New Understanding of Ultra-Deepwater Thin Beds Interpretation and Compartmentalization in Light of New Seismic Reprocessed Data and Well Results

Abstract

Deepwater fields are well known for their complex turbidite heterogeneity. J field, which has a water depth of 1600-1800 meters, is a distal deepwater turbidite fan located within a high compressional area, resulted in highly faulted structures. All wells drilled in the J field penetrated thin-bedded sand-shale reservoirs (average 30-80 cm) which are below current available tools’ resolution. This has directly impacted the accuracy of reservoirs properties interpretation and characterization. Additionally, based on the acquired pressure data from past appraisal campaigns, the field is proven to be laterally and vertically compartmentalized. However, reservoir connectivity and producibility away from those appraisal wells remains uncertain and challenging to be identified, due to the legacy 3D seismic image quality, limitation in data resolutions, and limited regional data. This paper will briefly address the challenges of deepwater distal turbidites understanding while proposing a holistic workflow with the integration of 3D seismic and well data to enhance thin-bed interpretation and complex compartmentalization prediction.