APPLIED GEOLOGY FOR THE PETROLEUM ENGINEER

BOTTOM LINE

Compartmentalization within sandstone reservoirs is chiefly related to several scales of

geological complexity. The most important scales include those determined by the depositional setting and the resultant facies architecture, mud content and shale distribution,
and grain size trends. Porosity and permeability are often correlated with grain size in
sandstone reservoirs. Many of the geological complexities in sandstone reservoirs are
smaller than seismic scale ('sub-seismic') and must be defined by log, outcrop, and/or
core-based studies. Integrated geological-engineering models for the reservoir can be optimized when the causes of compartmentalization are understood.

KEY WORDS:

Bounding Surfaces
Compartmentalization
Facies Architecture
Reservoir
Heterogeneity
Sandstone Reservoirs
Sequence Stratigraphy
Formation

PROBLEM ADDRESSED

This short course presented applied geological principals for petroleum engineers. Emphasis was on characterization of
sandstone reservoirs, compartmentalization, and its effects on reservoir performance. In order for petroleum engineers to
maximize production and to optimize reservoir management of sandstone reservoirs, it is important to understand reservoir architecture and the geological causes of compartmentalization in fluvial, eolian, shoreface, barrier island, deltaic and
deepwater reservoir settings. Features critical to reservoir development include several scales of geological properties
including depositional setting, facies stacking patterns, lateral and vertical variations in lithology and grain size, sandstone continuity and depositional architecture, effect of bounding surfaces and petrophysical properties. Many of these
aspects are beneath seismic resolution or detection. For this reason, detailed outcrop, log and core-based geological studies can provide important constraints that should be incorporated into reservoir models by petroleum engineers.

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Reservoir heterogeneity, commonly below seismic resolution, is what makes the reservoirs more complex than conceptual models. Reservoir description and characterization
requires multidisciplinary teamwork in order to assimilate
the critical data.
Geological features of sandstone reservoirs that control
reservoir performance include bed dimensions (size, geometry, architecture), structural attributes, grain size and composition, burial depth and history, and drive mechanism.
Tools for reservoir characterization include conventional
logs, conceptual model, seismic reflection, cores and borehole image logs, computer 3-D geologic models. Scales
investigated by these techniques range from 10-3 to 10-6
feet.

From largest to smallest, the scales of geological heterogeneity that are important for reservoir characterization and
development include:
Fundamental lithology, e.g. clastic/sandstone, carbonates, or fractured shale.
Fundamental depositional setting, e.g. continental,
mixed or marine deposits.
Depositional system, e.g. fluvial, eolian, lacustrine,
alluvial fan.
Subtype of depositional environment, e.g. meandering or braided fluvial deposit as opposed to a cuspate
or tide-dominated delta.
Further refinement of the depositional facies, e.g. fluvial channel versus overbank (floodplain), mud plug
or point bar.
Reservoir quality: Porosity and Permeability.
Sub-seismic structural features such as faults, folds,
diapirs, and fractures.
Fluvial Reservoirs
Remaining oil saturation after waterflood within a fluvial
sandstone body often varies with grain size, and thus with
permeability. But this relationship must be established for
each sandstone succession and each channel.

Based on a workshop co- sponsored by PTTC's South

Midcontinent Region and the Oklahoma Geological Survey,
August 20, 2003, Norman, Oklahoma.
SPEAKERS:
Dr. Roger Slatt, School of Geology and Geophysics,
University of Oklahoma
527

Meandering River Facies Model: The coarsest lower portion

of the sequence contains the least amount of mud. Multiple
cross-cutting channel belts with highly elongate patterns
(for individual channels) create complex heterogeneity.
Trends are not laterally extensive.

Braided River Facies Model: Braided rivers tend to form on

a steeper paleoslope. Their deposits can be divided into
proximal, mid- and distal settings; in general becomes finergrained downdip. Porosity and permeability tend to vary
with grain size and depositional environment. For this reason, reservoir compartments tend to be laterally extensive
and good results can often be expected from horizontal
sidetrack completions within the pay zone.
An accumulation of river deposits can change from the
braided to meandering type. For example, the Bartlesville
Sandstone of NE Oklahoma consists of braided river
deposits deposited formed during a lowstand systems tract
and overlying meandering river deposits deposited as a
transgressive systems tract. This change in depositional
style should therefore be associated with a predictable
change in reservoir performance. In this case, the meandering river sandstones are laterally discontinuous with interlayered mudstone, and are highly compartmentalized. The
braided river sandstone is, in contrast, laterally continuous
without much mudstone and is not highly compartmentalized.
Incised Valley Fill Reservoirs: Valleys are typically incised
during falling stages of sea level. They are in turn filled during turn-around and rise in sea level. An idealized incised
valley fill consists of incision during falling stage, fluvial
deposits deposited during turn-around and early rise, and
estuarine deposits deposited later during rising sea level.
Once the valley has been filled it is capped by marine
muds. Valley fills are typically encased in marine shale and
so they are good stratigraphic traps. An example of this type
of deposition is the "Stateline Trend" sandstones in
Southwest Stockholm Field, Kansas. The wide range in
environments within the valley fills can lead to highly
divergent static pressure test results from components of
this system.
Eolian Reservoirs
The most characteristic eolian (wind-deposited) deposits
originate in inland sand seas and as coastal dune fields.
Migrating dunes leave characteristic laterally-extensive bedsets with concave-up or parallel foreset cross bedding.
Strike-oriented exposures of dune sediments show cross
bedding that is similar to, but usually much larger-scale
than trough cross bedding produced in fluvial settings.
Examples include the Weber Sandstone, Rangely Field,
Colorado and the Rotliegendes Sandstone from Pickerill
Field, North Sea.
Several orders of bounding surfaces in the Tensleep
Sandstone, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming indicate that permeability is significantly less across the more important
bounding surfaces (first and second order) than across the
third order bounding surfaces.
Structural Compartmentalization
Faults often compartmentalize the reservoir and result in
different depth vs. pressure trends on opposite sides of the
fault zone. Faults responsible for compartmentalization of

reservoirs can be far below the scale necessary to recognize

with seismic.
The Shale Gouge Ratio (SGR) is defined as:
SGR= Sum (Zone Thickness0 X (Zone Clay Fraction) x 100
Fault Throw
In different areas, a shale gouge ratio has been established
which is distinctive for that area, and forms the basis for
determining if a fault is apt to be sealing or not.. When sufficient gouge or filling-cement is present, it is likely that
each fault is a seal, so that each fault block is a reservoir
compartment. Other hints at fault compartmentalization
include divergent pressure data, gas and oil production
from different wells at the same structural elevation, or distinct groups of normalized Gas/Oil Ratios (GOR).
Shoreface Reservoirs
The shoreface is that zone downdip of the beach where
wave energy impacts on the bottom causing ripples, trough
cross beds and planar-tabular sedimentary structures in the
shallow marine environment. Being "attached" to the beach
at its updip margin, it is ideally located for sequence stratigraphic analysis. The grain size tends to coarsen-upward in
the shoreface and has an upward-decrease in shale content.
Typically the sediments of a shoreface parasequence exhibit
upward-coarsening/thickening bedding and a sharp, often
truncated top.
Shoreface sequences are internally complex. Individual
sandstones develop during periods of relatively constant
base level when sediment supply exceeds accommodation
and thick progradational parasequences form. Overlying laterally continuous transgressive marine shales tend to vertically isolate the individual sandstones. Porosity-permeability values will vary with facies in shoreface sequences. Highresolution sequence stratigraphy should be applied to these
sequences because of complex facies relationships that are
formed during overall marine regression and transgression.
Barrier Island Reservoirs
Barrier island deposits consist of sandstone barriers that
separate an updip lagoon-marsh-tidal flat complex from the
open marine (shoreface) settings. Tidal channels that cut
through the barrier are often associated with ebb and flood
tidal deltas. Because tidal channel deposits are accumulated
below base level they have the greatest opportunity for
preservation in a transgressive system. More tidal channels
are formed in mesotidal barrier islands than those deposited
in microtidal conditions. During regression the entire facies
tract may be preserved. An ideal vertical sequence consists
of lower-middle shoreface muddy sandstone overlain by
upper shoreface and beach fine-grained laminated sandstones, which in turn are overlain by dune sandstone. The
top of the sequence is rarely preserved.
Facies relationships are complex within barrier island systems. Individual sandstone bedsets may be separated by
lagoonal shales, which isolate the sandstones. In several

barrier island reservoir studies, such as Bell Creek and

Recluse fields, fluid flow rates, porosity and permeability
have been shown to vary with facies and grain size.
Deltaic Reservoirs
Deltaic deposits almost certainly comprise the most geologically complex type of terrigenous reservoirs. Deltaic
deposits form when sediment enters a standing body of
water, such as the ocean, and many depositional facies are
formed. Lateral and vertical facies relationships depend on
the type of delta being constructed. Coarsening-upward vertical grain size trends are characteristic of most deltaic
deposits, however it is important to understand which type
of deltaic reservoir is present in order to predict facies
architecture and maximize reservoir production
Fluvial processes dominate on lobate and elongate deltas
where reservoir sands may develop in distributary channels, crevasse splays, and distributary mouth bars (riverdominated deltas) or channel and reworked delta-front
sands (lobate deltas). Marine processes and longshore currents dominate on cuspate and tide-dominated deltas.
Waves rework the delta front in cuspate deltas so that reservoirs are primarily developed in thick successions of strand
and shoreface sandstones. Tidal energy dominates on tidedominated deltas and reservoirs are developed within tidal
current sand ridges or tidal channel sandstones.
Deepwater Reservoirs (Turbidites)
Sediments that are transported beyond the shelf margin into
deeper water by sediment gravity-flow processes become
potential reservoirs within the basin and continental slope
settings. These types of discoveries have become increasingly more important in the last 10 years from the Gulf of
Mexico, offshore W. Africa, Brazil, the North Sea, the SW
shelf of Australia, and SE Asia.

truncated. The shales have different sealing potential

depending on thickness and lateral extent. Sheet sandstones
may be subdivided into different production zones by shaley intervals.
Just like fluvial sandstones, deepwater channel-fill reservoirs associated with turbidites can occur in braided or
meandering geometries associated with levees. Channel
sandstone complexes commonly occur with multiple scales
of cross-cutting relationships. Such relationships can create
very complex facies geometries (and hydrocarbon-water
contacts) within deep-water channel systems.
Deepwater channel levee deposits are associated with crevasse splay silty sands and meandering type channels.
Channel levee/overbank settings often show characteristic
"gull wing" geometries on seismic sections, but channels
and levee sandstone are not always in hydrodynamic communication. Sequence stratigraphic studies of outcrop
analogs to deepwater channel/levee settingssuch as occur
in the Lewis Shale of Wyomingare useful for reservoir
modeling because critical relationships are often below seismic scale. Examples of deep-water sandstone reservoirs
from the Midcontinent include the Jackfork Group.

CONNECTIONS:
Dr. Roger Slatt
University of Oklahoma
School of Geology & Geophysics
100 East Boyd Street, Suite 810
Norman, OK 73019
Phone: 405-325-3253
Email: rslatt@ou.edu

Deepwater settings commonly contain three aerially-extensive potential reservoir elements: sediment sheets, channel
fills, and levee/overbank deposits. Sediment sheets contain
fine-grained turbidite deposits with repeated fining-up
cycles caused by lateral shifting of channels and active sediment lobes. Shales located between the sandy portions of
turbidite deposits may be laterally extensive or they may be

For information on PTTCs South Midcontinent Region and its activities contact:
Charles Mankin, Director, Oklahoma Geological Survey
100 E. Boyd St., Room N131, Norman, OK 73019-0628
Phone 405-325-3031, Fax 405-325-7069, Email cjmankin@ou.edu
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