Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Clastics
Sequence Stratigraphic Controls on Deepwater Reservoirs Architecture: Brushy Canyon Formation, Permian Basin (West Texas and New Mexico, USA)
Course Code: N526
Course Outline:
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Format and Duration:
5 days
The Guadalupe and Delaware mountains in west Texas and New Mexico show unique, world-class exposures of shelfal to slope and basinal settings with seismic-scale, continuous exposures. These exceptional outcrops are ideal to learn about depositional systems, lateral and vertical variations in facies and sequence stratigraphic architecture and surfaces. Coeval shelfal to deepwater environments are exposed both downdip and along strike, with clear stratigraphic relationships from a carbonate shelf margin incised by canyons, feeding confined to weakly confined channel systems, connected to distributive lobe complexes and distal fan fringe sandstones that thin and pinch out onto a basin margin far removed from siliciclastic sediment sources. At the end of this course, participants should have improved abilities to recognize deepwater depositional facies and reservoir architecture, as well as how to use sequence stratigraphy to identify and map key surfaces for deepwater exploration.
Business impact: Participation in this course will aid in the de-risking of costly exploration projects, for example by assessing reservoir presence risk, net-to-gross predictions and reservoir connectivity. Since vertical scales of 10 to 20 meters are often below seismic resolution, it is difficult to predict facies variations occurring in distances of 1 to 2 kilometers, which are common well-spacings in deepwater reservoir production. Seismic-scale outcrops like the ones from the Brushy Canyon Formation help fill this gap in showing lateral and vertical variations in facies at scales that are not represented by data using conventional, industry seismic and wells.
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
This is a field course, supported by classroom lectures. Almost every field stop includes exercises that illustrate and reinforce the key concepts and methods discussed in lectures and documented in the course notes.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Understand the sequence stratigraphic controls on deepwater reservoirs
- Define the architecture of the main archetypes of deepwater reservoirs.
- Discuss how to explore for, develop and produce deepwater reservoirs.
- Relate depositional facies from outcrop to seismic-scale geometries and the overall sequence stratigraphy framework.
- Apply Walter’s Law and chronostratigraphic principles in core, well-log and seismic interpretation, and relate these principles to prediction of play elements and the best productive intervals for conventional and unconventional resources.
- Analyze outcrop exposures of carbonate shelf, ramp, and siliciclastic basinal systems.
- Establish similarities between world-class outcrop exposures to productive intervals in the Permian Basin.
- Analyze sequence stratigraphy for carbonates and mixed carbonate-clastic depositional systems.
- Assess changes in carbonate facies and relate these changes to depositional environments.
Course Content
Day 0: Introductory Meeting
- Arrive El Paso, Texas
- Introductions, field safety discussion, and overview of the school
- Overnight: Van Horn, Texas
Day 1: Overview of Permian Basin Geology & Petroleum System
- Lectures on sequence stratigraphy
- Distal Delaware
- West Face - Basin Overview
- Overnight: Carlsbad, New Mexico
Day 2: Outcrop Examples of Seismic-Scale Geologic Features, Stratal Geometries, and Sequence Stratigraphic Frameworks
- Morning Lecture
- Williams Ranch
- Overnight: Carlsbad, New Mexico
Day 3: Sedimentology of Mixed Carbonate-Clastic Depositional Systems
- Morning Lecture
- Last Chance Canyon
- Overnight: Carlsbad, New Mexico
Day 4: Implications for How Seismic and Outcrop Datasets Influence Depositional Models
- Morning Lecture
- Slaughter Canyon
- Walnut Canyon
- Carlsbad Cavern
- Overnight: Carlsbad, New Mexico
Day 5: Diagenesis, Dolomitization, and How Diagenetic Changes Impact Reservoir Quality
- Morning Lecture
- Channel Road Cut
- Salt Flat Overview
- Return to El Paso
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
This field course is designed for geoscientists and engineers exploring, appraising, and developing deepwater reservoirs globally, and particularly in the Permian Basin.
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.