of Edinburgh - Geology
BA - Department of Earth Science, University of Cambridge - Natural Sciences
Courses Taught
N218: Structural Controls on Deepwater Systems: Growth Structures and Minibasin Fill (Austrian Alps)
N556: Building the Structural Framework for a Reservoir Model
N575: From Sub-Seismic Faults to Rift Basins: Exploration, Appraisal, and Production Insights (Gulf of Corinth, Greece)
N657: Seismic Structural Interpretation Techniques
N717: Seismic Inputs and Structural Modelling Workshop
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 2.1 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 21 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.