Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Clastics
Next Event
Location: Pyrenees, Spain
Date:
12 - 16 Oct. 2026
Start Time:
09:00
Event Code: N751a26F
Fee From: GBP £9,950
(exc. Tax)
Well-exposed exposures of the Pyrenean Foreland Basins in northern Spain offer unique opportunities to observe a range of different styles of sand- and mud-rich deepwater slope-to-basin-floor depositional systems and the linkages to updip shelfal and fluvial delivery systems. This course combines field activities with core examination, lectures, and exercises in deepwater systems, including subsurface examples from the North Sea, West Africa, and the Guyana-Suriname Basin. Field activities focus on deepwater lithofacies descriptions, stratal geometries, and practical applications for recognising key stratigraphic surfaces.
Participants describe core and integrate outcrop (including 3D virtual models), core, and well-log information with seismic data to generate high-resolution maps of reservoir styles in different deepwater settings. Engineering data is utilised to emphasise how this type of information can improve the prediction of reservoirs and their performance. Play fairway mapping of regional source-to-sink systems is used to discuss reservoir, source, and seal play-scale risking. Course examples include core, well-logs, and seismic datasets that are compared and contrasted with extensive outcrop exposures to help participants extrapolate 2D outcrop information into 3D views of reservoir-scale depositional systems using high-resolution photogrammetry models of the outcrops. Aspects ranging from frontier exploration, through discovery appraisal, to field development are discussed.
Schedule
Event Code: N751a26F
Duration: 5 days
Instructors: Rene Jonk
Dates:
12 - 16 Oct. 2026
Start Time:
09:00
Location: Pyrenees, Spain
Fee From
GBP £9,950
(exc. Tax)
Good Availability
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Duration and Training Method
This is a field course in the Pyrenean Foreland Basins. Fieldwork includes presentations, sedimentological exercises, modelling exercises, and discussions. Short classroom sessions comprise a core visit, subsurface case studies, and reviews of the fieldwork.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Evaluate the sedimentological processes of transport, erosion, and deposition in deepwater depositional systems and their impacts on reservoir architectures.
- Describe deepwater lithofacies and relate them to stratal geometries.
- Risk reservoir presence and seal adequacy for prospects and field segments.
- Interpret deepwater environments of deposition based on lithofacies associations and stacking patterns.
- Utilise outcrop analogues and depositional models to understand the 3D distribution of reservoir facies.
- Correlate rock properties to facies and build geologic models.
- Perform facies mapping to highlight impacts on reservoir performance during appraisal and production.
- Integrate play-scale assessments of reservoir, source, and seal within a source-to-sink stratigraphic context.
Course Content
- Interpret depositional settings and related reservoir architecture and lithofacies associations.
- Interpret sequence stratigraphic surfaces in outcrop, logs, and seismic within deepwater settings.
- Use core and well logs to interpret environments of deposition.
- Evaluate reservoir geometry and connectivity in different depositional environments.
- Apply interpretation and mapping techniques for core, well logs, and seismic lines in deepwater settings, from exploration to production scales.
- Develop mapping strategies for reservoir, source, and seal play elements in deepwater settings.
- Identify and map play fairways within a sequence stratigraphic source-to-sink context.
Course Itinerary (Indicative)
Day 0:
- Arrive in Spain (Barcelona) airport
Day 1:
- Drive to Aínsa
- Field - Basin introduction and deepwater systems fundamentals
Day 2:
- Field - Confined systems (channels, levees, and channel-lobe transitions, core visit), reservior architecture and seal evaluation
Day 3:
- Field - Distributive systems (channel-lobe transitions and basin-floor fans), reservoir architecture and seal evaluation
Day 4:
- Field - Play-scale reservoir, source, and seal aspects of deepwater depositional systems - linkages between fluvial, deltaic, slope, and basin-floor deposition
Day 5:
- Classroom - Course review and wrap-up
- Return to Barcelona airport (PM)
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
This course is relevant to all subsurface scientists (geologists, geophysicists, and engineers) who wish to broaden and deepen their knowledge of deep marine clastic plays. Managerial and commercial staff will also benefit from participation. This field course is suitable for multi-disciplinary team attendance.
Instructors
Rene Jonk
Background
Rene Jonk has more than 25 years of experience in geoscience characterization for petroleum exploration, development and research, having held technical advisor and leadership roles with ExxonMobil and Apache. He has worked extensively across offshore basins of the African and South American margins, as well as the North Sea, onshore North America and the Mediterranean areas. His experience spans across onshore and offshore regions, research, exploration and production, and both conventional and unconventional reservoir systems. Rene’s holistic approach to depositional systems allows him to work across reservoir, seal and source evaluations, at basin to field compartment scales.
Both at ExxonMobil and Apache Rene was responsible for stewarding, developing and delivering classroom and field-based training in stratigraphy and sedimentology, including seismic stratigraphy, clastic reservoir sedimentology, fine-grained rock (seal, source and reservoir) characterization, and deep-water depositional systems. Rene delivered these courses internally, as well as to external student audiences, including the SEPM short course on sequence stratigraphy.
Rene is an honorary professor at the University of Aberdeen, where he teaches formal courses on seal evaluation and reservoir characterization with application to petroleum geology and CCS, mentors Petroleum Geology M.Sc. and Ph.D. projects and is a consultant with the Sand Injectite Research Group. He is an active member of SEPM, EAGE and the Geological Society of London.
Affiliations and Accreditation
PhD University of Aberdeen – Petroleum Geology
MSc Free University of Amsterdam - Geology
Courses Taught
N410: Sequence Stratigraphy Applied to Exploration and Production
N442: Reservoir Architecture of Deep Water Systems (California, USA)
N468: Deep Water Reservoirs – Exploration Risking and Development Characterisation (Distance Learning)
N517: Well Log Sequence Stratigraphy for Exploration and Production (Distance Learning)
N518: Seismic Sequence Stratigraphy for Exploration and Production (Distance Learning)
N526: Sequence Stratigraphic Controls on Deep-Water Reservoirs Architecture: Brushy Canyon Formation,Permian Basin (West Texas and New Mexico, USA)
N747: Deep-Water Depositional Systems (Ainsa Basin, Spain)
N751: Deep-Water Clastic Depositional Systems in a Source-to-Sink Context (Pyrenees, Spain)
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.