Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Clastics
Coastal and Shallow Marine Clastic Reservoir Facies (East Yorkshire, UK)
Format and Duration:
3 days
Next Event
Location: East Yorkshire, UK
Date:
2 - 4 Jun. 2026
Start Time:
09:00 BST
Event Code: N684a26F
Fee From: GBP £5,970
(exc. Tax)
The Jurassic of the east coast of Yorkshire provide analogues for elements of the Brent Group fields of the North Sea. In particular, facies that resemble the Ness and Tarbet Formations are exposed in cliff sections and wave cut platforms near the town of Whitby. These include shoreline, deltaic and bay-head depositional units formed in a wave-dominated coastal setting which can be used as a basis for exploring the understanding units in the N Sea. The coastal exposures are complemented by data from boreholes drilled inland of the cliff line. In addition, 3D models of the cliff sections provide opportunities to further investigate the geometries and relationships between the facies units. The emphasis of the course is on assisting the creation of reservoir models by considering facies relationships, heterogeneities, compartmentalisation and pathways of fluid flow.
Schedule
Event Code: N684a26F
Duration: 3 days
Instructors: John Howell, Adrian Hartley
Dates:
2 - 4 Jun. 2026
Start Time:
09:00 BST
Location: East Yorkshire, UK
Fee From
GBP £5,970
(exc. Tax)
Good Availability
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Duration and Training Method
The focus of this course is on taking the opportunity to see a variety of clastic sedimentary units at field locations and considering them in terms of reservoir properties. Core and wireline log data from nearby boreholes is integrated into the course as are 3DS outcrop models of the coastal localities.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants of this course will
- Interpret the deposits of coastal, deltaic and shallow marine depositional systems.
- Assess the controls on shoreline-shelf depositional systems and be able to predict reservoir presence and understand reservoir heterogeneities in the sandstone bodies.
- Interpret the deposits of clastic depositional systems in terms of their sandstone body characteristics, dimensions and architecture.
- Assess the impact of depositional 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.
Course Content
Itinerary
Day 1
- AM (1.1) Staithes - offshore and shoreface deposits (Cook equivalent)
- PM (1.2) Whitby East - offshore to very thin shoreface (Dogger Fm) overlain by very muddy dominated coastal plain
- PM (1.3) Whitby West - stacked fluvial channels in the Saltwick, discussion on the role of faulting in controlling channel positions
Day 2
- AM (2.1) Scarborough - large tidally influenced point bars (Scalby Fm)
- AM (2.2) Cloughton Wyke - coastal plain with marine transgression and bayfills - Ness equivalents
- PM (2.3) Scalby Beach - large point bars in the Moor Grit
Day 3
- AM (3.1) Ravenscar and Peak Fault - major growth fault in shallow marine and coastal plain section of the Saltwick Formation
- PM (3.2) Beacon Hill/High Hawksbury - coastal plain, bayfills, overbank and large fluvial channels
- PM (3.3) Saltwick Bay - overview of the course
Instructors
Adrian Hartley
Background
Professor Hartley undertook postdoctoral positions in sedimentology and stratigraphy in the Universities of Birmingham and Cardiff before joining the University of Aberdeen as the Mobil Lecturer in Production Geoscience in 1991.
Since then he has been based at Aberdeen where his research is focused on the sedimentology and stratigraphy of clastic sedimentary strata. A particular research focus is applying sedimentological and stratigraphic principles from modern depositional systems to improving our understanding of hydrocarbon resources at both ex ploration and production scales. He has published over 100 scientific papers on these aspects. Throughout his time in Aberdeen he has worked extensively with UK and international oil companies and currently leads a number of industry funded consortia and is course director of the Integrated Petroleum Geoscience MSc at the University of Aberdeen.
Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD The University of Aston, UK - Stratigraphy
MSc Universities of Birmingham and Cardiff - Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
BSc University of Manchester - Geology
Courses Taught
N155: Introduction to Clastic Depositional Systems: A Petroleum Perspective
John Howell
Background
John Howell is Chair in Virtual Geosciences at the University of Aberdeen, where he has been a professor since 2012. In the past 25 years, he has worked on outcrops from all over the World with special focus on the western USA. He currently runs the SAFARI project, a collaboration between University of Aberdeen and Uni Bergen, supported by 13 companies.
John read for a PhD in reservoir sedimentology at the University of Birmingham (1992). He proceeded to the University of Liverpool where he spent 10 years working as a researcher and lecturer. During that time he participated in numerous oil industry funded projects, collaborating with virtually all the major oil companies, primarily in the fields of sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy and latterly reservoir modelling. In 2002 he took a professorship at the University of Bergen to further his applied research interests in analogue reservoir modelling. In 2005 he was one of the founders of Rocksource, a Norwegian Independent E&P Company. He worked there in the senior management until end 2011 initially as the Production Manager and latterly the CTO.
John has worked in a diverse range of basins on six continents, supervised over 50 PhD students, published more than a 150 papers, and edited 7 books. He was an AAPG distinguished lecturer in 2009. His current research focuses on virtual geosciences, including the improved use of analogues for understanding reservoirs. Over the past 15 years he has pioneered the use of Virtual Outcrops, collected using lidar and more recently UAVs (drones), in the geosciences. He is passionate about outreach in the geosciences. He was a co-host on "The Big Monster Dig", a TV series on geology and palaeontology for C4 and Discovery. He also has numerous other TV and radio credits as a scientific expert.
Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD University of Birmingham - Reservoir Sedimentology
BA University of Cardiff - Geology
Fellow of the Geological Society of London
IAS, SEPM, AAPG, PESGB
Courses Taught
N106: Advanced Reservoir Modelling (Elgin, UK)
N155: Introduction to Clastic Depositional Systems: A Petroleum Perspective
N298: Reservoir Analogues for the Southwestern Barents Sea: Outcrop Examples from Svalbard (Norway)
N335: Modelling Clastic Reservoirs (Pyrenees, Spain)
N532: Aeolian and Dryland Fluvial Reservoirs: Field and Virtual Outcrop (Elgin, UK)
N550: North Sea Multiphase Rift Evolution: Outcrop to Subsurface Perspectives on Stratigraphy, Sedimentology & Petroleum Systems (East Coast, UK)
N576: Reservoir Modelling and the Application of Outcrop Analogues (Utah, USA)
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 2.4 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 24 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.