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Origin and timing of sand injection, petroleum migration, and diagenesis in Tertiary reservoirs, south Viking Graben, North Sea

¹ Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, Aberdeen, United Kingdom; present address: ExxonMobil Exploration Company, 222 Benmar Drive GP8-448 Houston, Texas 77060; rene.jonk{at}exxonmobil.com
² Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, Aberdeen, United Kingdom; a.hurst{at}abdn.ac.uk
³ Badley Ashton America, Houston, Texas; davideduranti{at}baai-houston.com
⁴ Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, Aberdeen, United Kingdom; j.parnell{at}abdn.ac.uk
⁵ Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, Aberdeen, United Kingdom; a.mazzini{at}abdn.ac.uk
⁶ Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center, G75 0QF, East Kilbride, United Kingdom; T.Fallick{at}surrc.gla.ac.uk

Rene Jonk received his M.Sc. degree in structural geology from the Free University Amsterdam (1999) and a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen (2003) studying the origin and diagenesis of sand injectites. He is currently working with ExxonMobil in Houston.Andrew Hurst holds the chair of Production Geoscience at the University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. He has a B.S. degree from Aberdeen and a Ph.D. from Reading (United Kingdom). Prior to joining the academia in 1992, he worked for more than 12 years in the international oil and gas exploration and production industry. His current research includes sand injectites, deep-water clastic systems, sediment composition, and the nondestructive analysis of porous media.

Davide Duranti received a Ph.D. in sedimentology from the University of Bologna (Italy). He was a research fellow for 4 years at the University of Aberdeen (United Kingdom) and a geological consultant for various oil companies. His research focused primarily on the injected sandstones associated with the deep-water reservoirs of the North Sea. He recently joined Badley Ashton America.

John Parnell is a professor in the Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology at the University of Aberdeen, where he has taught since 1999. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Cambridge and his Ph.D. from Imperial College, London. He is an editor of the journal Geofluids. His research is focused on the composition, evolution, and migration of fluids in sedimentary basins.

Adriano Mazzini received his M.Sc. degree in marine geology from the University of Genoa (1997) and a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen (2004) studying methane-related authigenic carbonates and hydrocarbon-plumbing systems. He is currently a research assistant in the Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology at the University of Aberdeen.

Anthony E. Fallick graduated from Glasgow University with degrees in physics (B.Sc.) and chemistry (Ph.D.). He held postdoctoral positions in geology and geography at McMaster University (Ontario) and in mineralogy and petrology at Cambridge University before moving in 1980 to East Kilbride. He is currently director of Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center and professor of isotope geosciences in Glasgow University.

Petrographic, fluid-inclusion, and carbon and oxygen stable isotope studies of Tertiary injectite reservoirs in the south Viking Graben of the North Sea allow an understanding of the origin and timing of sand injection, petroleum migration, and diagenesis. Injection from shallowly (<400 m; <1300 ft) buried Paleocene and Eocene unconsolidated sandstones occurred at the end of the Eocene, probably in response to earthquake activity. Liquid oil was already present in the parent sands prior to injection and leaked from the injectites to the seabed. Upward-migrating oil and basinal brines mixed with downward-invading mixed meteoric-marine pore fluids in the injectites, causing extensive biodegradation of the oil. Biodegradation of oil provided the driver for early carbonate cementation in injectites, causing diminished reservoir quality. However, early carbonate cementation also sealed off the injectites as potential escape routes for petroleum from the underlying parent sands. Oil (and gas) continued to migrate into the reservoir (parent) sands upon increased burial, causing a mixing of high-API oil with the early charged, extensively biodegraded low-API oil. The study of early diagenetic imprints reveals the evolution of injectite reservoirs, which forms the basis for understanding how to explore and develop them.

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